Language-on-the-Move is growing up! In the eight months since we started Language-on-the-Move, the site has grown beyond our wildest dreams: On our blog we’ve created an enormous amount of content…
Rashid is an overseas graduate student at an Australian university. He is a Muslim from the Middle East, and this is the story of how he inadvertently ate pork during…
Multilingual sign in Namtso (Image Credit: Wikipedia) Persian version of my recent blog post about Chinglish Translated by Tahmineh Tayebi (تهمینه طیبی) & Vahid Parvaresh (وحید پرورش) تصور کنید که…
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…
In his recent post “Accent and History,” Khan asked whether it’s possible to escape the prison of our accent and our language. Looking at the civil war and humanitarian disaster…
Multilingual sign in Namtso (Image Credit: Wikipedia) Korean version of my recent blog post about Chinglish Translated by Sun-Young Chung (정선영) 뉴욕타임즈가 독자들로부터 그들의 재미난 금발머리 농담이나 유색인종 사람과 관련된 배꼽…
Multilingual sign in Namtso (Image Credit: Wikipedia) Malay version of my recent blog post about Chinglish Translated by Ridwan Wahid Bayangkan sekiranya akhbar New York Times meminta pembacanya menghantar ‘blonde jokes’…
Multilingual sign in Namtso (Image Credit: Wikipedia) Japanese version of my recent blog post about Chinglish Translated by Kimie Takahashi (高橋 君江) このシナリオを想像してみてください。もしNew Yorkタイムズがブロンド女性を馬鹿にするジョークや黄色人種の面白エピソードを募集したとしたらどうでしょうか?さらにその応募キャンペーンが盛り上がり、ブログや Facebookやツイッターでそれが出回り、さらには、ジェンダー、エスニックの学者達がそれを取り上げ、「なぜブロンド女性や黄色人種はこんな馬鹿な ことをするのか」などと分析しだしたりしたらどうなるでしょうか? (more…)
Multilingual sign in Namtso (Image Credit: Wikipedia) Chinese version of my recent blog post about Chinglish Translated by Zhang Jie (张洁); 译文:张洁 设想某日《纽约时报》向读者征集最喜爱的金发女郎笑话或者有色人种所做的最滑稽的事。再设想该活动开展后迅速充斥了整个网络空间,任何对性别或种族问题有所兴趣的人都在博客、facebook和微博上热烈讨论着,甚至连从事性别和种族研究的学者们也开始群情激昂地对金发女郎或有色人种的荒谬行径提供种种分析。 (more…)
Multilingual sign in Namtso (Image Credit: Wikipedia) Imagine the New York Times asked readers to send in their favorite blonde jokes or to report the funniest thing they’ve ever seen…
Installment #7 in the mini-series on multilingual signage When I lived in Basel in Switzerland, my then-preschool child was just learning to make sense of the alphabet and to sound…
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…
Installment #5 in the mini-series on multilingual signage Signage not only appears in public space. Through our consumption of all kinds of products, we bring a multiplicity of signs into…
Installment #4 in the mini-series on multilingual signage Toilets as an object of sociolinguistic research?! Not likely?! Think again! Today, I am going to discuss toilet signage as an indicator…
Installment #3 in the mini-series on multilingual signage The lovers of English poetry among you will recall how the phrase “Betreten verboten” (“No trespassing”) encapsulates his alienation from Berlin and…
Installment #2 in the mini-series on multilingual signage Much of the signage that can be found in contemporary public spaces is commercial. It is a form of advertising, and language…