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’…
Ingrid PillerJune 2, 2010
Japan’s aging population and the growing number of young Japanese shunning ‘3D’ jobs (dirty, dangerous and demanding) has resulted in an increasing demand for foreign nurses and eldercare workers. In…
Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江February 17, 2010
Must-read post by Dennis Baron over at the Web of Language! A US university student who majors in Middle Eastern Studies was detained at Philadelphia Airport for carrying Arabic language…
Ingrid PillerFebruary 13, 2010
I went onto e-bay this weekend and, instead of the gadget I was after, found some non-standard uses of English negation: “We not ship to Russia” or “We not use…
Ingrid PillerFebruary 10, 2010
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
I took a picture of this sign during a family holiday in Cairns. My then-six-year-old daughter noticed the German “Achtung” and so asked why it didn’t say “Warning” in her…
Ingrid PillerDecember 4, 2009
Terms of address in intercultural communication can be a tricky business as Kimiesan pointed out recently. One would think that airlines with their international customer base and tons of market…
Ingrid PillerNovember 30, 2009
I’ve always thought that it would do the field of linguistics (and the humanities generally) a whole lot of good if linguists were also doing literary studies. I’m an old-fashioned…
Ingrid PillerNovember 22, 2009
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
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