Rashid al-Din Monument in Soltaniyeh, Iran (Source: Wikipedia) Recently, I signed a contract for a revised second edition of my 2011 book Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction to be published…
A monument near Baganuur (Outer Mongolia) with an inscription of poem "My Native Land" by Natsagdorj (Source: Wikipedia) In the middle school Mongolian textbooks there is a well-known text called…
Tapas bar Samsara Strolling in Barcelona’s city center reveals an astounding variety of spoken languages: there are the languages used by the throngs of visitors coming from literally everywhere, and…
'Luxury permanent' Mongolian yurt for sale on Alibaba Last week when I saw in my friends’ Wechat group an advertisement for delicately made Mongolian yurts, I thought of an article…
"How bad is your cultural cringe?" (Source: Jenna Guillaume, BuzzFeed) Keith: I’m still really shit at pronouncing Lisa’s surname. With the umlaut o. Hanna: What is Lisa’s surname? (laughter) Keith:…
Voice of China Sydney 2015, Program Booklet It’s a weeknight at the Sydney Town Hall, an ornate 19th century building in the city centre. Almost everyone bustling in the entryway…
For international students, it's sink or swim (Image source: luvimages.com) It is one of the basic findings of decades of research in bilingual education that language submersion is not a…
Yangshuo's West Street (Source: chinatravelca) Tourism has been found to be beneficial for minority language maintenance in a number of contexts from around the world. For instance, Anand Torrents Alcaraz…
Schneider, Britta. 2014. Salsa, Language and Transnationalism. Multilingual Matters. In my post on English in Berlin, I wondered what is required for a language to become ‘local’, and about the…
Website of the German Club Montevideo, founded in 1866 The current issue of Begegnung (“Encounter”), the magazine of German International Schools, has a feature about the German School in Montevideo,…
Actress Noemí Busquets as the wise yet naughty Esperanceta Gassia at the Ecomuseu de les Valls d’Àneu during the theatrical night visit to the ethnographic museum of Esterri d’ Àneu…
Success levels of different candidate groups in job interviews for low-skilled jobs (Source: Roberts 2013, p. 89) A common explanation for the un- and underemployment of migrants is that their…
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…
Burmese newspaper in a Bangkok restaurant “When Thai people ask me where I’m from, I tell them, “Oh I’m from the Philippines or Singapore. Then, I don’t get that look!”…
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…