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Naughty Bilingual Sign In Tallinn Airport, Estonia
I think I'm going to like Estonia ...
This country of 1.3 million people only has a little more than 900,000 people who speak Estonian as their native language yet they're confident enough with their national tongue to make a bilingual joke right as you enter the airport in the capital city of Tallinn.
Language was politics in the old Soviet republics, and for the long decades during which Estonia was part of the Soviet Union the people had to learn Russian. Many also learned Finnish through TV stations broadcast from Helsinki that were never jammed (more on that story later in the series) while English was something few people ever learned. Now all the younger generation is learning English and it's easy to get by without knowing any Estonian.
A lack of Estonian, of course, doesn't lessen the impact of this sign!
Check out this new series: "Exploring Estonia: The Northern Baltics In Wintertime."
Coming up next: Tallinn's Medieval Old Town!
[Photo by Sean McLachlan]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cyril Feb 18th 2013 2:22AM
Are you sure this is intentional? I wouldn't think so..
Sean McLachlan Feb 18th 2013 2:25AM
The color scheme makes me think so. :-)
a local Feb 19th 2013 4:19AM
As an Estonian I am quite sure this was unintentional. Estonians may speak decent English but we're not that good with colloquialisms or naughty expressions. It's a direct translation so I would have never seen the naughty joke had you not pointed it out.
Estonian Feb 20th 2013 10:32AM
Yeah, I'm also sure it was unintentional - I had to ask a friend in UK to "translate" it for me :-)
For others with the same issue: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=head