Is Beach Safety Signage Fit For Purpose?

Summary

We often take the meaning of signs for granted but that's far from the case in a linguistically and culturally diverse society. The instruction to "Swim between the flags!" can be interpreted in multiple ways - some of which may actually heighten rather than reduce risk.

In this episode of Language on the Move Podcast, Dr Agnes Bodis talks to Dr Masaki Shibata from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Shibata’s researches beach signs in Australia and how they are understood by beachgoers and what consequences this has on beach safety.
For additional resources, show notes, and transcripts, go here.

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Language on the Move is a podcast about linguistic diversity in social life. Produced and edited by Ingrid Piller and Brynn Quick, our aim is to have in-depth and fun conversations with key thinkers about multilingualism, language learning, and intercultural communication in the contexts of globalization and migration.

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