Language & tourism – Page 2 – Language on the Move

English as a global language

Language shift and phone sex

Ever since I left my native village in the Bavarian Forest more than 25 years ago, I have been returning for regular, even if infrequent, visits. Over the years, there…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 15, 2012

Linguistic landscapes

Pencils on the move

Sadly, my sabbatical is drawing to a close and one of the things to think about now is souvenirs. My sabbatical involved visits to Germany, Iran and the United Arab…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 26, 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 and tourism

Do you speak Swiss?

A most amazing book has just landed on my desk: Do you speak Swiss, edited by Walter Haas, is the final report on a Swiss National Research Project devoted to…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 14, 2011

Shop signs of hostess bars on Thaniya Road, Sala Daeng, Bangkok

Language and tourism

The dark side of intercultural communication

At 11pm at a Japanese ramen restaurant in Thaniya, Bangkok, a group of five middle-aged Japanese men and five young Thai women were dining right next to my table. It's…

Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江January 18, 2011

Language and tourism

English in Iran

Even a casual observer of the linguistic landscape in Iran will have to conclude that Iranians have a collective fetish for English. Almost all public signage is bilingual in English…

Ingrid PillerDecember 30, 2010

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

Intercultural communication

Chinese version of my recent blog post about orientalism and tourism 东方主义，这种西方文化中对东方文化及人文的旧式及带有偏见的理解，可谓是由来已久、根深蒂固。一日偶读澳大利亚旅游杂志《出发和到达》中一篇题为“爱情游戏，中国风”的文章，我对东方主义在当今世界的影响力，尤其是在旅游文本中的呈现，感触尤为深刻。乍看标题“爱情游戏，中国风”，觉得有趣而有些费解：什么样的“爱情游戏”可以称为“中国风”呢？接下来的副标题解释道：“远离现代社会的纷扰，中国纳西族在罕见的母系社会中独享亘古不变的清静”。文中描绘的中国西南边陲的云南白沙古镇是纳西族的故乡之一。而作者描绘的方式却使得白沙镇成为代表整个中国的一个影像：亘古不变，陷入一个远离现代文明的永恒世界。

Chen Xiaoxiao 陈潇潇September 2, 2010

Language and tourism

Orientalism and tourism

Nowhere is the persistence of Orientalist ways of viewing the non-Western Other so obvious than in tourism brochures, as I was reminded when reading an article titled “Game of Love,…

Chen Xiaoxiao 陈潇潇July 31, 2010

Linguistic landscapes

Banal multilingualism

As someone who is concerned about Australia’s monolingual mindset and the damage it does to individuals and our society as a whole, I probably should have been pleased to discover…

Ingrid PillerJune 17, 2010

Language in Australia

Push for multi-lingual mindset

Listen to Ingrid Piller speaking about multilingualism and monolingualism in the tourism industry on ABC radio’s PM show.

Language on the MoveFebruary 27, 2010

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

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

Language at work

How (not) to address airline passengers

Terms of address in intercultural communication can be a tricky business as Kimiesan pointed out recently. One would think that airlines with their international customer base and tons of market…

Ingrid PillerNovember 30, 2009

Next Gen Literacies

Negative and positive writing

Until Language on the Move came along, Web of Language was my favorite language-related blog. Now it’s my second-favorite … A few days ago, the blogger, Dennis Baron, Professor of…

Ingrid PillerNovember 16, 2009

Language shift and phone sex

Pencils on the move

Money talks

The dark side of intercultural communication

English in Iran

Tokyo: Elegantly Multilingual

Multilingual Tokyo

旅游中的东方主义

Orientalism and tourism

Banal multilingualism

Push for multi-lingual mindset

New Swiss Christianity: Let’s build brothels

How (not) to address airline passengers

Negative and positive writing

UNTERSTÜTZT VON / SUPPORTED BY

NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIPTION