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
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
Sadly, my sabbatical is drawing to a close and one of the things to think about now is souvenirs. My sabbatical involved visits to Germany, Iran and the United Arab…
Ingrid PillerJanuary 26, 2012
Those of us in the broad area of TESOL often labor under the assumption of the invincibility of English hegemony. Whether they deplore it or exult in it, many people…
Ingrid PillerJanuary 17, 2012
Toiletological English Can you guess what kind of product the following text is promoting? Your well-being is close to our heart rail&fresh areas are bright and friendly and leave nothing…
Ingrid PillerOctober 6, 2011
Thai alphabet Learning Thai has its many challenges but one of the great joys for me has been encountering the Thai script. At the start I felt like a five-year-old-child,…
Sheila PhamFebruary 11, 2011
Billboard advertising the Japanese food fair at Isetan I’ve never felt more welcome in a foreign city than where I am at the moment – Bangkok! It has to do…
Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江February 9, 2011
Persian version of my blog post about English as the non-language of globalization. Translated by Niloufar Behrooz (نیلوفر بهروز) (نوشتار شماره ٢ در مجموعه نوشتار های کوتاه درباره ی…
Ingrid PillerFebruary 7, 2011
The world in Arabia I spent my last day in the Middle East at Dubai Mall, the self-proclaimed “Centre of Now.” The mall guide has the heading “Welcome to Everything.”…
Ingrid PillerJanuary 21, 2011
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