Top 10 languages other than English spoken in England and Wales, 2011 (Source: ONS) Modern languages are not merely European languages. Obvious as this may seem, it needs restating as…
Something has been nagging at me recently. I read a lot of tech news, and it seems automated translation is about to get a whole lot better, and a whole…
Cover of 2008 movie "Mad about English" (Source: Zhang, Jie. Language policy and planning for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. ) We are repeatedly told that people around the world are…
ESL teachers play an important role in home language maintenance (Image Credit: Macquarie University) Learning the host country’s language is important for migrants but we should not forget that maintaining…
The Linguistic Ethnography Forum’s e-seminar devoted to Ingrid Piller’s recent book Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice: An Introduction to Applied Sociolinguistics is currently running. Some discussions so far are concerned…
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.…
"The English" migrated to their "ancestral homeland" in the first few centuries of the Common Era (Source: Wikipedia) “Indigenous languages” and “immigrant languages” are much discussed in language policy research,…
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…
Japan Store near the University of Yangon “Welcome to the Golden Guest Inn, Ms Takahashi! We've been expecting you!” A Chinese-Burmese man warmly welcomed me on my arrival at his…
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.”…
Are university rankings like an iron cage that leaves no option but to submit to its logic? “Using English is the sign of a great mind. Discuss.” Sounds like an…
When are immigrant linguistic and cultural rights tolerable? (Source: demotix.com) Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University presents Questioning Tolerance: When Are Immigrant Linguistic and Cultural Rights Tolerable? When: Friday, November 08, 12:00-1:00pm…
An East Timorese girl speaking Bunak, Tetum, Fataluku and Portuguese (Source: Wikipedia) A response to Alexandra Grey, "We do aid, not English" In my experience English is often promoted by…
Should ‘helping with English’ be part of the brief of humanitarian aid workers? (Source: helpage.org) Over a few years of involvement in the aid sector in Asia, I became aware…
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,…
Readers who missed the H.I.S. Research and Industry Forum on Linguistic Diversity and Tourism in Amazing Thailand on July 02, 2013 at Assumption University of Thailand in Bangkok can view the…