Comments on: Domestic violence in a multilingual world

By: Lost without translation | Everyday Victim Blaming

Lost without translation | Everyday Victim Blaming — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 16:16:04 +0000

[…] As the linguist and human rights advocate Ingrid Piller commented, language is ‘the last bastion of “legitimate” victim blaming’. People who would never suggest that the victim of a hate crime should have changed their religion or lightened their skin find it perfectly reasonable to say that they should have learnt the language. And in this case the victim-blaming was doubly unjust. Like the domestic violence that killed her, Marzieh Rahimi’s linguistic problems were a product of structural sexual inequality. […]

By: Emergency service provision in linguistically diverse societies | Language on the Move

Thu, 06 Feb 2014 07:27:17 +0000

[…] service provision to speakers of languages other than English in Australia came under scrutiny when an Afghan woman tried to call the police but did not receive any assistance a few days before she wa…. The domestic violence victim called 000 – the national telephone emergency service – twice […]

By: Bilingualism is good for your mental health | Language on the Move

Bilingualism is good for your mental health | Language on the Move — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 02:21:44 +0000

[…] That’s where bilingualism comes in: a bilingual person can build strong relationships within more than one community. That migrants to Australia need to learn English to build those relationships and to engage in a broad range of activities is a no-brainer. If you are stuck in an abusive marriage and don’t know where to turn for help because you don’t … […]

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:02:32 +0000

I think it sad that there are so many people with so little understanding or compassion for their fellow human beings. I would suspect that this poor woman was kept very isolated as isolation is a tool commonly employed by those who choose to abuse their partners. Keeping her isolated would likely have included making it difficult if not impossible for her to learn any English.

It is sad that when this woman did reach out for help the system failed her with fatal results.

I think more needs to be done to ensure that help is available to anyone who needs it and access to the information about where to seek help should be readily available to all communities. I also think police need to be more aware of what to look for and also how to connect up with the necessary services.

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 12:12:30 +0000

Thank you so much, Xiaoxiao, for your precious comment! It’s readers like you that make Language on the Move such a worthwhile and rewarding effort!

By: xiaoxiao

xiaoxiao — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 15:27:22 +0000

Your blogs have truly opened my eyes, and my understanding of the purposes and significances of language study has been deepened a lot since I began to access Language on the Move. This blog is again another precious gift I should feel grateful for. What I’m trying to say here may not be directly relevant to the content of this blog. But I feel an urge to express my feelings about all the contributions here: I have been greatly inspired by all of them even though I haven’t commented on them all:) It is no exaggeration to say that these blogs have rewarded me with not only academic knowledge but also the ideas of how to make consiencious efforts to change our world for the better as a linguist. Thanks much!

By: Kimie Takahashi

Kimie Takahashi — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:30:52 +0000

Seeking assistance with the issue of domestic violence is complex enough for English speaking citizens. But when something like this happens to ESL migrants/non-citizens, responsibilities are often entirely put on them in a blame-the-victim manner. “She should have learned enough English” and its related discourses in the online space not only reveal the prevalence of the monolingual mindset, but also serve to reproduce and circulate it further.

As you point out in this post, this is NOT at all an isolated incident where a loss of life or violation of human rights resulted from a lack of multilingual resources or assistance for non-English speaking individuals. One incident is one too many. I hope more language experts will take up the challenge to inform the public how language ideologies intersect with, if not fatally compromise, human rights, particularly of migrants with limited linguistic capital. Thank you for the thoughtful post.