Sitting on a French beach last summer, I observed a group of Korean men talking boisterously in a language I did not understand — Korean I presume. Next to them sat a Chinese couple also speaking a language I did not understand — Mandarin perhaps. But when the Koreans and the Chinese struck up a conversation, it was in neither of these languages but in a broken-down and very basic English. I was stunned. In my ignorance I had assumed that these two neighboring countries would have enough shared elements of language to enable them to communicate directly to each other, much in the same way as a Spaniard and an Italian for instance can understand each other even if they don’t speak each other’s language.
And why English? We were in France. They came from the Far East. How was it that English was the language they automatically turned to? Moreover, why English when to my English fluent ears they patently did not speak English. The answer it seems is that they were not speaking English but Globish.
Globish is a term coined to describe global English. It’s English, but not as we know it. It is certainly not the Queen’s English or Standard English but a simplified pared down version spoken all over the world by non-native English speakers. In the Gulf it is commonplace, you hear it daily: At the supermarket, in a restaurant, at the check-in queue, in meeting rooms, in hotel lobbies, and so on. But is it not just English poorly spoken? Is this new term not just another marketing gimmick?
Not quite, because what sets Globish apart from English is that Globish speakers can communicate easily with one another but stand baffled when confronted with fluent English speakers. This was the observation of Jean-Paul Nerriere the man behind Globish. He is a Frenchman who once worked for IBM. During international meetings he noticed that time and again, in meeting room after meeting room, the non-native speakers could understand each other perfectly using a limited vocabulary of English words, lots of gestures and much repetition but would find it almost impossible to understand the florid idiomatic English spoken by the Americans or Brits in the room.
This led Nerriere to develop Globish. His first book: “Don’t speak English; Parlez Globish” was a bestseller in his native France and has since been translated into other languages. He is even planning to introduce a Globish for English speakers to teach us how to communicate more effectively with non-English speakers.
Globish has a vocabulary of just 1,500 words — compared to 615,000 in the Oxford English Dictionary. It is based on short sentences, simple grammar, repetition and the avoidance of complex syntax. It is rather ugly, clumsy and certainly painful to the ears of native English speakers but it is also democratic and accessible. Nerriere calls it a tool rather than a language. It is something to get you by. It helps you negotiate prices, place an order or find your route home. It will not enable you to express complex ideas or argue the finer points of philosophy.
Promoting Globish as a language in its own right is a rather depressing idea, defeatist even. It is based on the premise that teaching everyone to speak English — even in developed countries like France where the resources are available to teach it to schoolchildren alongside their native language — is not only politically undesirable but also economically impossible. Essentially it is pragmatic. In a world where we need a common language currency, this is the lowest common denominator. It gives us the minimum we need in order to cut the deal and leave, without the opportunity to experience genuine cultural exchange. It is also nationalistic. It encourages us to focus our intellect on our native language whatever this may be and use the limited tool of Globish to communicate beyond our own language sphere.
What is true however is that we fluent English speakers need to be more aware of the way we speak and we should curb our arrogance. When I travel I often find myself irritated by two extremes. The first is the one I call the Oblivious. This is the native English speaker who walks into any shop, restaurant, hotel or office in the world and automatically speaks English with the assumption that they must surely be understood. There is not even a “do you speak English?” or a hesitating, questioning introduction, they leap in, oblivious to the fact that they are not speaking the language of the land. It is mindless arrogance.
The second I call the Colonialist. This is the native English speaker who speaks to anyone who does not speak English as if they are somehow intellectually inferior or downright stupid even. They speak very slowly and loudly, with the tone of a headmaster to a misbehaving five-year-old. It is condescending arrogance.
There is a middle ground and this is where Globish comes in. It teaches us to be aware that our way of speaking English is difficult for others to understand and that it is up to us to speak clearly. It is easy to cut out idiomatic expressions. Just as keeping sentences short and simple is straightforward. But what this requires is sensitivity and a little humility. Those we are speaking to are doing us the favor of not speaking in their native tongue. We should acknowledge this and make more of an effort to communicate in a way that suits our interlocutor rather than our own speaking preference.
Globish also teaches us that the more English becomes an international language, the more the ownership of the language will move away from the Anglo-Saxons. Part of the reason English has grown so much is its willingness to assimilate words and expressions from other languages. In the next decade, we are likely to see English become increasingly influenced by the way it is spoken by the millions who today may only speak Globish but who tomorrow will speak English.
