Urban multilingualism: A case study of the relationship between linguistic landscape and business in North Nana
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Abstract
This paper is to study and analyze the language on commercial shop signs and how they affect trading in North Nana Alley, Bangkok. The sample was purposively selected from signs appearing on 65 shops and services in the North Nana neighborhood of Bangkok. The research tools were observation and informal interview.
The results reveal that wholesalers and retailers of consumer goods and beauty and health shops like to use bilingual signs which are in English and Arabic. In addition, as many multilingual signs are used by restaurant owners, and beauty and health shops as bilingual signs. In summary, traders in the North Nana community use two and more languages to effectively communicate with potential customers through signs in multiple languages. The traders mainly focus on Middle Eastern customers and English speakers. This study can help raise awareness in Thai people of the importance of language to encourage trade and tourism, especially in this era of globalization.
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