Jamaica, New York seems to be an epicenter of Bengalis and a mirror image of Dhaka, the capital city Bangladesh. Growing up in Dhaka until the age of 17, I feel a similar atmosphere and culture in Jamaica. With the solely Bangladeshi identifying population in New York City growing from 35,275 people in 2010 to 66,197 in 2010, it is no wonder why. (Asian American Federation, 2019). A majority of the individuals in the area communicate in Bangla or in Spanish leading to many of the signs using loaned words from those languages to cater to each specific demographic. Additionally, a majority of the signs are contained short deliberate content as a synopsis and often lack a traditional neon or bright sign with images to deliberately focus on locality.
Fig 1: A screenshot Showing the geographical look of Jamaica in comparison to its neighbors.( Source: Google Maps)
From a majority of the signs, we can see that they do not only contain English words but loaned words from Bangla or Spanish and even sometimes the letters used are from those languages. In one of the signs for dentist practitioners, we can see that the main heading is in English as “DENTIST” whereas there is a tiny section spelled out in Spanish “SE HABLA ESPANOL”. From this we can get an understanding that English is the dominant language in the area with Spanish still being prominent. In fact, with the population demographics of Hillcrest/Fresh Meadows being Hispanic with 21.1%, Black with 15.6%, white 27.1% and the majority with 30.9% identified as Asian according to a survey in 2019. (NYU Furman Center, 2019)
Figure 2: Depicting the many of signs for health clinics where English language was at the spotlight while other languages made a guest appearance.
With almost a quarter of the overall population being Hispanic, we can see that many stores and restaurants chose to appeal to that specific demographic by having loaned words from Spanish to English directly on signs like the restaurant and bar titled “NUEVO TEQUILAZO” which means new tequilas shot. Even though both establishments have a mixture of both English and Spanish in their signs, the dentistry highlights the English word of Dentist so as to attract any general customer that might be in need of dental assistance. However, the restaurant by having bolden and the largest sized word of Tequilazo, hopes to appeal to a more niche segment of customers who are especially looking for drinks and food relating to Hispanic culture.
Figure 1: A photograph of a sign fully using borrowed words from Spanish as their main title.
The same strategy seems to have been applied by “GHOROA” which means home made in Bangla. By having the main headline be a word in Bangla, they are trying to appeal to the large South Asian community in the area so that they may directly know that they can expect to have the same kind of food as in their country when they enter the restaurant. Additionally, by having the subscript of “the taste of home” in English underneath, they are translating their name to non-bengali speakers so that they may give a sense that only fresh food is sold at their establishment.
Figure 2: Image of “Ghoroa” focusing in an wear down state.
Additionally, one of the dentistry establishment’s main section is in English while the subheading is fully in Bangla. However, this time, Bangla seems to be loaning the same English words above their section as if to provide a direct translation. This is probably due to the fact that a large proportion of Bangladeshis were born in Bangladesh and hence there are fewer Bangladeshi-Americans. In 2015, approximately 74% of Bangladeshis were natives from their land as compared to 37% of all residents in New York City. (Asian American Federation, 2019). With the dominant region of birth for the immigrant population in the area being Latin America(76%) and Asia(19%), a large proportion of signs contain characters from languages in those regions as well so as to aid the prominent groups of non-native speakers of English. (Censusreporter, 2020). As Courtney French, general manager at Jamaica Arts & Learning Centre says, “My neighbors are from everywhere. Living in Jamaica you can feel that the world can live together”. (Chaudhry, 2020)
Figure 3: Words in completely different languages and names of stores from with cultural significance from different parts of the world.
As the area has a large immigrant population from different nations and an almost even distribution between individuals identifying in different races, English is often utilized to break the barrier between such diverse cultures. That is why in most signs English is at the forefront while acknowledgement to different ethnic languages are provided through subheadings for establishments that provide more universal goods like healthcare. However the more brick and mortar stores like the restaurant attempt to distinguish themselves from the rest by having names and words borrowed from their own languages and thus appeal to a specific consumer base who connect more with the type of dishes and name of the establishment.
Figure: Signing utilizing religious borrowed words or conventional signs.
Some signs also use religious text or borrowed words from scriptures to indicate the an associations with the specific followers of the religion. As in the example of “HALAL DYNASTY: CHINESE & MALAYSIAN RESTAURANT”, the inclusion of “halal” which stands for permissible in Islam is utilized to indicate that Muslims are some of their target demographics. Additionally, the inclusion of Chinese and Malaysian instead of borrowed Chinese or Malaysian words and by directly spelling out the kind of service they provide, ..they seem to be trying to highlighting cultures that are not as prominent in the area. The addition of the Arabic inscription of halal in a way can be seen as a way to legitimize an establishment’s claim of being halal due to how important it is for Muslims.
References:
NYU Furman Centre. (2020). NYU.https://furmancenter.org/neighborhoods/view/hillcrest-fresh-meadows
Sabena, C. (2020). Jamaica Rising. Destabilizing Queens. https://projects.newsdoc.org/destabilizingqueens/jamaica-rising/
Asian American Federation. (2019). Profile of New York City’s Bangladeshi Americans. https://www.aafederation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2019bn.pdf
Census Reporter. ( 2020 ). NYC-Queens Community District 12—Jamaica, Hollis & St. Albans Puma, NY.