Navigating as a Functional Illiterate

Signs Matter when Travelers Can’t Read or Speak a Language

A subway entrance in Moscow Photo credit: M. Ciavardini — A subway entrance in Moscow
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

Finding my way around Moscow when I don’t speak Russian and can’t read the Cyrillic alphabet becomes a bit of a fun challenge. Navigating the subway system, I am careful to count how many stops until I get off since I won’t be able to understand the announcements on the train. Staying close to windows and doors so I can try to ascertain a current stop becomes more important to me. Even if someone were to ask me, in English, which stop at which I want to disembark, I won’t be able to say. I can’t pronounce it. I can point on a map.

Navigating a subway system becomes more challenging if you can't read or speak the language of the signs. Photo credit: M. Ciavardini — Navigating a subway system becomes more challenging if you can’t read or speak the language of the signs.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

I focus on counting and looking at the first few letters on my map and matching them to the station names appearing on the subway’s walls. It’s scary, frustrating, and educational: Things I don’t think for a minute about on subways in New York or Washington I now focus on seriously here. If I get lost on this subway system, my experience could be scary. I appreciate how challenging existences are for immigrants in the United States who are just learning their way around and just beginning to learn English.

Riding the subway in a place where you can't read the language or even pronounce the name of the station to which you are going requires an extra dose of concentration. I try matching the first few letters on the map to the sign on the station wall. Photo credit: M. Ciavardini — Riding the subway in a place where you can’t read the language or even pronounce the name of the station to which you are going requires an extra dose of concentration. I try matching the first few letters on the map to the sign on the station wall.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

The Moscow subways are beautiful. This is a place where the worker is glorified, appreciated. Beautiful mosaics and other art appears in these stations; they are worth the anxiety associated with getting on these trains.

A ride on the Moscow subway is worth the navigational effort; mosaics celebrating workers appear in certain stations. Photo credit: M. Ciavardini — A ride on the Moscow subway is worth the navigational effort; mosaics celebrating workers appear in certain stations.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

I am fortunate; I find my way; even when I appear to be floundering, plenty of helpful Russians approach me and ask, in English, if they can be of assistance.