Chinese – Page 5 – Language on the Move

Intercultural communication

No translation

Eatery on Kat Hing St, Wuhan, site of Chi Li's Life Show (Source: city.ifeng.com) I am very much looking forward to attending the Intercultural Literacy, Communication, and Competence in the…

Ingrid PillerJuly 10, 2012

Language learning

Is bilingualism impolite?

I’m chatting in English to a medical student from Germany who is visiting Sydney, Australia, and we’ve already talked about how I lived in Germany for a while and speak…

Hanna TorshMay 15, 2012

Language at work

Money talks

Those of us in the broad area of TESOL often labor under the assumption of the invincibility of English hegemony. Whether they deplore it or exult in it, many people…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 17, 2012

Language learning

Behind a name

One’s name is one of the most salient features for one’s identity. Some parents suffer from extraordinary indecisiveness when giving their newborn a wonderfully auspicious and proper name, all with…

Grace Chu-Lin ChangMay 2, 2011

Language learning

Where is home?

Many of the people close to my heart are transnationals such as myself. Belonging is a frequently discussed topic in my circles, and often a topic that is surrounded by…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 26, 2011

Language and globalization

Who’s inward-looking?

Yoshiko Nakano's essay in Yomiuri Newspaper “Young people in Japan no longer want to go abroad.” This news reached me in Australia last year and formed part of the background…

Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江January 11, 2011

Linguistic landscapes

Tokyo: Elegantly Multilingual

Space challenged Shinjuku, Tokyo (September 2010): Photo by Kimie Takahashi Tokyo is getting more and more linguistically diverse every time I go back there. During this trip, I was really…

Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江October 15, 2010

Linguistic landscapes

Multilingual Tokyo

I had been led to believe that Japan was a very monolingual place interspersed with Engrish ads, commercial signage and T-shirts. Well, that has turned out to be just another…

Ingrid PillerSeptember 28, 2010

English as a global language

The social networking market research site Inside Facebook has some intriguing language stats. In July, the fastest-growing languages on Facebook were Portuguese, Arabic, Spanish and French. The Portuguese growth rate…

Ingrid PillerAugust 2, 2010

Language and globalization

E lasciate in pace il Chinglish!

Multilingual sign in Namtso (Image Credit: Wikipedia) Italian version of my blog post about Chinglish. Translated by Emanuela Moretto Per un attimo provate a pensare che il New York Times abbia…

Ingrid PillerJuly 18, 2010

Language and globalization

Academic capitalism and the spread of English

In 2009, I contributed a chapter about the social inclusion of migrants in Australia to an edited book about immigration policy published in Japanese in Japan. The book is doing…

Ingrid PillerJuly 11, 2010

Linguistic landscapes

Toiletology

Installment #4 in the mini-series on multilingual signage Toilets as an object of sociolinguistic research?! Not likely?! Think again! Today, I am going to discuss toilet signage as an indicator…

Ingrid PillerMay 7, 2010

Linguistic landscapes

Multilingual prohibitions

Installment #3 in the mini-series on multilingual signage The lovers of English poetry among you will recall how the phrase “Betreten verboten” (“No trespassing”) encapsulates his alienation from Berlin and…

Ingrid PillerMay 3, 2010

Language politics

French Language Day

I missed the UN’s French language day! It’s not the fact that I missed it that bothers me – I’m late for pretty much everything – it’s the fact that…

Ingrid PillerApril 4, 2010

Language learning

Korean beats French

If you could choose to learn a foreign language, which one would it be? And why? Such choices are usually constrained by what is on offer. However, someone must choose…

Ingrid PillerDecember 14, 2009

Linguistic landscapes

Croc warning

I took a picture of this sign during a family holiday in Cairns. My then-six-year-old daughter noticed the German “Achtung” and so asked why it didn’t say “Warning” in her…

Ingrid PillerDecember 4, 2009

No translation

Money talks

Behind a name

Who’s inward-looking?

Tokyo: Elegantly Multilingual

Multilingual Tokyo

E lasciate in pace il Chinglish!

Multilingual prohibitions

French Language Day

Korean beats French

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