'Globish', a simplified version of English is to become the most important language of the 21st Century. 'Globish' counts as little as 1.500 words and has no grammar. The term was coined by the French ex-IBM manager Jean-Paul Nerrier in 2007.
When Nerrier was working in Japan in the nineties, he noticed that Japanese, Korean and other non-English people could communicate better with each other in 'English' (or 'Globish') than with English or American business associates.
'Globish' has no idioms and can be used by 2 billion non-native speakers of English. Many Indian, Chinese and African people see 'Globish' as a liberating and modernising phenomenon.
Source: Express.be
I don't believe it. I have never come across Globish on my travels. I have come across good English, no English at all and even incomprehensible English, but never Globish.
ReplyDeleteMy money is on the growth of Esperanto.
Thank you for you comment! Your suggestions made me think! However, the difference is that 'Globish' is not a 'project' but a natural and naturally evolving language. The argument that native English speakers could not remember what words nog to use is the same as saying university professors can not interact with little children because they know more words.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, a fabricated language, taught universally, will never work. The power of Globish is that it is a pidgin: a language which 'arose' naturally, and which was not 'created'.
I'd love to hear from you again.
Thanks again for your post.
I am surprised at the disbelief of Globish existence from the first 2 commenters. I do encounter it whenever I travel and work internationally (which is most of my time). I am most familiar with the East-Asian version of this pidgin, "engrish".
ReplyDeleteOf course it's difficult for Engrish speakers to communicate with speakers of vernacular English. Actually, in my experience as a non native English speaker, the higher your proficiency, the more difficult it is to use Globish. But unlike what Bill said, it's not just "bad English" - Engrish has specific sentence structures, pronunciations, vocabulary that have little to do with vernacular English. The two really have to be considered as separate dialects.
To be honest, though, and even though I am very aware of the positive effects an international language can have, I am glad it's not my native language that's being raped daily like this.
Thank you for your reaction aelle. Actually I've known of the existence of 'Chinglish', a mixture of Chinese and English.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I would not say English is 'raped'. I would see it as an honor that my native language is so vivid and globally used.
Interesting post Fabrice ;)
ReplyDeletePersonally, I believe the world will be devided into sevaral language groups. Only 5 or 6 major languages will become 'linguae franca'.
I bet you know wich ones I'm talking about. A funny thing is that 'small language' countries/regions get adapted more quickly to these major languages than those 'major language' countries themselves.
I think English for example, will be influenced more by non-English speaking countries than by the US/UK in the future.
Roel Thijssen
I just saw Jackie Chan on an english talk show (Jonathan Ross), and he's very poor at english, but they could understand eachother very well.
ReplyDeleteNow, was he using Globlish, Chinglish (as in the grammatical order he put the words in), or just plain broken english?
Very interresting subject matter indeed!