Ladies or gentlemen
I'm currently living in Germany. It would have made life much easier at first ifsomeone had said Herren and Damen were the German words meaning gents and ladies, with respect to toilets, I mean! I stared at two doors labelled H and D at least two minutes wondering which was which!
Sent by: Joanna
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Try toilets in Ireland that are labeled in Irish... Fir and Mná ... Anyone tend to hazard a guess??? well, I went into the wrong toilet the first time around.
XX indicates ladies, I think, as females have two X chromosomes. For the same reason, XY stands for gentlemen.
I spent 2 nights in Berlin last year November and I had a brilliant time.
This was my first visit. I find the local Germans very laid-back, amusing and sociable. I did not have time to visit the wonderful clothes shops, although I did visit The Berlin Zoo, The Reichstag, The Holocaust Museum ,
The JFK Plaza and The Kennedy Museum. I would love to visit Berlin again.
@Graham: What you actually saw where two zeros. The '00' is a common sign for a toilet in Germany too. In medieval ages the hotels didn't have toilets in each room. Only one on each floor. But the room numbering started with the 1 so they needed another number and took the '0' or the '00'. In some places the toilets are still signed like that. It is a leftover from medieval ages.
I use to work for a German company and had been to Germany twice. Once some colleagues of mine played a prank on a poor non-German. They told him that signs outside the toilet went like this: Damen translated as 'the men'. Herren translated as 'for her'. No wonder the poor guy went into the Damen toilet. While he was coming out, he saw two ladies entering. He was totally red in face, said sorry and ran away. All of us had a good laugh on that day though I feel sad for poor chap ;)
I was on a school trip to Germany a couple of months ago and one of the teachers with us got confused as he spoke very little German - why he was on the trip I have no idea! but he walked into the ladies guessing that the "her" in Herren meant that it was the ladies! He didnt find it funny but it kept us laughing for the rest of the trip!!
Other signs I have seen for toilets in Germany are a sign marked "OO": is this supposed to be a representation of two toilet seats, perhaps? And in a very old country hotel the door was marked Abort - the "away place"!
Amazing, but it's a fact , that whenever we are in a different country these kind of goof ups do happen..
Try toilets in Ireland that are labeled in Irish... Fir and Mná ... Anyone tend to hazard a guess??? well, I went into the wrong toilet the first time around.
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