Section 1: Map and written description of your zone
The location I choose to do my linguistic landscape on is the Regina neighbourhood called the Heritage Neighbourhood. The Heritage Neighbourhood is located just east of Regina’s downtown. The neighbourhood starts at Broad Street and goes down to Winnipeg street and is bordered by Saskatchewan Drive and College Avenue. The Heritage Neighbourhood received its name by being “one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Regina” dating back to when the neighbourhood “began developing […]in the 1980’s”(Heritage Community Association, 2016). When the neighbourhood was first established and up until “ the first half of the 20th century, 11th Avenue was an important commercial high street lined with hotels, shops, and other services”(HCA, 2016), making the neighbourhood a very desirable place that everyone wanted to live at the time. However, after the second world war happened and the post world war two boom started “Unfortunately, in the post-World War II boom Heritage began to decline as families left the inner city for the suburbs”(HCA, 2016). As a result the neighbourhood was no longer seen as a desirable place to live and the neighbourhood “became associated with high levels of poverty, crime and unemployment, where businesses were strained and houses deteriorated”(HCA, 2016). From the Heritage Community Association webpage they said that there are “over 5,000 people who live in Heritage, and in addition to residences many businesses and service organizations make their home in the community”(HCA, 2016). The residents who live in the neighbourhood come from many different cultures depending on where you are in the neighbourhood. The far south side of the neighbourhood, one would see more of an Ukrainian culture. Buildings one would see on this side of the neighbourhood would be things such as the Ukrainian Co-op, or the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In the middle part of the neighbourhood the more dominant culture one would see is different cultures from asian descent such as Chinese,Vietnamese, and Korean. This part of the neighbourhood is filled with many different Asian restaurants, and other businesses, along with the street signs that included the English name along with the street name in Chinese. The north side of the neighbourhood is “known as Germantown due to early German settlement, and many other ethnic groups followed, contributing to rich cultural diversity”(HCA, 2016). The main building that is known in the northern side of the neighbourhood is the German club. As a whole the neighbourhood is still not a very desirable neighbourhood to live in and “Many Heritage residents still struggle with the impacts of poverty, and our community still ranks as one of the most disadvantaged in the city”(HCA, 2016). However there is a positive future looking up for this neighbourhood for “the neighbourhood is brimming with potential for revitalization [because of the] character homes and beautiful tree-lined streets make Heritage a wonderful community in which to live and do business”(HCA, 2016).
The reason I chose this zone was because of all the multiculturalism that is within this zone. I find that in Regina most neighbourhoods are very english dominant neighbourhoods, that when exploring them one would only see signs in english and nothing more. With the Heritage neighbourhood I have always really appreciated the accepts and the way the communities celebrate the diverse cultures in their neighbourhood. Most of the signs in the neighbourhood were bilingual for all the ones I saw had English along with another language attached to it. I think this is really amazing to see because I can not think of another neighbourhood in Regina that celebrates that many different cultures that are present without even looking that hard. I have always loved this neighbourhood and think it is so amazing that the neighbourhood has a positive future for it. I think this neighbourhood has so much history attached to it and is an important part of Regina’s history.
Section 2: Photographs & Table
| Signs in English and another language | 10 |
| Signs in Chinese | 6 |
| Signs in Vietnamese | 1 |
| Signs in Korean | 1 |
| Signs in Ukrainian | 2 |
| Store fronts | 8 |
| Street signs | 1 |
| Churchs | 2 |
Section 3: Analysis
The Heritage neighbourhood is probably one of regina most multicultural neighbourhoods based on the naked eye. The Heritage neighbourhood really celebrates other cultures with having business with many different cultures with visible signs that are not in english. The fact that the heritage neighbourhood is not only multicultural but celebrates multiple different cultures is really amazing. In regina most of the neighbourhoods are very English dominated and in some neighbourhoods one would not see any other language besides English. The fact that the neighbourhood is no longer desirable to live in because of the rates of crime, poverty, leading it to one of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the city is really heartbreaking. The neighbourhood has so many cool, interesting places that many would enjoy if one would look past the stereotypes of the neighbourhood and really just enjoyed the neighbourhood. From just being in the neighbourhood one can just feel how special the neighbourhood really is and it is awesome how much the heritage community association really wants to turn the neighbourhood around and how much they care about the neighbourhood. On the website they state that “the role of the Heritage Community Association (HCA) is to support this process of revitalization in a way that ensures that all of our residents thrive in an inclusive and healthy community where no one is left behind”(HCA, 2016). This just supports to show how much they care and really want what is best for their neighbourhood and the people who live in their neighbourhood.
Based on the signs that one would see in the heritage neighbourhood the languages that are present are Ukrainian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, German, along with other Asian languages. What this reveals about this neighbourhood is that this neighbourhood is very multicultural, because one would assume that there are many that many different languages because the people who speak those languages are present and living in those neighbourhoods. However there could be anyone who lives in those houses and this is just an assumption. However the people who live in the neighbourhood do have the power on what is shown in their neighbourhood and what is not. If there were not people who speak the languages that are shown then those signs would probably not be shown. So it is a fair assumption to say that the languages that are present there are people who live there.
The languages that are present in this neighbourhood are very different from my linguistic identity. My linguistic identity is very much English, however I can understand a little bit of Spanish and French. I want to develop my linguistic identity because I feel that developing your linguistic identity is a way you can really appreciate other cultures and show that you care. I always feel that people will be way more willing to open up to a person if one understands their culture, and the one of the best ways to understand one culture is by learning their language. From the pictures I took while I was exploring the neighbourhood one would see a lot of really beautiful old buildings that just need some love and care to really turn this neighbourhood around. If the city would give them the resources to be able to fix up their neighbourhood then I think the City of Regina would give the appreciation that Heritage neighbourhoods really deserve. Then the multicultural businesses that are in that neighbourhood would really thrive. I think that it is important for Regina to support the multicultural businesses they have and the neighbourhood they do have because a lot of the time unless they are in big new neighbourhoods they do not get the appreciation they deserve. From talking to other people and doing research Regina is a very multicultural place however one needs to seek out multiculturalism to find it. I think Regina really needs to do a better job of this because these are Regina people who are living in their city and they need to be celebrated too.
Work Cited
Heritage Community Association. (2016, August 4th). About the Heritage Neighbourhood. https://heritagecommunityassociation.com/about-our-neighbourhood/