Despite being in the middle of Pennsylvania in a mostly rural area, State College does have some bilingual signage.

One location is in our Lowe’s department store where all signs are both in English and Spanish. However, this is really part of a national policy of Lowe’s stores having Spanish language materials on a national level. Even to me it does seem odd in Central PA but I also don’t want anyone getting hurt because they couldn’t follow the instructions correctly. Plus places like Hazleton as well as Lancaster, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Harrisburg do have significant numbers of Latino immigrants, so the linguistic landscape continues to evolve.

The one sign that really surprised me was a bus ad for a Nationwide agent that included some Chinese on the sign. But when I thought about it, Penn State does have a have over 6,000 international students and scholars, and many bring their families to State College. There apparently is now a need that some business people are beginning to fill.

In case you’re wondering though, English is still the dominant language in State College. Local Anglophones have no need to panic….yet.