Manus Hospital often treats refugees (Image credit: ABC News, Natalie Whiting) A growing body of literature across multiple disciplines attests to the importance of credibility in the bureaucratic processes for…
Laura Smith-KhanJuly 11, 2019
“Fremdschämen” is a German word that means being embarrassed on behalf of someone else. In Australia, this feeling is frequently induced by the behavior of our politicians. Yesterday, public embarrassment…
Ingrid PillerApril 14, 2019
Map of European languages (Source: SB Language Maps) Invitation to public seminar about "Minority Languages" at Macquarie University What: Minority languages: what are we talking about? And why are we…
Lg_on_the_moveNovember 15, 2017
This latest exploration in language shaming examines a language shame campaign on the internet and shows how it is used as a tool to suppress political debate and women’s public…
Ingrid PillerOctober 16, 2017
One of the consequences of the recent upsurge in nationalist politics around the world has been a rise in attacks on the idea of linguistic diversity. As national language ideologies…
Philip SeargeantSeptember 18, 2017
Australia: The White Man's Land (Source: NLA) Australia has a proud national narrative of migration and multiculturalism. It also has an equally prevalent history of exclusionary and discriminatory migration policy.…
Laura Smith-KhanDecember 9, 2015
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
Who is a real refugee? The refugee crisis in Europe has caught a lot of global media attention. Countries at the entry points and their official actions, as well civil…
Agnes BodisSeptember 23, 2015
Annastacia Palaszczuk and members of her family (Source: Couriermail) Would Kirk Douglas be a Hollywood legend if he had kept his birth name Issur Danielovitch? Would Bob Dylan have achieved…
Ingrid PillerFebruary 4, 2015
Hutatma Smarak (Martyrs's Memorial) on Flora Square in Mumbai constructed in the memory of 106 people killed during the agitation for the creation of Unified Maharashtra. The two individuals in…
Deepak PawarJanuary 28, 2015
This tweet says: "CSU issues correction: its proposal was translated into German incorrectly" Germany is currently witnessing a delightful language ideological farce. It all started when the conservative Christian Social…
Ingrid PillerDecember 9, 2014
Excerpt from "The Haunted Lotus" by Australian-Hazara artist Khadim Ali (Source: Milani Gallery) An objection that is commonly raised against Esperanto and other auxiliary languages is that they are “invented.”…
Ingrid PillerFebruary 13, 2014
Bilingual Swedish-Finnish monument in Helsinki commenmorating globally beloved children's author Tove Jansson, a Swedish-speaking Finn (Source: vanderkrogt.net) 50,000 people have signed a petition against mandatory Swedish classes in Finnish schools,…
Dave SayersAugust 26, 2013
In today’s immigration countries, adherents of the “one nation, one language” idea face a unique ideological problem: to claim that the national language is a sign of national loyalty and…
Ingrid PillerMarch 4, 2013
Speak English, people! says British politician Ed Miliband (Source: msn.com) Every ten years the UK government conducts a census, which every British resident is obliged by law to take part…
Deborah CameronFebruary 22, 2013
This work is licensed under a