Translate San José is an educational project bringing together San José State University students, faculty, and community members to re-imagine the city through the lens of linguistic landscape—that is, how people use diverse languages in San José’s public places.
Scroll down to learn more, and to get involved!
What languages can you see, hear, and feel in San José and throughout the South Bay?
What languages and cultures used to be part of the landscape here, but aren't so visible or audible today?
What would the city look like, sound like, and feel like if it reflected more of the diverse voices here?
Translate San José is a 2025-2026 Artistic Excellence project project in SJSU's College of Humanities and the Arts. It's designed to explore questions like the three questions above through the following three initiatives:
- a year-long learning community between SJSU classes across disciplines including Linguistics, World Languages, Teacher Education, Communication, Information Studies, and Urban Studies, with the goal of fostering student-led projects in conversation with campus partners, community organizations, and local government offices;
- a series of workshops and presentations led by SJSU student groups, faculty, staff, and guest speakers;
- a month-long exhibition of student work and a final showcase event for students and faculty to share their achievements in April-May 2026, with the aim of imagining possible futures for language representation in the neighborhoods, cities, and the region we call home
You can read more about the project here, including its vision for the educational and socially transformative possibilities of translation in the 21st century. To get involved, send an email to coordinator David Malinowski, Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Language Development: [david.malinowski@sjsu.edu]
Below, you can explore some of the exciting ways that linguistic landscape has been used to re-imagine urban spaces and shed light on how multilingualism in public space can be a powerful agent of change and inclusion.
For inspiration: Linguistic landscape projects both near and far
Whether or not they are called "linguistic landscape," as is the convention in sociolinguistics and related academic fields, projects with educational, artistic, and even activist purposes can shine a light on the different languages people use in public to carry out their lives. These are a powerful reminder that language isn't just a means of conveying information. It also reflects and reaffirms people's identities and ideas and, as such, it can both welcome and exclude us from the places where those languages appear.
Now, scroll down to see some exciting examples of how the linguistic landscape can be used to understand and reimagine the past, present, and future of cities in other parts of the country and the world. Do any of them give you ideas for what we might accomplish in San José?
Note: This page currently shows 6 projects, with more to be added in coming days. If you have recommendations, please contact Dave at [david.malinowski@sjsu.edu].
The Language Capital Project by Christian Ruvalcaba and Michelle Aguilera
From the project website at CERCLL (Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy at the University of Arizona): "The Language Capital Project maps out non-residential spaces where speakers of non-national languages (e.g. languages other than English in the U.S.) work, volunteer, or gather." The project was made in order to connect multilingual residents of Tucson, Arizona with other speakers of their native language; to serve as a language educational tool, and "to promote small, local businesses owned by immigrants and Native Americans."
In addition to mapping businesses, offices, and organizations, the project invited students of modern languages to conduct interviews with local business owners. An example is a student interview with the owner of Kettle Restaurant, located on Tuscon's West Starr Pass Boulevard. The interview takes place in Palestinian Arabic.
"The Untitled Project" by Matt Siber
From the artist's project website: "The Untitled Project deconstructs systems of communication found in public and semi-public space. The photograph has been stripped of literary language, leaving a visual language of color, graphics and images. The text piece presents the text that appeared in the photographic space without 3D photographic perspective."
The project, which lasted from 2002-2010, received lots of media attention. You can find interesting commentary on its background and impact in articles in Artforum, Typographica, designboom, and other venues.
"Textworks" by Yael Kanarek
From the artist's website about the piece shown in this image, from her "Textworks" series: "Damyeni is mesh rectangle that renders the word 'Imagine' in six languages. The title Damyeni is the Hebrew point of entry addressed to a woman. Transliteration and Denotations: Arabic, Tu-kha-eelu, also means “to visualize”; English, Imagine, often brings to mind John Lennon's song; Hindi, Kalpanā, also a common name for women, means imagination and creativity; Hebrew, Dam-ye-ni, “imagine” addressed to a woman; Japanese, Sōzō, a word that describes imagination and creation; Portuguese, Imaginar, directly translated as “to imagine”"
Yael Kanarek is an avant-garde artist who works in media including "internet art, wall sculptures, text, and jewelry." Her family's move from New York to Israel when she was three years old was a defining event in her life; as she related in an interview with ARQ magazine in 2018, "That transition defined who I am and what I do, especially with language. I work a lot with multiple languages, the gaps between them, and the fluidity of meaning around language."
Languages of New York City, by the Endangered Language Alliance
From the website: Languages of New York City is "a free and interactive digital map of the world's most linguistically diverse metropolitan area. All data, unless otherwise specified, is from the Endangered Language Alliance (elalliance.org), based on information from communities, speakers, and other sources. The map is a work in progress and a partial snapshot, focused on significant sites for Indigenous, minority, and endangered languages. Larger languages are represented selectively."
The diverse team of researchers, volunteers, coordinators, and local language partners ("speaker collaborators"), working together with supporters and a board of directors demonstrates that responsibly representing linguistic diversity in a region as diverse as New York or San José takes many people and a lot of time!
The Multilingual Museum (Manchester Museum)
From the museum's website: "This is an online platform where people can share their languages, whether they are native speakers, heritage speakers, or those learning, and whether the languages are spoken or signed. You can see objects from many different parts of Manchester Museum’s 5-million-strong collection, try translating them for other members of your community or for yourself, tell us what you think, or see what other people have contributed. [...] This website uses the concept of ‘storied translation’, or translation where the work put into it is made visible. This should make translation interesting and accessible for all, as well as show the work it takes to translate something successfully when the languages may be very different from one another. It also frames language as heritage and explores the making of meaning via the process of translation and the choices made in that.
One of the supporters of this project is Manchester's City of Languages Open Forum on Multilingualism. Be sure to check out all their projects and the multi-city initiatives that motivated them.
San Jose Story Maps and more from SJSU CoHA's "Geography of the Arts"
We don't need to look far for inspiration in thinking how we can bring a focus on translation and identity in place to our learning endeavors at SJSU. The Geography of the Arts initiative from recent years at the College of the Humanities and the Arts has already demonstrated a few exciting opportunities:
- Public Art as Resistance in San José, a walking tour in downtown SJ "highlighting a history of resistance and community empowerment through twelve unique works of public art" (see the video below for how to go on the self-guided tour yourself)
- San José Story Map Project, a 2-year project that worked to "create a digital map that showcases the rich histories and vibrant cultures found in our beloved City of San José and beyond"
Although they took place in the recent past, these projects could serve as powerful guides for continuing to develop meaningful engagement with people and place in San José. A fruitful challenge for us, as we consider ways to translate San José, is how a multilingual perspective could be brought to initiatives like these: walking tours in Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Tamil, and other languages? Interviews and collaborations with people in the community whose voices may not get heard as widely because they speak in other languages? The possibilities are endless!
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