globalization – Page 10 – Language on the Move

Language at work

Foreign nurses face the Kanji hurdle

Japan’s aging population and the growing number of young Japanese shunning ‘3D’ jobs (dirty, dangerous and demanding) has resulted in an increasing demand for foreign nurses and eldercare workers. In…

Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江February 17, 2010

Language in Australia

Monolingual mindset in the lucky country

National holidays are there to celebrate the nation and the opinion pages tend to be full of self-congratulation on such occasions. Australia is no exception and one of the more…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 3, 2010

Linguistic landscapes

Transliterated brand names

London Dairy ad on a building in Abu Dhabi, UAE Igloo ad on truck in Abu Dhabi, UAE I’ve just come across a 2006 University of South Africa MA thesis investigating…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 15, 2010

Language at work

Multilingual diversity marketing

As the UAE is still abuzz with the opening of the Burj Khalifa, I thought a post to mark the occasion might be in order. Seeing that I’m blogging on…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 10, 2010

Next Gen Literacies

More on Korean linguistic exports

Not only is Korean an increasingly popular choice of study as a foreign language, now South Korea is also promoting the use of the Hangul script to write languages other…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 3, 2010

Language politics

Languages of the heart

While my Christmas post was of the gloomy kind, most blogs I follow had more heart-warming stories. Sociolingo Africa picked up a press release coming out of Orlando, Florida issued…

Ingrid PillerDecember 31, 2009

Multilingual histories

The burning children of globalization

I’ve been wondering what would be an appropriate Christmas post for the Language on the Move blog. Seeing that I’m deeply skeptical about all those claims about the wonderful advantages…

Ingrid PillerDecember 25, 2009

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

Multilingual histories

The monolingual sniffer dog and the lonely rabbi

The current global order has thrown up yet another bewildering language problem: the monolingual sniffer dog! I glean the following from a recent NYT article about Rabbis in Montana: with…

Ingrid PillerDecember 11, 2009

Language and tourism

New Swiss Christianity: Let’s build brothels

A few years ago I wrote a paper about the sexualization of public space in Switzerland. The paper will be published next year as “Sex in the City: On Making…

Ingrid PillerDecember 7, 2009

Linguistic landscapes

Ridiculous English signs

Ridiculous English signs English speakers sometimes like to amuse themselves with ridiculous English signage from around the world. www.engrish.com is a typical example and I have to admit that there…

Ingrid PillerNovember 26, 2009