“Fremdschämen” is a German word that means being embarrassed on behalf of someone else. In Australia, this feeling is frequently induced by the behavior of our politicians. Yesterday, public embarrassment…
Ingrid PillerApril 14, 2019
"This is English", a shop assistant told me. Language is literally “on the move” in the writing on clothing. We’ve all seen it but may not have taken much notice.…
Alexandra GreyApril 11, 2018
My banal cosmopolitan fridge magnets In response to my post about the banal cosmopolitanism of multilingual welcome signs last week, a number of people suggested that they quite enjoy finding…
Ingrid PillerNovember 6, 2017
Multilingual "Welcome" sign in a shopping mall in Munich, Germany Have you recently seen a “welcome” sign? They constitute a strange genre: ever more ubiquitous on the one hand, yet…
Ingrid PillerOctober 31, 2017
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan has just come to an end. Like Christmas, Diwali or a wedding, the closing holiday, Eid al-Fitr, constitutes a massive occasion for gift-giving. In…
Ingrid PillerJune 27, 2017
Alexandra Grey proudly holding the physical product of her PhD research My university will shortly require only a digital copy of each PhD after it has been examined and awarded,…
Alexandra GreyJune 8, 2017
Supposedly Kriol signage at Rapid Creek, Darwin When I shared this Kriol sign on Facebook as an example of a bad Kriol translation, a first language Kriol speaker commented: Im…
Greg DicksonJune 30, 2016
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…
Anand Torrents AlcarazNovember 11, 2015
Auburn parking ticket (left: quadrilingual on back; right: city logo on front) In Australia with its persistent monolingual mindset coming across any kind of official institutional multilingual communication always feels…
Ingrid PillerJuly 7, 2014
Trilingual signage at the Muse checkpoint on the China-Myanmar border Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University presents Multilingualism at the China-Myanmar border: fieldwork experiences When: Wednesday, March 26, 1:00-2:00pm Where: Macquarie…
Lg_on_the_moveMarch 14, 2014
"Speak English or Die!" Vilification on a Melbourne bus caught on camera About a year ago, a video of a language-related altercation on a Melbourne bus was widely reported in…
Ingrid PillerNovember 19, 2013
Bilingual Swedish-Finnish monument in Helsinki commenmorating globally beloved children's author Tove Jansson, a Swedish-speaking Finn (Source: vanderkrogt.net) 50,000 people have signed a petition against mandatory Swedish classes in Finnish schools,…
Dave SayersAugust 26, 2013
Barely legible today but evidence of 'super-diversity' in the 9th century: Runic graffiti in Hagia Sophia On a parapet in Hagia Sophia’s gallery there is an obscure little graffiti written…
Ingrid PillerJune 21, 2013
Polish refugee section of the Catholic cemetery in Tehran When Kimie Takahashi and myself interviewed participants for Japanese on the Move, our video exhibition of transnational life-stories, one of our…
Ingrid PillerJune 3, 2013
The front cover of the tourist map of multilingual Macau Last week I had the privilege of visiting the University of Macau and in Macau I discovered yet another unique…
Ingrid PillerApril 22, 2013
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