Multilingual histories – Language on the Move

Language learning Multilingual histories

Why Are Uzbek Youth Learning Arabic?

Map of Transoxania (Source: Wikipedia) Editor’s note: Arabic language learning is experiencing a revival in many parts of the world, such as China, where it may be a source of…

Rizwan AhmadJanuary 16, 2024

Chats in Linguistic Diversity Multilingual histories

Lies we tell ourselves about multilingualism

Just before the holidays, Professor Aneta Pavlenko and I chatted about Aneta’s new book Multilingualism and History. We talked about amnesia and ignorance pacts in contemporary sociolinguistics, ghost signs that point to dark…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 3, 2024

Chats in Linguistic Diversity Multilingual histories

Can we ever unthink linguistic nationalism?

In this latest installment of Chats in Linguistic Diversity, I talk to Professor Aneta Pavlenko about multilingualism through the ages. We start from the question whether the world today is…

Ingrid PillerOctober 4, 2021

Multilingual histories

Alexander von Humboldt visits Australia

Alexander von Humboldt was born on 14 September 1769, and the Australian Association of von Humboldt Fellows celebrates its namesake’s birthday annually, normally with dinners of Fellows in capital cities…

Gabrielle McMullenSeptember 16, 2020

Multilingual histories

Is English spelling an insult to human intelligence?

One of countless internet memes about crazy English spelling (Source: angmohdan.com) During a dreary German winter in the 1980s, I would get up early each Friday morning, wrap myself up…

Ingrid PillerAugust 10, 2020

Multilingual histories

Reading and mind control

As a child, the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) loved stories and he loved reading. Like many children, he was particularly fascinated with tales of adventure, exploration, and discovery. In…

Ingrid PillerAugust 18, 2019

Multilingual histories

How to end native speaker privilege

Native and non-native teachers at Lord Harris' School, Royapett, Madras, 1865 (Source: British Library) For some time now, a debate has been raging in TESOL about the relative merits of…

Ingrid PillerMay 31, 2018

Multilingual histories

In search of myself

This week is Library and Information week (#LIW2018). Library and Information Week aims to raise the profile of libraries and information service professionals in Australia. What better way to celebrate…

Ingrid PillerMay 21, 2018

Multilingual histories

The devil’s handwriting

How is your Language-on-the-Move Reading Challenge coming along? Another month has passed and you should have ticked off the second book from our list. I read George Steinmetz’ The Devil’s…

Ingrid PillerApril 5, 2018

Multilingual histories

What makes foreigners weird? A quick guide to orientalism

Heinrich Zille, "Die Original Australier" auf dem Rummel, ca. 1900 One of the central arguments of my book Intercultural Communication is that, even today, much intercultural communication is approached from…

Ingrid PillerOctober 27, 2016

Multilingual histories

Serendipity, Cyberspace, and the Tactility of Documents

Front of postcard sent by Private Jacob Isak Sicherman on 1 June 1916 Remember library stacks? Browsing among books? Serendipitously finding on a nearby shelf what you didn’t know you…

Carol SichermanJuly 28, 2016

http://images.derstandard.at/t/E716/2015/05/08/Stammtisch-1.jpg

Multilingual histories

Portrait of a linguistic shirker

I recently pointed out that the widespread belief that migrants refuse to learn the language of their new country does not stack up against the realities of adult language learning.…

Ingrid PillerApril 28, 2016

Multilingual histories

Herder: an explainer for linguists

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) Some contemporary sociolinguists love to hate an 18th century educator, philosopher, theologian, translator and general polymath by the name of Herder. Hardly a week goes by…

Ingrid PillerMarch 4, 2016

Multilingual histories

Cultural brokering

Rashid al-Din Monument in Soltaniyeh, Iran (Source: Wikipedia) Recently, I signed a contract for a revised second edition of my 2011 book Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction to be published…

Ingrid PillerNovember 25, 2015

Multilingual histories

Erasing diversity

Barely legible today but evidence of 'super-diversity' in the 9th century: Runic graffiti in Hagia Sophia On a parapet in Hagia Sophia’s gallery there is an obscure little graffiti written…

Ingrid PillerJune 21, 2013

Multilingual histories

Internationalization of Higher Education, 1933

Ernst Reuter, West Berlin's post-war Mayor, was Professor of Urban Studies in Ankara from 1938 to 1946 (Source: turkishpress.de) While the internationalization of higher education is a hot topic at…

Ingrid PillerMay 14, 2013

Why Are Uzbek Youth Learning Arabic?

Lies we tell ourselves about multilingualism

Can we ever unthink linguistic nationalism?

Alexander von Humboldt visits Australia

Is English spelling an insult to human intelligence?

Reading and mind control

How to end native speaker privilege

In search of myself

The devil’s handwriting

What makes foreigners weird? A quick guide to orientalism

Portrait of a linguistic shirker

Herder: an explainer for linguists

Cultural brokering

Erasing diversity

Internationalization of Higher Education, 1933

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