Michael Chesnut

Another beef I have is embassies sharing content only on Instagram which happens a lot, but for everyone other than America that is putting some pretty interesting and important information in a very closed and controlled environment. Anyway, X is vile, but Meta platforms are bad too, I think.

Saw this on X and am still very surprised by the number of academics, institutions, and agencies sharing information there, despite obviously low engagement. There are lots of issues with how information is shared with the public, but for academia and others it is time to leave X, in my opinion.

Linguistic Landscapes in Manchester and Beyond | Events at The University of Manchester Join the Linguistic Diversity Collective for a talk by Dr Serge Sagna, Prof. Tine Breban and Dr Simone de Cia to mark International Mother Language Day 2026.

This looks like a very interesting #LinguisticLandscape event! Haven't seen it shared on Bluesky elsewhere with a better image, but hope it is on here somewhere!
events.manchester.ac.uk/event/event:...

Join us next Friday for the next talk in our speaker series!

Demonstrative ku in Korean: Its prosodic and syntactic analyses
Dr. Kyumin Kim (Chungbuk National University) and Dr. Emily Elfner (York University)

Friday, Feb 13 | 3:00pm | CHE 212

What's lost in Canada's bid to purchase naval vessels - The Korea Times On Feb. 3, a Canadian delegation travelled all the way to the city of Geoje on Korea's southern coast for a first-hand look at Hanwha’s shipyard. S...

Lots of public discussion of Korea's bid to replace Canada's submarine fleet, with this article taking a different focus-highlighting the importance of the submarines' actual capabilities, rather than how this program can support Canadian industry. Interesting
www.koreatimes.co.kr/opinion/2026...

'BOOM', would be the response to most questions like that, I asssume, but alas, I will have to wait to ask until they open! Presumably, with a Boom!
. . . .
BOOM! 💥
. . . .
I do like the word 'BOOM'.

A sign for a restaurant

SUSHI BOOM
RESTAURANT

An all English sushi restaurant sign in Seoul, part of the increasingly diverse sushi #LinguisticLandscape! I think I am seeing a much wider variety of discourses being drawn upon in marketing sushi these days, which makes me even more curious about sushi language!

Operator of popular Japan-themed park in South Korea senses shift in public sentiment - The Mainichi SEOUL (Mainichi) -- In 2025, the number of South Koreans visiting Japan reached approximately 9.46 million, setting a record and surpassing Chinese tr

Was unaware of this park in Korea, naturally I am quite curious about the #LinguisticLandscape of this place!
mainichi.jp/english/arti...

It's not on the agenda yet, but maybe in a few years. It might be the sort of thing that could be done through citizen science type efforts, getting people in general to share signs with German on them or something like that. Will see maybe in a few years.

A message saying Happy New Year in Korea

새해 복 많이 받으세요!
Happy Lunar New Year Everyone!

The politics of transcription Despite its centrality to the methods of discourse analysis, transcription has received disproportionately little attention in its own right. In parti…

The Politics of Transcription

Article that was on my mind this morning with some of the discourse circulating on Bluesky
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"He drifted in after the swing shift headed out, and I pulled him a pint of mekju in a frosted glass"

Line from a fun science-fiction story I just read set on a moon of Jupiter where the Korean word for beer is now used broadly for beer, apparently!
A fun surprise for me in this short story!

Lots of good research on public health campaigns and posters. Now I am curious about what might have been done on this and other similar poster, and want to get back to some research I still want to further explore . . . .

Oh that's super interesting! Yeah, there are one or two or more German bakeries in Seoul, some with German names, I think.
Seeing this cafe actually made we wonder about a project on German in the linguistic landscape of East Asia. Bakeries would be a part of that for sure! Thanks for sharing!

Beyond Japan's onsen: Discovering Asan, Korea's historic hot spring capital - The Korea Times It is 4:30 a.m. The streetlights are barely flickering, and the winter sun is hours away from rising. Yet, a queue is forming in the darkness. Thes...

Nice article on one of Korea's hot spring areas.
Wonder what has been written in tourism studies, history, and other fields on hot springs in Korea . . . .
www.koreatimes.co.kr/lifestyle/tr...

Went over to X to check out a list of farewell tweets from laid off Washington Post journalists and it was a huge thread with very active accounts. Tried to find some of them on Bluesky and some were absent, some had inactive accounts, and some here, but not many really. A big absence on Bluesky.

Cafe interior with large artifical flowers

And an interesting interior design in this former cafe, based on photos seen online

New submarines will require extra gear after delivery to operate under ice, navy head says Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee says Canada will need to add sonar that can detect and map overhead ice

Interesting update to the saga of Canada purchasing new submarines, but I am mostly interested in the image of a sign in Ottawa publicizing Hanwha's bid for the project, part of the very odd submarine #LinguisticLandscape of Canada.
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

Neone signs in the cafe with a bear and fish tank

Some interesting signage in this cafe, too bad it is gone

The front of Liebe cage, now gone

From Instagram, Liebe Cafe, which I tried to wander by today, but it seems to now be a Japanese restaurant although still on some map services as this cafe. Nevertheless, neat to see some German in the now gone cafe #LinguisticLandscape of Korea!

I have been enjoying more and more linguistics content on here over the past couple of years since I left the Other Place.

I hope we can keep it growing!

A sign for a bank's working hours in many languages with flags in front of each language

From North of Seoul in Euijeongbu, a very multilingual bank sign, part of the bank #LinguisticLandscape of Korea!

A multilingual sign about flower bulbs being planted directing readers to not walk in the flower bed

An interesting multilingual sign here, and neat contribution to the #LinguisticLandscape, but I really like the image of the figure admonishing the person who dared to enter the flower bed.

Inside MODA’s New Exhibit THE HOODIE: Identity, Power, Protest with Dr. Regina Bradley — The Headlight Review Few garments carry as much cultural weight as the hoodie. First created in the 1930s by the brand Champion to meet athletes' needs for warmth and durability, the hoodie slowly became a marker of style...

Saw someone visit this exhibit on Instagram and it looks absolutely amazing. Good write up about it here, really good exploration of a particular type of dress, a topic I find quite interesting, especially in how dress relates to identity, work, and travel
www.theheadlightreview.com/highbeams/in...

Wooyoungmi’s new flagship Seoul store is a sculptural space of concrete and light The Itaewon flagship distils the Korean high fashion brand's east-meets-west philosophy into a bold architectural experience

Interesting profile of a new building in Itaewon. Not likely to buying high fashion items anytime soon, but would like to visit this building and its cafe.
www.wallpaper.com/architecture...

Food is great. It
Unites us as a
Country of diverse tastes.
Kind of a true equalizing force

Isn't it neat to
Come together
Enjoying our memories?

An older looking brick and piĺar building in Seoul.

Have a deep and abiding love for buildings like this, with all their eclectic signs, siding, and overall construction, with the signs adding a lot of variety to the #LinguisticLandscape of Seoul

A sign for a Korean chicken soup restaurant with pages of notes written in different languages praising the restaurant

This is an interesting multilingual writing practice in the #LinguisticLandscape: restaurants featuring notes praising the cuisine in many different languages. Great example here and really tasty food!

A sign for Garlic Boy at a traditional market

GARLIC BOY

Quite the neat retro English sign at this traditional market in Seoul. Quite a few newer hipper shops at the market, including a pop-up oyster bar I did not photograph, amid the older more traditional shops and restaurants. Lots going on in the #LinguisticLandscape here!

Yeah, I think there will be boondoggle issues, and more given the role this test has in gatekeeping university access.
Sometimes it's hard to change things for various reasons, so maybe AI will give someone an excuse to really remake this test, I don't really know