
I’ll freely admit that I don’t speak much German. Of course, I can work out a lot of the words’ meanings if they are similar to English, but this can sometimes lead to false friends. I learned that
Ausgang means
exit, so when I saw a sign in Vienna that said
Notausgang, I didn’t really think much about it. I just thought it meant that I couldn’t go through that door. I guess if I had taken a minute, I would have probably guessed that
not doesn’t mean the same thing in English and German.It wasn’t until I was looking at a sign on a train window some time later that I realised that
Notausgang meant
emergency exit. I’m a bit relieved that I never had cause to look for a
Notausgang before I realised my mistake.