As I began to write last time, waiting for my connecting flight back to California from the February 22-24 4th International Workshop on Linguistic Landscape, I had departed for this gathering in Addis Ababa with two conceptual questions and one applied question in mind. First, for the linguistic landscape workshop participants–a […]

Recently, exchanging pleasantries with a doctor in a suburb of Delhi, I responded, upon being asked where I was from, “I am from Delhi only” (feeling no little pride at my flawless command of Indian English). She shook her head and said, “No, your accent? You are not from here…” I sheepishly sputtered, “I live […]

From flyer:

CW 121: Issues in Teaching English Internationally
CCN: 16576 ; Units: 3
Time/Place: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-5:00pm in 203 Wheeler
Instructor: Melinda Erickson (erickson@berkeley.edu)

Learn about principles that contribute to effective English language teaching and become acquainted with teaching opportunities abroad. CW 121 also satisfies one of the electives for the new minor in Applied Linguistics Studies.

A friend of mine, let’s call him Edinho, just sent me an article entitled Cities and Ambition by ace programmer and essayist Paul Graham. I think he sent me the article in continuation of a conversation about a very close friend of ours (“Tim”) who just decided to head for doctoral studies […]

At a Thai joint in the Asian Ghetto, I picked up a copy of the Daily Cal to read while I chowed down a plate of steaming yellow curry chicken and rice. The following piece on the extreme left-hand column on second page jumped out at me:

From the […]

Rick Kern posted previously about the upcoming UC Language Consortium Colloquium: “World Language Proficiency in the California Context”. The event will feature many major speakers about topics of pressing importance for languages and education in California, as described in this new UCB event announcement. The colloquium is […]

The inauguration of now President Barack Obama was just 7 days ago, yet already it feels far away. It’s disappeared from our own front page on FIT, as it has from blogs and newspapers all around the country And after the rush of first-week policymaking, the first week of classes here at Cal, and business […]

Today, as I step back into the non-place of the SFO departure lounge on the way to the workshop on linguistic landscape in Siena, I’m also taking a detour from the path to Livermore. By now I suppose I’ve passed the Berkeley library, the Southside lineup of more→

Previous posts in this ‘mini-series’ (tongue firmly in cheek)
Signs all the way home
Keep Off Media(n): What’s (in) a sign?

After passing the “KEEP OFF MEDIA(N)” signs on Shattuck Avenue on that hazy November morning, I rode to downtown Berkeley, where a few other signs caught my eye. Actually I was […]

Already more days have passed than I wanted since my first post on signs — I haven’t been carrying my camera around with me as I’ve been running around doing holiday shopping, bike has been in the shop, and with all the interesting things going on related to the end of the year, […]

Over the next few weeks, I’d like to use this space to post pictures of signs and talk about them — no, not the worn-out diagrams of tree-sounds and tree-concepts, the signifiers and signifieds of Saussure’s universe (though those are plenty interesting too). I’m talking about the kind of signs that you and I […]