Hungarians in RomaniaUp until a few decades ago, the academic consensus – along with public opinion – was that bilingualism is detrimental to the individual and society. Nowadays, that has…
Ingrid PillerFebruary 20, 2012
I have frequently wondered how my experiences speaking German in public with my two daughters, 7, and 5, whom my wife and I are raising as English-German bilinguals in the…
Christof Demont-HeinrichJanuary 21, 2012
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
“What is the meaning of the choice of English in the slogan on this car?” That was one of the questions I asked the participants in the 2nd Language-on-the-Move Workshop…
Ingrid PillerDecember 13, 2011
USD 254,000: that is the cost of raising two children bilingually in English and German in Denver, Colorado. That’s a lot of money, and inspired me to do some number-crunching…
Ingrid PillerNovember 25, 2011
KOALA Buchstabenhaus (Adapted from: Urbanek, R. et al. (2006): Tinto grün. Arbeitsheft 1. Schreiben. Berlin: Cornelsen) Contemporary Germany is the 3rd largest immigrant-receiving country internationally. In 2008, 15.6mio inhabitants (19%…
Victoria BenzSeptember 13, 2011
Sir John Bagot Glubb (1897-1986) Many people tend to think that multilingual and intercultural communication skills are not only useful skills to have but are also somehow morally superior. Multilingual…
Ingrid PillerJuly 16, 2011
Over the past year or so I’ve started to make my daughter do daily arithmetic practice in German. My reason for doing so stems from my dissatisfaction with the ways…
Ingrid PillerMay 9, 2011
Mother Language Day in East Timor International Mother Language Day is celebrated annually to promote linguistic and cultural diversity. In East Timor, Mother Language Day 2011 provided the perfect opportunity…
Kerry Taylor-LeechApril 13, 2011
Ingrid Piller's keynote lecture at the International Gender and Language Association conference in September 2010 is now available on video and so is another guest lecture she conducted during our…
Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江February 25, 2011
When I first started teaching in Australia, I had a Korean-Australian student in one of my undergraduate classes who sounded like most of the other students in my class, like…
Ingrid PillerFebruary 18, 2011
Billboard advertising the Japanese food fair at Isetan I’ve never felt more welcome in a foreign city than where I am at the moment – Bangkok! It has to do…
Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江February 9, 2011
The world in Arabia I spent my last day in the Middle East at Dubai Mall, the self-proclaimed “Centre of Now.” The mall guide has the heading “Welcome to Everything.”…
Ingrid PillerJanuary 21, 2011
Yesterday I spoke with a study agent here in the UAE and he told me that Australian universities trying to attract students from the GCC region just didn’t get the…
Ingrid PillerJanuary 17, 2011
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
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