Michael Chesnut

A display on the wall of a university building hallway, with a cutout of the K-pop Demon Hunters Rumi, Mira, and Zoey raising their forefingers in formation, above two 8 1/2” x 11” papers. The left paper, which is yellow, has a title “THIS WEEK’S TRANSLATION CHALLENGE” and says “We’re goin’ up, up, up, It’s our moment” with handwritten translations of this lyric from Golden below. The right paper, which is green, is titled “QUESTIONS, OBSERVATIONS, DISCUSSION” with some handwritten discussion

A picture of a university building hallway with fog to the right, and a wall display on the left, with a cutout of the K-pop Demon Hunters Rumi, Mira, and Zoey raising their forefingers in formation, above two 8 1/2” x 11” papers. The left paper, which is yellow, has a title “THIS WEEK’S TRANSLATION CHALLENGE” and says “We’re goin’ up, up, up, It’s our moment” with handwritten translations of this lyric from Golden below. The right paper, which is green, is titled “QUESTIONS, OBSERVATIONS, DISCUSSION” with some handwritten discussion

Every week there’s a new translation challenge out in the Linguistics hallway, for students to try translating a short passage or expression into another language and discuss.

#KpopDemonHunters fans, want to give this week’s #Golden challenge a shot?

✨We’re goin’ up, up, up✨
✨It’s our moment ✨

A poster for the "Where I am from: Finding the poetry in your story and our city" SJSU Writing Center/Translate San Jose event Wednesday, March 4. The small text reads, "Join us for a virtual interactive poetry writing workshop celebrating the cultures and experiences that shape San José!" The event is on Zoom from 2pm to 3:15pm on March 4, and there is a QR code to scan to RSVP. The code leads to this website: https://events.sjsu.edu/event/where-i-am-from-spring-2026

Welcome students, teachers, colleagues & friends to this fun, free, online poetry-writing event on Weds. 3/4! The workshop will feature an exploration of identity, language, and place. More details & RSVP: events.sjsu.edu/event/where-...

Supported by the #SJSU H&A #AEPG program #TranslateSanJose

Very sorry I missed this but sounds like it must have been a great event!

I'm excited for this opportunity to hear from SJSU faculty and TESOL students about their experiments using #linguisticlandscape in their teaching design, Wednesday Feb. 25 at #SJSU and online. Zoom registration is open to all who are interested...please join! #academicsky

event flyer

The next #ISLE online forum is a hybrid book launch by
Mikko Laitinen & Paula Rautionaho (University of Eastern Finland). Introducing their new CUP publication "Data-Intensive Investigations of English" (doi.org/10.1017/9781...). March 17, 9am CET.
Sign-up link: link.webropol.com/ep/datainten...
📚

I absolutely love this and if I get pizza from here I am absolutely asking about the name of this shop!

Pizza branding wise, it's a concept I can get behind for sure, and yeah, suits the times (sigh)

A sign for this Pizza restaurant with this text and a man getting hit on the head

No Idea
Pizza
Who is No. 1 Korean Pizza?
I have No Idea

No Idea Pizza here really doing their utmost to convince me to start a project on the Pizza #LinguisticLandscape of Korea!!!

I thought the same thing!!! Others too given another response here! Hope the architects thought of this . . . .

I was actually thinking the same thing!!!
I wonder if that is what others will think.
Then again, how many young people are familiar with those boxes these days . . . .

Side view of the building with its odd concrete shape and sides

Another view. I am pretty curious what this building will be used for . . . .

A strange concrete building with half moon shapes cut out of levels of the building

Quite the unusual building under construction near Nowon, Seoul, very curious to see what it looks like in a finished state

Two signs on how to separate garbage in Chinese and English

Oh! New signs in the garbage #LinguisticLandscape in Seoul! Only in Chinese and English! Perhaps some urgency from authorities to convey these grabage directives to Chinese and English-speaking audiences in this neighborhood?

Maybe this is something I should think about a bit more in terms of academic work. For example, I enjoy reading some of the books featured below, but just by playing with their ideas and thinking through writing, not often what these ideas in the world might do.
www.politybooks.com/serieslandin...

this junkballing Czech electrician is a folk hero in Japan for striking out Ohtani in the last WBC (stopped for photos/autographs etc) but he's retiring after this bc Czech league ball doesn't pay the bills.
I love the way he took in in this one last surreal moment before going back to normalcy

Tourists turn Korea pharmacies into wellness shopping hotspots Tourists turn Korea pharmacies into wellness shopping hotspots Foreign visitors flock to Seongsu and Myeong-dong chemists for MD creams, OTC meds, and wellness picks as multilingual guidance boosts sp...

"Products were arranged by function—weight management, skin elasticity, hangover relief, gut health—and notices in English, Chinese, and Japanese were posted."

Interesting #LinguisticLandscape notes in this article on pharmacies and tourism

biz.chosun.com/en/en-retail...

This talk sounds absolutely amazing and should be of interest to scholars focused on gender, the military, Canada, and more. Likely cannot attend this talk myself, but hope to follow this research more.

A very good read here about an issue I read only a little about, aside from maddening conspiracy discourses.
Definitely would enjoy reading a book-length ethnography on an insect farm start-up, actually any tech start-up now that I think of it.

Justice Ministry to crack down on illegal foreign delivery riders The Ministry of Justice said Monday it will launch a two-month crackdown on foreign nationals working illegally as food delivery drivers, citing a rise in unaut

"Some of these agencies are suspected of recruiting foreigners almost exclusively and charging them higher commissions, according to the ministry."

And now a two month crackdown from the government.
m.koreaherald.com/article/1069...

Going to be some new contributions to the fuel and energy #LinguisticLandscape. Might be worth studying by someone.

‘Free advertising for Winnipeg:’ stars put spotlight on city Mad Men star Jon Hamm is again professing his love for Winnipeg — the latest unsolicited celebrity endorsement that travel officials call more effective than any marketing campaign for the city.

Mad Men star Jon Hamm is again professing his love for Winnipeg — the latest unsolicited celebrity endorsement that travel officials call more effective than any marketing campaign for the city.

A box of chocolate biscuits with Korean and English text and a figure of a Korean tiger in a hat eating a treat

BISCUIT CHOCO BISCUIT
비쵸비

An interesting pronunciation guide via the bold text in English name of this treat - BI CHO BI - and some very interesting Korean cultural representation through the art here make this a rich part of the treat #LinguisticLandscape!

Looking forward to reading the skeets from the conference! #DigitalPalates!

NZ Army deploys second infantry rotation to the Republic of Korea to train alongside partners

Interesting story of international training here.
As usual, I wonder about issues of communication in training such as this, the status of Korea as a training location, and how Korea's growing defence industry figures into any of this . . . .
www.nzdf.mil.nz/army/army-ne...

Two posters on the US-Israel War on Iran in Korean and English

Important posters on campus in Korean and English, part of the university and politics #LinguisticLandscape of Seoul.

18. 챗 GPT or ChatGPT education on offer through this banner, again part of the AI #LinguisticLandscape! Interesting to see different writing systems being used for ChatGPT here!

A banner for Mahlwerk an exhibit of old coffee grinders!

Mahlwerk
An exhibit of old coffee grinders in a traditional market in Seoul! And German in the coffee #LinguisticLandscape!
Wow!

Digital first, elderly last - The Korea Times How to order food when most restaurants accept orders only through touchscreen kiosks. How to hail a cab when few taxis stop unless summoned by an...

"Media reports describe older baseball fans being turned away at stadiums, looking defeated after discovering that most tickets had already been snapped up online and that the handful available at ticket offices had sold out quickly."

By @hawonjung.bsky.social
www.koreatimes.co.kr/amp/opinion/...

Illegal employment of foreign workers surges in delivery sector - The Korea Times Korea’s delivery sector is rapidly becoming a major channel for the illegal employment of foreign workers, according to the Ministry of Justice. Th...

Good overview of the issues here including concern over licences, insurance, language issues, and competition with Korean drivers. Seems like there is growing concern over this issue in Korea, so hopefully there will be more reporting on all this . . . .
www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/s...

My contribution draws from ethnographic fieldwork on the Tea party movement I conducted in the summer of 2010.

I think about the limitations of participant observation and interview-based methods but also the strengths of reading with an "ethnographic eye."

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....