One of the most bizarre experiences I had during my stay in Australia was being asked by a European housemate whether it was difficult to ride a donkey. Huh?! How…
Vahid ParvareshAugust 9, 2011
Amoo ('Uncle') Poorang Persian version of my recent post about "Ridiculing accents" Translated by Behnam Keimasi (بهنام کیماسی) آیا مایه گذاشتن از اقلیتهای زبانی برای سرگرم کردن کودکان کار درستی…
Manouchehr KouhestaniApril 25, 2011
Thank you all for waiting - we are thrilled to present you with the new-look Language on the Move 3.0! This is the second time we have renewed our site…
Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江April 6, 2011
MQ VC Prof. Schwartz at the Library Opening Ceremony I was lucky to be able to join the opening ceremony of Macquarie University's new library on 28 March. The event…
Liu Hailin 海林 刘March 29, 2011
Divine linguistic diversity I’ve spent the past two days convening the first-ever Language-on-the-Move workshop at the University of Tehran. The idea was to explore language contact and multilingualism in the…
Ingrid PillerDecember 23, 2010
Condoms in translation It’s been impossible to escape this week’s media coverage of the pope’s comments about condoms and male prostitutes. There has been a lot of debate about what…
Ingrid PillerNovember 28, 2010
If you read English-language news, you could be forgiven for thinking that Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel recently came out strongly against multiculturalism and immigration. You could be forgiven, but you'd…
Ingrid PillerOctober 20, 2010
Lotus Pond (part of Shinobazu Pond) in Ueno Park “There are so many stupid Japanese women around, huh? Many Westerners are coming to our country and the stupid women love…
Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江October 11, 2010
Chinese version of my recent blog post about orientalism and tourism 东方主义，这种西方文化中对东方文化及人文的旧式及带有偏见的理解，可谓是由来已久、根深蒂固。一日偶读澳大利亚旅游杂志《出发和到达》中一篇题为“爱情游戏，中国风”的文章，我对东方主义在当今世界的影响力，尤其是在旅游文本中的呈现，感触尤为深刻。 乍看标题“爱情游戏，中国风”，觉得有趣而有些费解：什么样的“爱情游戏”可以称为“中国风”呢？接下来的副标题解释道：“远离现代社会的纷扰，中国纳西族在罕见的母系社会中独享亘古不变的清静”。文中描绘的中国西南边陲的云南白沙古镇是纳西族的故乡之一。而作者描绘的方式却使得白沙镇成为代表整个中国的一个影像：亘古不变，陷入一个远离现代文明的永恒世界。 (more…)
Chen Xiaoxiao 陈潇潇September 2, 2010
I am currently a visiting scholar from Isfahan, Iran, in Sydney, Australia. Therefore, I speak English most of the time. I use English with my colleagues at work although, interestingly,…
Vahid ParvareshAugust 25, 2010
When I lived in Abu Dhabi, I once visited a university in another Middle Eastern country. As part of the visit I did a guest lecture about my research, I…
Ingrid PillerJuly 9, 2010
“Japanese guys aren’t the most popular creatures on earth when it comes to romance. Sad but true.” That’s the claim of Meiko Mochizuki Swartz, self-professed bilingual, bicultural ‘expert’ and author…
Lachlan JacksonJuly 7, 2010
I went onto e-bay this weekend and, instead of the gadget I was after, found some non-standard uses of English negation: “We not ship to Russia” or “We not use…
Ingrid PillerFebruary 10, 2010
I’ve always thought that it would do the field of linguistics (and the humanities generally) a whole lot of good if linguists were also doing literary studies. I’m an old-fashioned…
Ingrid PillerNovember 22, 2009
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