Linguistic Landscape: Sunset Park

The United States has always been known as a diverse country, as many people from different part of the world came to the United States to pursue their American dream, the country has become more racially and ethnically diverse today than it ever has been. (Budiman, 2016). McCann (2019) highlighted that in 2019, New York City has ranked as the third most diverse city in U.S and it’s not hard to see why DiNapoli (2015) had stated that people from around the world have come to New York City seeking for freedom and opportunities. Therefore, New York City was one of their preferred cities to settle in. Moreover, at least 200 different languages were spoken, and 40 percent of the New York City population was born outside of the United States. (McGinniss). Thus, one can find out how various diverse neighborhoods have shared some interesting characteristics in their neighborhood and benefit society. Overall, people share their unique language through a variety of aspects in their community which also creates a culturalistic environment for immigrants.

Brooklyn was one of the five major boroughs composed in New York City.  There are various multicultural communities exist in Brooklyn, Sunset Park was one of them. Sunset Park has been recognized as low residential streets with a classical look, and even its own Chinatown. Independent businesses still reign, with nearby Industry City slowly ushering in the modern era. (Compass). As shown in Images #1 and #2, one can see this restaurant is mostly written and explained their food in Chinese. Therefore, one can tell the business owners are aimed to target their food to customers who are Chinese. Thus, the owner might also have the intention to target some of the customers from other countries because they also provide a translation of their food in English. However, we can still see the majority of the population living in Sunset Park are mostly Chinese and Hispanic because as shown in image #3, the ads posted on the streetlamp are only written in Chinese. Therefore, we can see from this ad, it’s no doubt that the company is promoting this ad to Chinese customers. Moreover, in image #4, a variety of different markets and restaurants are displayed in the image. We can see there’s a market which is owned by Chinese and also there also Mexican restaurants. Therefore, we can see how people are sharing their cultural aspects through their neighborhood.