"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
...
Surely a big F and R or B should be obvious enough.
what about other languages they need a universal sign not letters

My brain probably works differently from many people's. I find it easier to
interpret a foreign word than a symbol - I quickly learn that a certain
German word means "brake" etc.

Symbols are fine - and they are language-independent, but there is an extra
stage where your brain has to work out "what does this symbol depict - WTF
is it?", which is a much harder task than the trivially easy follow-on step
of "what action do I take if I see it".

Standard symbols like (square) || (round red dot) are widely
understood from tape recorders and all similar playing/recording devices.
Likewise road signs - and they are drawn to a standard: every British "bend"
sign is the same as every other one. But less common, more esoteric symbols
are a lot harder.

I was once driving my Dad's Ford Sierra which had a panel of warning lights
in the centre of the dashboard. Suddenly an amber one with an undecypherable
symbol started flashing insistently.

Amber: warning, not an emergency "you must stop ASAP"
Flashing: "you really need to take note of this"
On the centre panel, not the dashboard: "It's not critical for driving"

But WTF was that symbol supposed to be a picture of? I stopped and looked at
the manual. First find the page for the warning lights, then try to match
the symbol on the light to the various ones in the manual, given that one
was not an exact copy of the other.

It turned out to mean "windscreen washer level is low". Useful to know. I
stopped at a garage to fill it up with water (it was before the days of
ready-made or concentrated screenwash being used in non-freezing
conditions). But a flashing light? Did it need to grab my attention like
that?

The best of both worlds is a symbol *and* the word in English, given that
English is probably the most common second language outside the UK market.