Why do foreigners get lost in polish toilets?

It may seem that there is nothing complicated about Polish public toilets, but for many tourists visiting our country, a trip to a public restroom can lead to the need to solve a real puzzle. All because of two inconspicuous symbols that are completely obvious to Poles, but which cause real confusion among the rest of the world. We are talking about the triangle and circle on the doors of men's and women's restrooms.

It is hard to imagine life without pictograms. Dozens of simple, easy-to-decipher symbols surround each of us and are placed on road signs, packages, or household cleaning products warning about various dangers or providing information on how to proceed. Most of them work on the principle of simple associations and allow us to understand their meaning even if we encounter them for the first time, or when they are next to a text in an unknown language. Seeing a symbolic representation of fire, we will know that the material we are holding in our hands may be flammable, while following signs with an arrow and a silhouette of a person moving towards a rectangle will lead us to an emergency exit. But what do the circles and triangles on toilet doors mean?

The bathroom geometric puzzle

As it turns out, the labeling of the women's toilet with a circle and the men's with a triangle is a very local phenomenon and only occurs in Poland and western Ukraine. Nowhere else in the world do pictograms on public toilets take on such a form, which is quite understandable considering how unintuitive these two geometric symbols can be. The triangle, despite being associated with the silhouette of a man who stereotypically has broader shoulders and narrower hips than a woman, is often confused with the shape of a woman's womb, making it particularly relevant to a place like a restroom. The circle, on the other hand, is equally difficult to assign to either a woman or a man - the argument in favor of the former is the belief that female shapes are more rounded than male ones.

Since in the case of the "male" triangle it would be about the silhouette, why do the emblems from women's bathrooms not resemble an upside-down triangle, or - even better - an hourglass? The female figure is far from perfect circle. Foreigners coming for holidays or business trips are often unable to interpret two clearly too universal symbols, and often, if they are not accompanied by the international sign "WC", derived from the English words "water closet", they do not even realize that they are dealing with doors leading to the toilet. Needless to say, how much unnecessary confusion such a situation can cause in restaurants, cafes, pubs and all kinds of establishments located near various tourist attractions.

Tic-tac-toe game

As if there weren't enough problems with understanding Polish symbols, it often happens that they are placed on public toilet doors in an inconsistent manner. So the "male triangle" in one place may appear traditionally - with the tip pointing downwards, while in another place it may already have the form of a pyramid reaching upwards. In order to save foreigners, but also ourselves, unnecessary confusion, it is worth giving up too fancy and difficult to read designations and focus primarily on functionality.

The bathroom is a room that caters to basic physiological needs of a person, so there should never be a situation where finding it causes unnecessary nerves or stress. The simplest solutions, such as pictograms used all over the world, depicting a male or female figure and clearly labeled as WC, are therefore the best way to ensure that all visitors feel comfortable and safe in an unfamiliar place. Let's remember that there is a reason why ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, has prepared uniform toilet markings that should be used in public spaces.

Ryszard Kurek