"What the fuck is this for a language, this cannot be Deutsch?" language ideologies, policies, and semiotic practices of a kitchen crew in a hotel restaurant.

Abstract

In line with the post-Fishmanian turn that contributes to new understandings of social-semiotic practices in different contexts this study is concerned with the language management of ‘backstage performers’ of a three-star hotel kitchen crew in an Austrian alpine village that economically thrives on tourism, where employers and employees do not always share a common ‘language’. Recent free mobility labor rights for certain EU citizens have facilitated economic migrants’ ability to work abroad while simultaneously filling labor shortages within the country’s service industry in peripheral zones that are salient economic hubs. Drawing on ethnography and moment analysis, results indicate that for language-marginal occupations such as dishwashers, linguistic entrepreneurship is resisted since relying on shared semiotic repertoires and material objects for communicative purposes is preferred given the physically demanding occupation and stressful moments in a restaurant kitchen. The study questions Spolsky’s recently modified theory of language policy and management concerning the individual level regarding ‘advocates without power’ and employability contributing theoretical insights to on-going explorations of bottom-up LPP.