What is that? Kas tas ir? Что это?

Ah, communication.

This was a sign that we found at the park that made us laugh with the amount of things we could not do there.  Yes, there are many rules here and I have found that Latvians follow these rules. What does that mean in practical terms?  There is very little jaywalking, minor littering in the cities, voices are not generally raised in public, all things that I find really lovely!  And although this example of communicating is only in Latvian, you will find most menus (and service industries) provide Latvian, Russian AND English.  Think to where you live.  How well does it cater to people that do not speak the official language of that country?

There are some humourous translations and also, I have seen things that make me think.  Can you tell who is the author of the left book?  Hint:  Latvian is a very phonetic language and "translating" names seems to be common here.

So when I go out on my own, I speak English and my Latvian is limited to "sveiki", "paldies", "lūdzu" (hello, thank you, please/you're very welcome).  I also have developed a strong hand gesturing/charades type way of speaking (it's not very effective...yet).