Stop signs.

After travelling to Europe and Canada I found it was very interesting that all of Europe uses STOP but in Québec the signs read ARRÊT so I was wondering how is it written in other French speaking countries. If you know anything about an especific country/language I'd greatlt appreciate it if you write it in the discussion. Thanks for the answers!

ARRÊT can be seen only in French Canada.

In France, Belgium, and Switzerland, you will more likely to see STOP.

In Mexico they'll say "ALTO", in Colombia "PARE", i don't know about other countries though.

I'm surprised that they don't use some sort of international "stop" symbol for STOP signs in Europe.

I wonder what STOP signs look like in China, Japan, or the Middle East -- surely they don't use English?

They use English in China

... I don't think so

<< I wonder what STOP signs look like in China, Japan, or the Middle East -- surely they don't use English? >>

Answers to all those and more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign#Sign_variants

<<Answers to all those and more here>>

Wikipedia sure has a lot of coverage -- who'd 've thought they'd have articles on something as mundane as stop signs.

BTW, I remember seeing yellow STOP signs as late as 1973 on private property at the Homestake gold mine in Lead, SD (US).

Thanks for all the answers and the link. I was also wondering about African Francophone countries.

Thanks for sharing, furrykef. It's easy to understand the Chinese sign even though they use another character.

Question: (Maybe Josh can answer this.) What's that script below the sign in Arabic (it looks a little like Greek)? Thanks.

Thanks, Josh. So, that stop sign is probably in North Africa. Berbers say they come from Phoenicians (and they came from Greece, I think), so it makes sense.

Ah, I just looked at your link. Sure enough, the sign is in Morocco.