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The politics of subtitling
Recently, I watched a TV documentary about the proliferation of Nomura jellyfish in Japanese coastal waters. It was a shocking tale of the devastating environmental, economic, social and human impact...
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Marketing English as the global language
“美語是通往世界最近的路” (American English, for children, is the royal road to the world): An English educator promises the world Taiwan is enthralled with learning American English. One of the reasons for this...
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English language learning injustice
In English language teaching ads English seems always fun, easy and accessible to everyone Taiwanese people’s motivation for learning English is a desire to communicate and a major obstacle to the...
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The native speaker concept
In my own research, I have frequently run into difficulty in talking about a ‘native speaker’. What criteria must be met to be ‘native’? How can I, as a researcher, make any determination about fluency...
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The language cringe of the native speaker
“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: Do...
View ArticleWhen your English is too good
Some people just can’t win it seems. Second language speakers are in that category. I can’t even begin to count how many people who have read a fraction of the English literature I have read and who...
View Article중국식 영어(칭글리쉬)도 좀 봐 주자!
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 잡는 얘깃거리를 받아 싣겠노라고 했다고 상상해보자. 이제, 그러한 캠페인이 진행되면서 블로그 세계는 네티즌들의...
View Article!دست از سر چینگلیش بردارید
Persian version of my recent blog post about Chinglish Translated by Tahmineh Tayebi (تهمینه طیبی) & Vahid Parvaresh (وحید پرورش) تصور کنید که روزنامه ی نیویورک تایمز از خواننده های خود بخواهد خنده...
View ArticleE lasciate in pace il Chinglish!
Italian version of my blog post about Chinglish. Translated by Emanuela Moretto Per un attimo provate a pensare che il New York Times abbia chiesto ai propri lettori di inviare barzellette sulle...
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Language and inflation
Some Language-on-the-Movers based here in Sydney had the opportunity to attend Professor Masaki Oda’s lecture about the current state of the English language in Japan yesterday. With major Japanese...
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Insult and injury in Ueno Park
Lotus Pond (part of Shinobazu Pond) in Ueno Park “There are so many stupid Japanese women around, huh? Many Westerners are coming to our country and the stupid women love stupid white men.” My husband...
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Long-term English language learners
When I first started teaching in Australia, I had a Korean-Australian student in one of my undergraduate classes who sounded like most of the other students in my class, like a native speaker of...
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Have we just seen the beginning of the end of English?
One way of looking at the outcome of the British referendum is to understand it as an act of self-sabotage: “…and in the end, Britain, which had colonized the world, destroyed itself in fantasies that...
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How to end native speaker privilege
Native and non-native teachers at Lord Harris’ School, Royapett, Madras, 1865 (Source: British Library) For some time now, a debate has been raging in TESOL about the relative merits of native and...
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