Mug Lovers: "Eat in or take away"

MUG Lovers

by Ruben Lacort, Javier Royes & Jordi Quintana

EAT IN OR TAKE AWAY - The Englishisation of the fast-food economy in Lleida

Figure 1. Mug Lovers menu (photo taken by Javi Royes the 5th of March 2020)

1. INTRODUCTION

Mug Lovers is one of the most popular cafés in Lleida, especially, for university students. Because of its location, it is the perfect bar to sit and have a coffee before starting daily routines at university.

The neighbourhood where Mug Lovers is located, is very close to one of the university buildings of Lleida, more specifically, Rectorat. Rectorat is centrally located near Lleida's museum and a park for the little ones. In this part of the city, students from that faculty are common people who are seen in the morning from Monday to Friday.

The menu analyzed here (see Figure 1 above) is written in two main languages using the Latin alphabet. On the one hand, we have the English language (e.g: Mug Lovers, Natural Juices) and, on the other hand, the Catalan language is also present in the menu (e.g.: Afegeix al teu gust). However, some parts have English and Catalan combined in the same language phrases (e.g., noun phrases) (e.g.: Xoco Mugs, Teas Infusions). Thus, the Linguistic Landscape is considered polyglossic.

2. CONTEXTUALIZATION

The Linguistic Landscape (LL) presented here is found in Rambla d'Aragó, 35, which is a busy avenue near el Centre Històric. It is an avenue surrounded by businesses such as restaurants, photograph studios, administrative units of the Spanish government (Agencia Tributaria), and educational institutions (two primary schools and a university building). If we take a look at figure 2, which is a map from the area, we can see the distribution we have just mentioned.

Figure 2. Rambla d'Aragó map (source: https://cartolleida.paeria.es/cartolleida/).

If we take into consideration the length of this avenue, we can confirm that Rambla d'Aragó's demographic profile is composed of both local populations and immigrants inhabitants. However, when we took a look at the people who were walking by we could only observe Spaniards. This is not surprising as if we take a look at Table 1, we can observe that only '24,16%' of inhabitants are immigrants which is a low percentage compared to the '44,81%' in Centre Històric which is right next to it (see Figure 3 below).

Figure 3. Universitat (Source: Oficina del Pla, Ajuntament de Lleida. https://www.gifex.com/fullsize2/2011-04-14-13453/Barrios_de_la_ciudad_de_Lerida.html)

Table 1. Citizen distribution according to the place of birth (see:http://paeria.cat/butlletieconomic/2012/03-juliol/06-poblacio.pdf)

The socio-economic profile of the people who transit this area would be most likely middle-class. The main reason for that is because there are a lot of student apartments in Rectorat and its surroundings, as well as bars, such as our LL and other businesses mentioned before. Moreover, there is not anything luxurious and it is a highly busy transited area, as we can see in figure 4, it is a street with a huge flow of traffic, even higher during the peak hours, so, therefore, we would not expect to find upper-class people interested in residing there, as the city also offers larger, quieter residence in the nearby neighbourhoods.

Figure 4. Mug Lovers street view. (Picture taken from Google Maps Street View the 11th of April 2020).

3. METHODOLOGY

On Thursday (5th of March 2020), after leaving the last class of the day we met to work with this project. Since we met at the university entrance we decided not to look for our LL very far from where we already were. Therefore we started to discuss in which direction we should move when we realized the recent opening coffee MUG Lovers and it quickly became a conclusion that it was going to be the chosen one. We went inside, took a look at the menu and loved the structural mixture of Catalan and English used, so before leaving we took the first picture of our LL.

The next day (6th of March 2020), because of the project's purpose, we decided to go on a stroll around the university to watch at its rivals and we realized that it was a wide list: from the “La Cova” and the “El Cau” to the “New University Coffee”. So, What did this coffee had to attract the disputed clients? It was something to investigate.

On the third day (9th of March 2020), we met in front of MUG Lovers to watch at the surrounding people traffic and hopefully to get to a conclusion. The 'newness' of the emplacement made it look more attractive, cosmopolitan, and fresh. This bar is pretty new as the opening day was the 11th of March 2019, which was barely a year ago, according to their Instagram, @mugloversbrunch.

The language dynamics of the token analyzed shall be understood as being regulated by the language regulations explained below. Regarding language policies, Catalonia has a unique top-down language policy. According to both “Llei 1/1998 de 7 de Gener” and “Llei 22/2010, 20 de Juliol”, “Bars and restaurants must have, at least, menus, bills and tickets in Catalan […] Information located in posters or signs must also contain information in Catalan” 

Source:  http://www1.euskadi.net/euskara_lingua/PDF/Kataluna/Ingles/CA_IN_PO.pdf

In Lleida, the law states that any type of top-down information comes from the 3 governmental institutions, which the city is under control of, starting from the Spanish Government, followed by the Catalan Government and the Local Government of the city. Everything transmitted by one of these to the citizens of Lleida must be available in both Catalan and Spanish.

On the other hand, bottom-up policies are not established by the law, since they are made by the citizens (including bar owners). For example, as we can see in the picture of the menu, our token is written in a mixture of Catalan and English. Being the first one used for the main text while the second one is only used for headings and for the slogan/brand presentation.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 4. The outer part of the restaurant. Picture taken from Google images.

We follow the European Linguistic landscape categorization of LL functions, (according to "observatori de paisatges lingüístics a Catalunya"), and we argue that our token main values are aesthetic, productive, social and identity.

This implies the appreciation of American culture. The use of capital letters in the word MUG helps us to rapidly link the place with coffee, which is their main product. Moreover, the colour of the word also matches the colour from the outside walls and tables, thus creating a feeling of comfort. Also, the lights and the luminous sing on the wall create an aesthetic view which apart from coming all together with the colours, it creates a sense of belonging like if we were on a real American coffee.

Secondly, we observed the productive value. This is basically expressed by the fact that the coffee's fundamental purpose is to be productive and generate economic exchanges (i.e., to sell). Thus, they build the whole branding with this commercial purpose.

Thirdly, we have the social value, implying that the token claims to be used by the public, by the citizens, hence the clients. As we can see in Figure 5, tables inside are distributed in a way in which groups of people can comfortably sit, talk and drink a coffee. Moreover, if we take a look at Figure 4, MUG Lovers street view, we can see that they also have some outside tables which are also a great choice for sunny days and groups of people can also sit with no problems. However, the most important reason why we thought of social values was the fact that in this coffee, different music groups come to play live concerts for the audience. This is something that surprised us at first as it not usually seen in other establishments of this kind but overall it is something that incites people to attend this bar and it is an incentive that not many other coffees can boast of.  

Finally, we have the identity value. This is the most important we would say, for the purpose of the coffee. This has a direct relation with the branding of MUG Lovers. Its identity is the main reason why their clients decide to take a coffee there and not in one of the many other coffees in the surroundings. The difference between this establishment and its rivals is in a few words, the vibes and feelings that it produces. On the one hand, for international students, for example, apart from being near their faculty, it might remember them of coffees in their hometown. On the other hand, as we mentioned before, there are few bars where you can hear live music in Lleida so, for tourists, for example, this might seem as attractive because apart from having a drink or a snack, they can hear typical music from the country which is a plus for them.

Moreover, it's also relevant to the fact that being international-friendly with the fast-food global economy with the English heading, makes it more attractive and comprehensive for the important mobility and circulation of Erasmus students in the zone. Unfortunately, we were not able to see or to talk with an Erasmus student or immigrant in the times we were there, but we know that people from our university which are Erasmus students frequent that coffee.

5. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Given these points, it was possible to discover that the use of technology tools ICT (particularly TKA (Tech of Knowledge Acquisition) and TEP (Tech of Empowerment and Participation) are extremely useful in our daily lives to identify lots of Linguistic Landscapes. It is for students as 'knowledge generators'. Furthermore, as a group, we were able to put in practice the use of these technological terms of Linguistic Landscape seen in class.

However, one of the biggest difficulties that we had as a group is to distinguish if a language is the main or the background one. In our case, Catalan was the language that we had problems when deciding if it was the main or background language.

Additionally, this token that we have found out in Lleida incites people to spend some valuable time in that place. In other words, it is possible to say that the token found has commercial value because of making people spend money. Moreover, we can relate this analysis with some concepts from Unit 4, like English as a linguistic currency. This occurs with the following entrepreneurial ideology: English seems to mobilise as a business 'opportunity, strength, advantage' positive social stereotype. It is also Commercial multilingualism and English as an index of 'pro-multiculturalism', 'open-mindedness' and 'cosmopolitanism'. To support what I have exposed before, this place welcomes every kind of people, especially, the youngest ones. This kind of clients are frequently not only young, but also cosmopolitan, urban, well-travelled and tourist. All in all, this shows the 'economic supremacy' of English as an instrument of the market. (Piller, 2016)

6. REFERENCES

• La Paeria (2019). Butlletí econòmic. [Online] Source from http://paeria.cat/butlletieconomic/2012/03-juliol/06-poblacio.pdf
• Sant Pau's Library (Barcelona.Catalonia) Català language policy. [Online] Available at http://www1.euskadi.net/euskara_lingua/PDF/Kataluna/Ingles/CA_IN_PO.pdf
• Handout Unit 4 https://cv.udl.cat/access/content/group/101266-1920/Part%20A%20Sociolinguistics/Unit%204/Hand-out_and_Ppt_Unit_4_19_20.pdf