This is a sign attached to a climbing frame thing in Regents Park. Are they saying no helmets? I presume they are. Why? are helmets dangerous? Do kids in helmets frequently bash into other kids, causing injury and destruction? And have you ever seen a kid in a helmet on a climbing frame? Maybe unrestricted helmet wearing is more of a hazard in Norway or wherever this frame was designed.
Though, the whole issue of kids and helmets is interesting. I'm very reluctant to make Arthur wear his when he's on his bike. Becuase he doesn't like it, and it means he gets less joy out of his bike, and if he doesn't learn to love mucking about on his bike then I've failed as a parent. It seems an acceptable risk. Of course it's easy to say that now. He's not had a horrible accident.
The sign's in Finnish, and it does say that it's forbidden to play with a helmet on. The reason they don't want kids to wear helmets is because it can get stuck when the kid is climbing, and leave them hanging, strangling them.
(Apparently kids ("lapset") is spelt incorrectly - it should only have one P).
Now for a different question: what's a Finnish sign doing in Regent's Park?
Posted by: Celia | September 17, 2004 at 09:51 AM
To me it looks like the sign is in Finnish, but in Denmark we are equally obsessed with safety. The raison d'etre for this sign is that some kids have been choked on the playground while wearing their bike helmets - for safety reasons...
Posted by: Christian Ryser | September 17, 2004 at 10:00 AM
Wow. We've got readership all over. It's Finnish is it? Is it incredibly ignorant of me not to know? Are Scandinavian languages very similar or is that just a laughable assumption?
And, I can understand the helmet thing now, strangulation would be a problem. Maybe I'm just a lousy parent but I didn't work that out.
As for why it's in Regents Park, the Finnish are clearly world leaders in Climbing Equipment.
Posted by: russell davies | September 17, 2004 at 10:38 AM
No, it's not ignorant of you. I just happen to know 'cause I've spent a lot of time in Finland over the last year or so.
The Finnish: world leaders in mobile phone manufacturing, lakes and climbing equpment.
Posted by: Celia | September 17, 2004 at 11:06 AM
Celia is quite correct about the meaning of the sign. I think LAPPSET might be a brand so that's why it's with 2 p's. Am too lazy to check it out.
Cheers from Finland!
Posted by: p-j | September 20, 2004 at 01:15 PM
actually the only two words that seem to be spelled correctly are "helmet" (kypärä) and forbidden (kielletty). the rest is colloquial. Finnish is not on the same branch of the language tree as the 'other' Scandinavian languages Icelandic/Danish/Norweigan/Swedish who hang out on the Germanic branch. Lappset is a brand of kids playground equipment - http://www.lappset.com/ - which may explain why the sign is still on the presumably Finnish Lappset playground toy. Mystery solved!
Posted by: Åsk | October 05, 2004 at 11:23 AM
The rest is not colloquial - it's inflected. Leikkiminen means "the act of playing" and the dictionary form is "leikkiä", to play. The other inflected word is päässä, "on the head", dictionary form "pää", head. Finns stick their grammar on the ends of the relevant words in quite the opposite way from English methods and they do this at the speed of thought which is quite remarkable. There was a photo campaign recently organised by a few students in which a Finnish road sign warning about the lack of gritting and snow clearance during the winter months reading "Ei talvikunnossapito / Ej vinterupphållning" was taken on trips and displayed in the most unlikely places. It looked wonderfully incongruous in front of a Thai Buddhist temple.
Posted by: steh | September 23, 2006 at 10:24 AM