Let's Learn English! Topic: Signs! 🛑🚧🚸 (Lesson Only)

Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about signs. Now

before you think this is going to be a lesson about street

signs it's more than that. It's definitely about all of the

signs or most of the signs that you would see if you were in a

public place. So this is a great English lesson to watch

before you travel to an English speaking country. Because I

will talk a little bit about street signs like this stop

sign here but I'll also talk about signs you would see in a

restaurant maybe at a park maybe when you go for a walk

with friends in an English speaking country you will see

signs like this. So once again welcome to this English lesson

about signs. Keep off the grass. This is one of my

favourite signs. And this is a sign that people who have a

really nice lawn. People who have really nice grass growing

in front of their house. Did you hear that? That was a okay

a bird just flew into the window. I hope it's okay. I'm

not sure if you heard that sound. Um I hope it's okay. Um

anyways when you have a really nice lawn you don't necessarily

want people to walk on it. Usually grouchy old men put

signs up like this in my opinion. But if you live in

town if you live in a city and you have a really nice lawn you

might put up a sign that says keep off the grass. Which

simply means don't walk on my lawn. If you could please stay

on the sidewalk I would appreciate it. And then of we

have standard signs like the stop sign. A stop sign is

fairly universal around the world. Um most people when they

see this sign with its eight sides it's an octagon they know

with a red octagon even if it didn't have the word stop I

think many of us would recognize that this sign means

if you're driving your car stop driving your car at least for a

little bit. We also use this to tell people to stop doing other

things. There's a little stop sign on the door of my school

and it says stop. Do you have any of the following symptoms?

And then it asks you if you have any of the you know cough,

cold symptoms. So a stop sign can mean stop your car. It can

also mean that you should stop and do something before you

enter a building. We of course have speed limit signs. In

Canada we use the metric system. When I leave my house

I'm allowed to drive 80 kilometres an hour. When I get

to the town where I work I need to slow down and drive 50

kilometres an hour. It's important that you know what

the speed limit is when you're driving a car. In Canada you're

kind of allowed to go above the speed limit a little bit.

You're not really allowed but I'll just say this. I usually

drive about eighty-five maybe even 90 kilometres an hour in

an 80 zone. And in a 50 zone I often drive fifty maybe 55

never any faster because I don't want to be unsafe. I

don't want to speed in town where there might be people

walking or little kids playing. When you're in a restaurant or

maybe when you are in a store you might need to go to the

bathroom. You might need to use the restroom. In Canada we

often say washroom as well. But this sign that you see here is

a fairly normal sign that you will see. If you are looking

for a place to go to the bathroom. Um if you Don't know

where the bathrooms are you can always ask. Uh and someone will

usually point to a sign like this that says restroom. Or it

might just have the figures on it indicating who's allowed to

use which bathroom. But definitely if you're at an

airport or in the mall or at a store or in a restaurant if you

need to go to the restroom or use the washroom or use the

bathroom. Whichever word you want to use. Um that's the sign

you would look for. Sometimes at school the caretaker the

janitor mops the floor. And the floor is a little bit wet. And

that can be dangerous. So they put out this sign. Caution. Wet

floor. So when I'm walking down the hallway. If I see this sign

I know I shouldn't run. You're not supposed to run anyways. Um

you might see a sign like this at a mall. Very common to see a

sign like this after people clean an area up. There was a

sign like this in the grocery store the other day because

someone dropped something and the bottle shattered on the

floor and then they came and cleaned it up and mopped it and

then they left this sign their caution wet floor. The reason

you put this sign up is because you don't want people to slip.

You don't want people to slip and fall if the floor is a

little bit wet. Then of course we have the do not enter sign.

This is similar to keep off the grass a little bit. It means

that you should not enter whatever building you are in

front of. So if you're walking along and you see a sign that

says do not enter. You should probably not enter. It might be

dangerous if you enter. It might just be a place where

people don't want you to enter. But often you will see a sign

like this. Maybe if you're in the mall and there is a store

that's being renovated. So the store is closed and they're

changing the store fixing up the store for it to be

something else. There might be a sign that says caution do not

enter because they don't want you to come in. They don't want

you to enter the store. When I walk along the road there are

what are called hydro poles in Canada. Um you might call them

telephone poles. You might call them utility poles. But they

all have a little sign on them that says danger. High voltage.

And then on mine it actually says do not climb. So don't

climb. Um when something is dangerous we put a sign on it

indicating that it's dangerous. Danger. High voltage. Um you

might have a storage cabinet on a farm that has chemicals in

it. And it might say danger. Chemical storage. So whenever

something is dangerous when something can harm you we often

put a sign on it that says danger. And then we why it is

dangerous. So generally anything that has a lot of

electricity will have a sign that says danger high voltage.

This sign is very common in Canada. In my part of Ontario

you really can't smoke anywhere. It's rare for you to

be able to find a place to smoke. So we have a lot of no

smoking signs. You'll have these in restaurants. You'll

have these at the mall. You'll have these in stores. In Canada

you cannot smoke in public places. Even outside of some of

our buildings. People are not allowed to smoke right by the

door. So in Canada sometimes you can smoke away from the

door of a building outside but close to the entrance and exit.

There's often no smoking signs as well. Um because well it's

kind of bad for you. I know some of you may be smokers but

it is not healthy. Just just so you know. I know you know that.

We also have what's called a caution sign. So when something

is dangerous like electricity we have a danger sign when

something could be dangerous. When you could slip and fall.

When you could trip by the way trip is when you're walking and

then you you walk into something and you trip. Um so

you might see this when you're getting onto the subway. There

might be a little sign on the floor that says caution watch

your step. You might have this on the bottom step of a of a

stairs. Where it just says caution watch your step. And

yellow is a very common colour to use for caution signs. Um so

caution. So again the difference if it says danger

it's a little more serious. Danger means if you go in here

you will probably be injured or something bad will happen.

Caution means be aware. Be careful because the situation

might be a little bit dangerous. And then here's

another road sign construction ahead. This is very common in

Canada in the summer. A lot of road work happens in the

summer. So when you're driving along you'll see orange signs

with an arrow that mean if you could please slow down because

there are people working ahead to improve the road or fix the

road or fix a bridge or install a installing a stoplight

whenever you see a construction ahead sign. You should slow You

should be aware of what's happening and you should look

for some kind of construction in the next few kilometers. Or

miles if you use miles in your country. And then this is

similar to the keep off the grass sign. No trespassing. If

you own a store or a building in Canada. And you have a

problem with people coming on your property at night. You

might put up signs like this. Private property. That means

it's not public property. It's not a park. It's not a parking

lot. It's private property. You own it. So you do not want

anyone to walk on your property. So you add no

trespassing trespassing is when you walk across someone else's

property. If you walked on my farm without my permission you

would be trespassing. Whenever you walk on someone else's

property in Canada you have to ask for permission. You don't

need permission to go to the park. You don't need permission

to go to the mall. You don't need permission to go to what

we call public places. But you can't just walk on someone's

private property. And if you do they might eventually put up

signs that say no trespassing. Watch your step. I think did I

have the caution watch your step? I did. This is common

when you're getting on an elevator. If the elevator

sometimes doesn't line up even when the doors open. There

might be a sign there. I was in a really old hotel once. And

when the elevator stopped it was always a little bit lower

than the floor and they their fix was they put stickers that

said watch your step. You might also see this when you get onto

a bus or onto when you get on the subway. You might see this

as well. Watch your step. So be careful because you don't want

to trip and fall. Remember tripping is when you walk into

something. Slipping is when you go like this. Like it's

slippery. Uh another street sign sometimes when you're

driving the road you can drive way and if you turn around you

can drive the other way. There's a yellow line down the

middle. But sometimes it is a one way street. Um sorry I

should have used the word street earlier. There's noone

way roads really. They're almost always called one way

streets. And that means you can only drive in one direction. Um

are there one way roads? I'm not sure actually. I should

find out. Let me check for a sec. Now let me I'm not

going to worry about it. No littering. This is one of my

pet peeves. I don't like it when people throw garbage on

the ground. I don't like it when they throw trash on the

ground. Often when I go to the park in spite of the fact that

the park has lots of signs like this that say no littering. And

most parks in Canada have lots of garbage cans and recycle

bins. People still just throw stuff on the ground. So this is

a sign that says don't throw your garbage on the ground. No

littering. Please keep the Nice for everyone. You might see

this in other places as well but it's probably most common

in a place like a park. Um I haven't seen this sign for a

while. But some businesses sometimes they have a sign that

says no shirt. No shoes. No service. And this means that if

you're just wearing a pair of shorts and you don't have

anything on your feet. Um you're walking around in bare

feet and you Don't have any shoes on and you don't have a

shirt on they are not going to sell you anything. Some

restaurants like it that people have a shirt and shoes on when

they come in. Uh shoes probably because that's just healthier

and more sanitary. But you might see this in a place.

Basically if you are just walking around and all you're

wearing is pants they're not going to sell you anything if

you go to that place. Uh honestly I haven't seen this

sign for a while. I wonder if they've disappear now but this

used to be pretty common. Some people love dogs and some

people don't like dogs and some people don't like dogs in

certain places. So last night I actually was at a park and the

park had an area called a leash free area where dogs were

allowed to run around. But then I had another area where there

was a sign that said no dogs allowed. So when you see a sign

that says no dogs allowed it means it's not permitted. I we

seen this sign a couple times now. I think it was in the

previous one as well. The red circle with the line through

it. I think everyone is aware this is the sign the symbol

that means something is not allowed. It's forbidden. So if

you see something like that with a cell phone in it it

means you can't use your phone. If you see it with a dog in it

it means no dogs are allowed. You may not bring your dog to

this place. Have you ever been somewhere where you needed to I

don't know renew your driver's license or maybe you've gone to

the doctor's office and you don't have an appointment.

There are places where it says take a number. And they'll have

a little device where you can pull a number out. We actually

have this in our grocery store if you go to buy meat from the

butcher section. You need to take a number. And then when

they call your number or when your number shows up on a

screen. It's your turn to be served. So sometimes if you go

somewhere that's really busy. I know we definitely these if I

go to renew my driver's license now I normally just do it

online now but if I went in person to the place to do that

I would probably have to take a number and then wait until they

call my number or my number shows up on a screen and then

it is my turn We have a number of what I call at your own risk

signs. When you do something at your own risk it means you're

deciding to do something dangerous and noone is going to

be there to help you. So when you go hiking you might hike on

a trail and it'll say use this trail at your own risk. That

means there's there's no fence there's nothing stopping you

from falling. Um so be very careful. There are some pool

that do not have lifeguards. And so they'll have a sign.

There's no lifeguard on duty. There is no person here who's

going to save you. So swim at your own risk. So when you do

something at your own risk. You are taking responsibility for

the dangerous or slightly dangerous thing that you are

doing. Hopefully that made sense. Um we do have these on

hiking trails. There are some pools etcetera etcetera. Um no

parking anytime. These are very common signs and I have kind of

a funny story about this. We went for a hike two weeks ago

and there were a lot of people parked in the parking lot and

there were no more spaces in the parking lot. So I parked on

the street and I failed to notice that there was a no

parking sign. And when I got back from the hike I had a

thirty dollar parking ticket. Because I didn't see the sign.

So if you see a sign that says no parking. Two things. One

don't park there. And two if you do you will probably get a

parking ticket. $30. I paid it right away. You should always

pay things like that right away because in Canada if you don't

pay your parking ticket eventually you can't renew your

driver's license. They'll say oh you have an outstanding

parking ticket sir. You must pay that before you can renew

your license. This is another street sign if you ever see an

H in a blue square at least in my part of the world. It means

there is a hospital ahead. It means you're either at the

hospital or you're driving in the right direction to find the

hospital. So the blue square with the H in it means if you

are maybe you've hurt yourself and you're in a strange town.

If you see these you're you're going the right direction to

find the hospital that you want to go to. So in Canada Uh let

me get this. In Canada there are many places that have

cameras. And if they have cameras to prevent theft or to

prevent vandalism. Vandalism is when someone damages a building

or something. Um they will put up cameras so that they can

record it but they might also put up signs that say you know

parking lot under video surveillance. Security notice.

Because cameras do two things. When you put up a Camera it

prevents crime. When a criminal or someone who's going to do

something sees a camera they might decide not to do it. So

it's very preventative. And it also records what's happening.

So it's nice to let people know because then they might not do

the bad thing they were thinking of doing. So video

surveillance signs are pretty common. You might also see

safety first signs. These are very common in places where

something could be dangerous. So for instance you can see

here hearing protection required in this area. Often in

a factory when you walk into a factory there will be signs

that say safety first hard hat required or ear protection

required or safety goggles required or safety glasses. Um

because they know that there is the potential that something

bad could happen. It usually doesn't but if everyone wears

their protective gear it's less likely to happen. So yes

definitely when you are usually like in a workshop or at a

factory you will see signs that say safety first. We also have

just general warning signs. So similar to danger and caution.

I would say warning and caution are very similar. They're just

saying don't whatever it says below read it carefully. So

this one happens to say warning. Restricted area entry

forbidden behind this point. So what they're basically warning

you about is that if you go into that area the police might

come and arrest you. Or someone might a security guard might

escort you off of the premises. Lot of big words there. But a

warning is usually information about an area or a thing. Um

you might even have a warning sign on a piece of equipment.

Warning. Do not operate this piece of equipment. Um without

wearing safety goggles. There might be a warning. So it's

basically it's the same as caution. It's telling you to be

careful in a situation. And then of course if you are in a

building with multiple stories so multiple floors You might

have signs that tell you what to do in case of fire. If

you're staying at a hotel it might say in case of fire exit

from the south stairwell. In case of fire do not use the

elevator. In case of fire break glass. Sometimes there's a fire

extinguisher behind. I don't know if they have that anymore.

In case of fire use south stairwell and exit the building

calmly. Um so in case of fire simply tells you what to do in

a building. If a Was to start. So a street sign. So I was

saying that all street signs are green in Canada. I don't

actually know but these are this is very common to see

Smith Street and Cannon Street. A street sign is simply a sign

that tells you the name of the street. Um sometimes it's hard

to find them. And sometimes I think street signs are too

small. They're hard to read. When something is hard to read

it means you can't quite see the letters. Sometimes I'm

driving and I can't see the street signs I don't know what

the name of the street is. That can be a little bit

frustrating. When you drive around as well you might see

something that is for sale. Someone might have a sign in

front of their house and we simply call it a for sale sign.

Did you see that Jim's house has a for sale sign on the

front lawn? He's selling his house. Or did you see that car?

It had a for sale sign in the window. Some that car is for

sale. So when you own something and you don't want it anymore

and you want to sell it to someone else you might put a

for sale sign on it. This is a very common type of sign. The

open and closed sign. So when you go to a store hopefully it

says open in the door or window and hopefully it doesn't say

closed. When it says open obviously you can go in and buy

stuff. When it says closed you have to wait until the next

day. So often when people have a store not often I think all

the time. If if you have a store you have a sign that says

open or closed. So people know they can come and shop there.

We also have signs made that we call neon signs. I was going to

say they're made from they're not made from neon. They are

made from bulbs that have neon gas in them and you can then

form a sign that glows. A sign that is illuminated. A sign

that gives off light and it's very very cool. Sometimes

you'll see a neon sign in the window of a store advertising

some this would maybe be in a restaurant or club and it's

simply pointing to where the bathrooms are. It's probably in

the UK though if it says toilets. We also have what's

called a digital sign. So this is a sign where you can change

what's on the sign. Often in front of Yeah our a fast food

restaurant. The fast food restaurant in my local town has

a digital sign. And the sign changes every few days.

Sometimes it says buy two hamburgers today special buy

two hamburgers for five dollars. Or it will say today

chicken burgers on sale. A digital sign is something that

can be changed and it will have a different message on it every

day.

Rules. So sometimes you'll go somewhere and there will be a

sign that has rules on it. You might see this at a playground

like this sign. It says basically it doesn't have the

actual numbers but it tells you who's allowed to play there.

You might go to a campground and there will be a sign that

has rules. No fire no fire before 6 PM or no loud music

after 10 PM. There will be rules. So whenever you go

somewhere where people spend time to other. Um you might see

a sign like this that has rules on it. Hey sometimes a store

will put something out front called a sandwich board. This

is a board that simply displays some information. It's another

type of sign. So maybe you have a store that sells coffee and

baked goods. You might put a sign out on the sidewalk every

morning like this. You might put a sandwich board out that

says that you're selling a new type of coffee that day. Or

that if you are the age of sixty-5 coffee is 10% off today

but a sandwich board is a way to tell people what you sell.

We have a sandwich board that we put at the road when we sell

flowers that just says flowers with a big arrow pointing

towards our farm.

Um you might be driving and you might be going past a school.

Uh in most places when you drive past a school it's

important to drive slowly because there are a lot of

little kids around. And we would call it a school zone.

It's not a good idea to speed in a school zone. Sometimes you

get a bigger ticket if you are caught speeding in a school

zone because we want school zones. We want the roads around

our schools to be very very safe. We don't want people to

speed because we don't Want anything bad to happen. So you

will see a sign like this. School which means that you are

in an area where you should drive slowly and watch out for

little children. So there are a couple of different ways to

find parking in a city. Um you can look for a circle a green

circle with a P in it. It might be a blue circle with a P in

it. It might be a blue square with a P in it. But generally

if you are in a city and you need to park your car you want

to find a parking lot. And often you will see signs with

the letter P in it. In my part of the world usually green

sometimes blue. Um and some parts of the world again it

might be a square but you would use that to find a place where

you can park. Um usually it costs money though. It's hard

to find in a big Canadian city. It's hard to find a place to

park that is free. So Let's see here. You might have a sign

that says hazardous materials. Now this is another caution

sign. Uh but you might have a sign that says you know

hazardous materials don't enter here without protective gear or

protective clothing. This would be rare. This would be like at

a factory or something like that. Um but yeah it's just

warning you that you should be careful and be aware of what

danger lies ahead. You might have an informational sign. So

there were a lot of these in the last couple of years. Um

there still are a lot of these when you walk up to the front

door of a store when I go to work at my school. There is an

informational sign. And it says stop. Just like remember I said

we use stop for a lot of things. Stop the spread of

germs. And then it kind of tells you what to do to prevent

the spread of disease. Um we we have one too that says stop. Do

you have any of following symptoms. Uh fever, sore

throat, headache, and it asks you all the question. It is an

informational sign to find out. If you're feeling well. And

then here is a really really big sign when you drive along a

highway there might be a really really big sign that we call a

billboard. A billboard is a sign that shows you that

there's probably a restaurant ahead. That's usually what

billboards are for. Uh and if you get off the highway you can

go there and buy something. So a billboard it's probably the

biggest type of sign that I know of a billboard. Gigantic.

A gigantic sign.