The unique ethnic and multilingual nature in Singapore is fascinating yet sometimes perplexing. It is more culturally diverse than I had remembered and imagined; somehow everyone, including local Singaporeans, temporary expatriates, as well as immigrants from neighboring Asian countries, are able to make up this rather peaceful, tiny, multilingual country. Despite this “melting pot”, the […]
Singapore, in terms of a linguistic landscape, is extremely unique and varied. This is actually one of the things I love most about it- the population here is extremely global-minded, internationally aware, and also very considerate of cultural differences. While America may be the 19th century melting pot, I consider Singapore to truly be one […]
Hong Kong is a modernized city with multilingual communities and diverse groups of people. It is clear already that Hong Kong is “modernized,” judging by its advanced economy, developed infrastructure, and tracking with the mainstream trends. However, the city is also “modern” in terms of its extensive use of languages “not widely spoken by the […]
Payton Chin LING_343 Dr. Kim 27 June 2019 W4: Linguistic Landscape In Singapore, English and Chinese are two of the four national languages, the other two being Tamil and Malay. Most of my days here always involve these two languages, with more of English than Chinese. Because I know how to speak Mandarin Chinese, I […]
Hong Kong, as an international city, has a mixed and interesting linguistic landscape. There are three dominant language in Hong Kong: Cantonese, English and Mandarin I actually put those three languages in order. It might be a little surprising to see there are so many languages in Hong Kong and Mandarin is only ranked in […]
Singapore’s languages are as diverse as its people and cultures. The population is mainly comprised of ethnic Chinese (76.2% of the population), Malays (15.0%), and ethnic Indians (7.4%) (“Demographics”, 2019) and consequently, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil make up three of the four official languages of Singapore (S.l., 2014). The final official language is English (S.l., 2014), […]
Walking around in New York City, I couldn’t help but feel as though it is a near-perfect location for this essay. The city is multilingual (to the Nthdegree!) and takes pride in its melting pot of cultures. From Korean to Italian to Spanish to Chinese, New York offers the many opportunities for examples of different […]
Taking public transportation from the suburbs into downtown Dublin always gives me the impression that the city is multilingual. Farther away from the city, I pass signs that are exclusively in Irish. Other street signs and bus terminals feature both English and Irish text, and as I make my way downtown, I hear each upcoming […]
This summer I am doing an internship in the city of Dublin and the more time I have spent in here, the more I have been able to understand its unique linguistic landscape. Coming to Ireland I though the only language spoken here was English however, as I begun to explore Dublin; began using its […]
Hello, Intercultural Discourse class members! We will use this space to share and comment each other’s essays across sections. As you are in different places (such as San Fransisco, Dublin, Berlin, Singapore, etc.), we want you to share your experience with students in other countries as well.