The Power of Signs

There are about millions and millions of signs all over this world and without a doubt, they are certainly helpful for us as humans to communicate to each other. Whether it is street signs or safety signs, they were made for the purpose of communicating a message to its readers.

The interpretation of the signs, however, are not always universal. I remember taking the Business Communication course here at UTSC and on lesson was on business language and how it differs from around the world. A gesture or symbol could have different meanings in two different countries. My professor demonstrated this by calling up two students, one from Singapore, and the other from Canada. Both students' backs faced each other and they were told to raise and use their hand to symbolize the each number from 1-10. Surely enough, the hand signs used to symbolize these numbers were a little different.

Therefore, signs are all arbitrary - their meaning depends on its social, historical and cultural context. Also, the meanings of signs are not all naturally understood, traffic signs correlate to the action involved, but the depiction of the sign has to be taught to us in order for us to relate a sign to its meaning.