Growing up in Auburndale, the linguistic landscape here has changed and adapted to represent us. It has grown to represent our demographics and tastes.
In Auburndale, there has always been a significant Italian population. This population is reflected in the many businesses around the neighborhood. It has never been difficult to find an Italian restaurant or pizzeria. In fact, there is an Italian restaurant right on my block called “Piccolo Sogno” and its storefront is depicted in the following image. Additionally, with such a demand for Italian products, Auburndale has various Italian meat markets. One of which is D’Alessandro, which has served the community for as long as I have been alive.
The neighborhood has always been a great school district with a great number of elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. This is reflected within the linguistic landscape with Auburndale having an enormous number of school crossing signs. As depicted by the following image, there has also been a great implementation of camera-enforced speed limits signs to protect our kids. Going to school here has also exposed me to many different linguistic aspects of Auburndale. I and many other kids going to elementary school in the neighborhood typically found ourselves at the neighborhood library after school. We were always greeted with the “Queens Library” sign that has been a friendly sight in Auburndale. Upon attending Baruch College though, I was exposed to linguistic aspects of Auburndale that I previously have not encountered. When waking up late, I would take the Long Island Rail Road that got me to Penn Station in under thirty minutes opposed to the subway that took an hour. I saw different groups of working-class people in the Auburndale station as well as the same sign that greeted me every time, “AUBURNDALE.”
An aspect of Auburndale’s linguistic landscape that has adjusted to the demographics is the closing of Walbaums, a longtime grocery store, and the opening of HMART, another grocery store. Well, as the reader, you might ask: What is reflected? Isn’t this just a replacement of grocery stores? The short answer, no. Auburndale has recently seen a rapid increase in its Asian population. Waldbaums was no longer bringing in many customers due to high competition between American supermarkets. HMART was now open in its place and became a huge success because it catered to the Asian population. Auburndale residents no longer had to take a 15 minute trip to Main Street, Flushing to buy Asian groceries. They now had an option close by. HMART is now a prominent name in the community and they sell primarily Korean products. As depicted, many of the products are represented by Korean labeling. Moreover, the aisle labels are in English and Korean.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES
