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A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

jacobfilipp.com

11–20 of 90 posts

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#11
post #3

Why almost every store have their names written in Chinese (?) and English. Is the post a joke with photos from Asia malls (or AI generated)? Or it’s just common in that part of Canada?

It's common in Canada for ethnic malls and stores whose proprietors and customers are mostly first- and second-generation immigrants, that they'd have signage in their own language. There's no rule enforcing it and no rule against it, except maybe in Quebec.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#12
post #3

Why almost every store have their names written in Chinese (?) and English. Is the post a joke with photos from Asia malls (or AI generated)? Or it’s just common in that part of Canada?

Go to any large/well-known US city and you will with almost 100% certainty be able to find an area where this is absolutely common. I live in Texas right down the street from one of many asian street malls/plazas in my city where the majority of the store names are first written in either Chinese or Korean. I'm certain its likely the same in Canada

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see that everywhere in USA also.

You see names written in Chinese and English everywhere in the USA? Or did you mean something else? Because if that's what you meant to say, that is absolutely not how things are "everywhere in the USA".

Yes, it is very common in urban and even suburban USA to find stores, and in larger cities entire neighborhoods of stores, where names are in both Latin and some other script, and other text is in English and some other language (whether or not both use the Latin alphabet.) It's not too uncommon in, say, California to see this for several different east asian languages (Chinese being the nost common generally, but there is regional variation), Spanish, and maybe Arabic and/or Russian, in a single moderately sized city.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see that everywhere in USA also.

You see names written in Chinese and English everywhere in the USA? Or did you mean something else? Because if that's what you meant to say, that is absolutely not how things are "everywhere in the USA".

Even out here in the sticks, the local Chinese restaurant has both English and Chinese menus.

It’s quite likely that the only people around here who can read the Chinese menus work there or are related to those who work there.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You see names written in Chinese and English everywhere in the USA? Or did you mean something else? Because if that's what you meant to say, that is absolutely not how things are "everywhere in the USA".

I live in Texas, and have lived in California and New York. In all three of these places the areas with a large Chinese presence will have stores with names in both Chinese and English. This is absolutely common in the US in pretty much any large city, I can't imagine someone having never seen this before in the US unless they never lived or went to an area that was diverse. And its not just Chinese, many places will…

As someone who regularly shops at those sorts of places, there is a large part of the US population that ignores or is otherwise unaware of them, most of my family included. I've had multiple conversations where people have been shocked when informed that there's an Asian or Mexican market a short distance away that they had no idea existed.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#16
post #3

Why almost every store have their names written in Chinese (?) and English. Is the post a joke with photos from Asia malls (or AI generated)? Or it’s just common in that part of Canada?

That area of Toronto has a huge Chinese diaspora. I have many memories of trekking to Pacific Mall (also mentioned in the blog post) on public transit with my anime-watching friends in highschool to buy pirated DVDs and other merch. A nearby Walmart has bilingual English - Chinese signs inside.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You see names written in Chinese and English everywhere in the USA? Or did you mean something else? Because if that's what you meant to say, that is absolutely not how things are "everywhere in the USA".

I live in Texas, and have lived in California and New York. In all three of these places the areas with a large Chinese presence will have stores with names in both Chinese and English. This is absolutely common in the US in pretty much any large city, I can't imagine someone having never seen this before in the US unless they never lived or went to an area that was diverse. And its not just Chinese, many places will…

I see it in Chinese restaurants, sure. And in Chinatowns. (And with Spanish in the southwest.) I don't see it on "almost every store" "everywhere in the US", though.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#19

I can empathize with the author after moving away from Toronto almost 20 years ago, so much from when I was a teenager is gone. I'm not "from" where I live now, and where I'm "from" no longer exists, I just feel perpetually detached from everywhere now.

You can’t go home again.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Texas, and have lived in California and New York. In all three of these places the areas with a large Chinese presence will have stores with names in both Chinese and English. This is absolutely common in the US in pretty much any large city, I can't imagine someone having never seen this before in the US unless they never lived or went to an area that was diverse. And its not just Chinese, many places will…

As someone who regularly shops at those sorts of places, there is a large part of the US population that ignores or is otherwise unaware of them, most of my family included. I've had multiple conversations where people have been shocked when informed that there's an Asian or Mexican market a short distance away that they had no idea existed.

We all live in private worlds that are overlaid on top of the same geography.
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