In the college town of Tomsk, Russia, the use of English in advertising and branding may mean more than you think.
Have you ever heard of Dog Land? It’s a pet clothing store frequented by the inhabitants of Tomsk. Nothing particularly interesting can be noted about the name of this store—except that Tomsk resides in Russia. So, why does a pet clothing store in Tomsk, Russia, have an English name? Through a series of linguistic studies, Assistant Professor Miriam Whiting (Discourse and Society) has set out to answer this question and figure out how the English language has influenced Russian culture and even become a symbol of rebellion.
Walking through Tomsk—Virtually
In order to best determine the impact and spread of English in Tomsk, Whiting conducted a linguistic landscape study. Whiting says, “With linguistic landscape, what you’re looking at is the use of signage and language in that signage—what I was looking at was the use of English and foreign language.”
Whiting has actually completed a linguistic landscape in Tomsk before, back in 2007. During this study, she found plenty of street signs, business names, and more in English, but over the course of her more recent study, Whiting has seen how drastically things have changed. Whiting now hopes to compare her preliminary data from 2007 to more current years.
Due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, Whiting has opted to look at the landscape she walked over a decade ago through Google Maps. Before beginning this project, Whiting had a strong hunch that the war would affect English signage drastically in Tomsk, and as she’s collected data, she’s found that her hypothesis seems correct.
Businesses Named by War
Whiting started by looking for businesses with English names that were open before the war. Many had closed, but she also noted that many had just rebranded. She says, “Since the war started, it's interesting because we can see evidence of several businesses that still seem be open, but they’ve taken down their names that were in English or associated with foreign companies.” There could be many reasons why so many English-named businesses closed down since the war began—they could be financial as well as political. However, Whiting admits that few other explanations besides political exist for those that rebranded.
Whiting says that depending on the state of the country, the use of English ebbs and flows. She says, “English is more or less a global language now. But that means that it’s going to be viewed in different ways in different countries.” The way the Russian government views English reflects the way they feel about the US and the West in general.
Due to the current political climate in Russia, Whiting believes the English language represents more than just a global language. She says that, to Russians, English “is a window to the outside world.” She argues that when Russians use the language for their business names or signage, they’re essentially saying, “We’re not just some little town in Russia. We’re full of intelligent people who are really engaged in the world and are doing all of these amazing things.”
Language of the Resistance
Whiting also says that learning English provides exposure for people in countries that aren’t offered connection to the outside world. In this way, Whiting says that speaking English has become a political symbol for resistance and suspects that some English-named businesses that decided not to rebrand after the war may be making a very purposeful statement. Whiting says, “With the opposition in Russia—those against Putin and his government—you’d see a lot of English in the background of videos or on protest signs. They throw in more English words than you will hear in other people’s speech, that sort of thing. So, English itself becomes a form of rebellion.”
Unfortunately, the owners of Dog Land have felt the severity of the complicated pressures in Russia and after 15 years, the store has Russian signage now. Whiting can’t yet say for certain that store owners who choose to keep English signage have anti-Putin sentiments, but she knows they want to be associated with the West and be seen as global citizens—an identity that has become increasingly more dangerous. Whiting says that doing this research has allowed her to clearly see English’s multifaceted nature. She says, “I think it’s interesting how English itself becomes a symbol for politics—it has all of these roles to play other than just being a way to communicate.”
To learn more about Miriam Whiting, as well as her past and current projects, click here.