SOAS South East Asia Seminar Series 2025: Sociolinguistics in South East Asia

Unequal Englishes and the politics of parodic representations of Filipino domestic workers

The talk explores the role of Unequal Englishes in constructing Filipino domestic workers (FDWs) in Singapore through the parodic performances of Singapore comedian Michelle Chong. Using Chong’s characters Leticia Bognino and Nina Medina as case studies, the study examines how Chong mobilizes features of Filipino-accented English alongside other semiotic resources (e.g. clothing, hair styles) to embody and take stances vis-a-vis the figure of an FDW. 

Through these performances, Chong conveys evaluative and affective stances toward the mocked figure, producing an ambivalent portrayal. On the one hand, Chong draws on tropes to reproduce stereotyped attributes  to FDWs—such as linguistic deficiency, subservience, responsibility. On the other hand, they are simultaneously portrayed as well-meaning which renders them sympathetic. This ambivalence highlights how subordinated varieties of English, in conjunction with multimodal resources, function both as tools for reproducing inequities and as potential sites for their contestation. 

While these performances risk reinscribing hierarchies built around language, race, class, migration status, they also make visible the lack of representational agency afforded to FDWs within Singapore’s media landscape. This talk argues that such representations call attention to broader structural and material constraints shaping the production of alternative meanings and values. By foregrounding these dynamics, the analysis seeks to open up possibilities for critique and intervention regarding the social and material conditions that constrain the production of alternative meanings and values within the city state.

Christian Go is an assistant professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. He received his Ph.D. in English Language and Linguistics from the National University of Singapore and was a visiting fellow at the Harvard-Yenching Institute. His research interests fall under language and sexuality, semiotic landscapes and linguistic anthropology.

“If you are Malaysian, please sound like one”: Examining discourse of othering on social media

Malaysia prides itself as a nation comprising different cultures and languages. Along with Malay (the official language), there are at least 100 other languages spoken across the country. Certain languages are also privileged with an extent of formal status through their use as the medium of instruction for some schools at the primary level. Indigenous languages are also promoted through their use in localized radio and news media production. 

The presence of various languages in different dimensions points towards a multilingual environment, which may assume that there would be an acceptance towards variation in language use. However, while there may be an openness towards different languages existing in certain dimensions, this does not necessarily translate to an acceptance of variation in spoken Malay. This may be observed on social media through comments and discussion regarding the citizenship of a person due to their accent. Briefly, when a person’s spoken Malay is determined to be heavily accented, not only would their ideas or views be considered invalid, but their commitment to the nation would also be questioned. 

There may even be suggestions for them to ‘return to where they came from’. What this illustrates is othering, which is a phenomenon reported in other parts of the world. Even though this sociolinguistic issue appears to be prevalent in different settings, the Malaysian context may offer a slightly distinct conceptualization as the notion of citizenship is directly attributed to one’s accent. 

Daron Benjamin Loo received his PhD in applied linguistics from King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand. Currently, he is senior lecturer at the Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. Prior to working in Malaysia, Daron taught English, linguistics, and academic communication and literacy to university students in Singapore and Thailand. Daron is interested to carry out research on discourses from within and surrounding the English language classroom, and the intersection of language and society as observed in everyday interactions. Some of his recent publications touch upon decolonization and recognition afforded to vernacular languages.

Male femininity, citizenship, and democracy in the linguistic landscape of a “Pride” protest in Bangkok

As part of Thailand’s 2020 pro-democracy movement, Thai LGBTQIA+ communities entered mainstream Thai politics for the first time by leading Mob mai mungming tae tungting kha khun ratthaban “Not a cutesy mob but a flamboyant one, sir, Mr. Government,” which took place in Bangkok. 

This movement had a Pride-like atmosphere and demonstrates the progress in Thai society over the past twenty years, as LGBTQIA+ people have united and expressed a standpoint that is not only national but also aligned with the global Pride movement and the concept of global sexual citizenship (Altman, 1997). In line with previous linguistic landscape research (e.g., Milani, 2015; Milani and Levon, 2016; Milani et al., 2018), the study examines the intersection between linguistic landscape, sexuality and citizenship. Taking signage and activities in the protests as part of semiotic assemblages (Pennycook, 2017), the study explores how Thai LGBTQIA+ communities make use of semiotic resources in the linguistic landscape of the protest to perform their citizenship (Isin, 2017) in the localized form of pro-democracy “Pride” protest. 

Using the analytical framework of three semiotic processes—iconization, fractal recursivity, and erasure (Irvine and Gal, 2000)—the analysis reveals the dominance of male femininity or kathoeyness. The unique expression and presentation, typical among kathoey, represent Thai LGBTQIA+ communities and show a stark contrast with the typically patriarchal domain of Thai politics. Kathoey identity, once highly stigmatized and marginalized in Thai society, has become an icon for Thai LGBTQIA+ communities and a unifying resource to foster inclusivity within the protest.

Pavadee Saisuwan received her PhD in Linguistics from Queen Mary University of London. She is currently the Chair and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. She is also a member of the Center of Excellence in Southeast Asian Linguistics at Chulalongkorn University. Her research focuses on sociolinguistics, language variation, linguistic landscape and the intersections of language, gender and sexuality. Her work includes studies on the language of Thai men who identify with non-normative male roles and the presence of Thai LGBTQIA+ people in linguistic landscape.

Header image credit: Kittitep Khotchalee via Unsplash.