Tag Archives: French

fb_growth rates Multilingualism 2.0

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Ingrid Piller

The social networking market research site Inside Facebook has some intriguing language stats. In July, the fastest-growing languages on Facebook were Portuguese, Arabic, Spanish and French. The Portuguese growth rate was a staggering 11.8%. Arabic grew by 9.2%, Spanish by … Continue reading →

Posted in Language & globalization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

French – the brand

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Ingrid Piller

Installment #6 in the mini-series on multilingual signage Multilingualism sells! Some forms of multilingualism that is. In the world of marketing, languages operate like brands: they are a signifier for something else but they are devoid of substance. To phrase … Continue reading →

Posted in Language & consumerism, Recent Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

French Language Day

Posted on April 4, 2010 by Ingrid Piller

I missed the UN’s French language day! It’s not the fact that I missed it that bothers me – I’m late for pretty much everything – it’s the fact that there is such a thing as a UN-sponsored French language … Continue reading →

Posted in Language learning, gender & identity, Recent Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Korean beats French

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Ingrid Piller

If you could choose to learn a foreign language, which one would it be? And why? Such choices are usually constrained by what is on offer. However, someone must choose the offerings – e.g., language policy makers around the world … Continue reading →

Posted in Language learning, gender & identity, Recent Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments