PARE!  Yes, I just said “STOP!” in Spanish.

On my very first trip overseas when I was 17 years old, I went to France.  One of the things that shocked me the most was that the stop signs in France were written “STOP” instead of “ARRET” the French word for “STOP!”  I asked the French people there, and they said it was because “STOP” is the most universal word for “STOP” in Europe, and there are a lot of people who travel through France from its surrounding countries where the languages are different from France’s official language.  Also, France is not concerned about losing their culture unlike Quebec, Canada, where we find stop signs written “ARRET.”

So, over the past four years of traveling throughout Europe, I sure did notice that all stops signs were written as “STOP.”

However,  Peru is the first country where I encountered stop signs are written in their own language!  It’s fascinating to see how each country embraces their own language!