Multilingualism – Page 22 – Language on the Move

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

Language at work

Linguistic discrimination at work

Deborah Cameron noted in 1995 that “linguistic bigotry is among the last publicly expressible prejudices left to members of the Western intelligentsia.” In the same vein, one could point out…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 22, 2010

Linguistic landscapes

On the fine line between humour and racism

The supermarkets of Germany are the site of a more sinister example of multilingual diversity marketing. The pictured chip packet leaps off the shelf with its mix of German, English…

Emily FarrellJanuary 18, 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 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

Language politics

Finally, today on Day 3 of our conference on Fostering Multiliteracies Through Education: Middle Eastern Perspectives someone asked “Where is the Arabic?” “How come a conference devoted to multilingualism and…

Ingrid PillerDecember 20, 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

Multilingual families

Jasmin Tabatabai: German, Persian and English in Tehran and Berlin

I enjoy reading the (auto)biographies of multilinguals. The current issue of Begegnung (“Encounter”), the magazine of German International Schools, has a feature about one of my favorite actors, Jasmin Tabatabai.…

Ingrid PillerOctober 18, 2009

Research reflections

Sociolinguistics 2.0

Seeing that Kraft’s idea to brand their new Vegemite cheese spread as iSnack 2.0 has just backfired badly on them, I’m not so sure about the wisdom of talking about…

Ingrid PillerOctober 12, 2009

Language learning

Ramadan Kareem! Or: Urban Etiquette for Monolinguals

Muslims around the world were celebrating the holy month of Ramadan recently and the greeting de jour here in Abu Dhabi was Ramadan Kareem!, which literally translates as “Ramadan is generous.” Ramadan…

Ingrid PillerOctober 11, 2009

Language learning

Learning another language at church?

You know you live in a truly multilingual and multicultural place when your local church does not only advertise their times of worship but also the languages in which the…