8/13/2019 Globish - PK Jayaraj - Mathrubhoomi - Jan 12, 2014

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i EnrichYourEnglish 268

tryGlobishT metKofiKumaYavoforthefrstI time at Parisairport.Kofr,aI nativeofthe smallAfrican oun-try Togo, ason his way o the US oattendEFLEducatorsrogamme. toowason myway o attend hefourmonthEFLEducatorsrogrammetWashingon C.Kofi'smother onguesKabdye, subSaharananguage,isSecond anguagesFrenchandhisthird luguage s English.MyAfricanfriend started alking o me n a lan-guageeryclose o English, uta simpli-fied versionofEngish.Kofiwasspeak-i\gclabkh, a simplified ersionofAn$o-Americannglish.A revolutions moving crossheworld. It is not a revolutionoughtwithgunsandbombs,he revolutionstakingplacen boardroomsndvisitorhousesaround he world, ed bybusinesseo-pleandpeople isitingothercountriesall wanting o be understoodn a an-guagehat is not their own. fire lan-guage poken ll over he worldby closeto eightypercentof thepeople,or busi-ness,ravelandeducations notexactlyEnglish s heQueen peals t, the lan-guageheyare alking s GlobalEnglish,or Globish the atestadditiono the6,000 lus anguagespokenn theworld.

Deca,IfeinatednglichIt happens ll the time:duringan air-portdelay he man o the eft, a Koreanperhaps, tarts alking o the manoppo-site,who night eColombian,ndsoontheyarechattingawayn what seemsobe English.Butthe nativeEnglishspeaker ittingbetweonhemcannotunderstand word, irey don'tknow t,but heKoreannd heColombianrespeaking lobish.Not hat its inventor,Jean-Paulenibre, onsiderst aprop-er language,It ls nota anguage,t is atool",he says,A anguages the vehicleofa culture,Oloblshoesn't ant o bethat atall, t isameans f communlca-

the beglnnlngs f goblshfire most mportant hingaboutglo-bish sthat it startedwith non-nativeEnglish peakers. ome nglishhofesor couldhave aidl I will nowcreateGlobisho makeEnglish asyornon-nativepeakers".iren globishwouldnot be$obal,butjustsomoEn$ishhofesor's plaything. ut hetrue Globishdeastarted n intrnation-al meetingwith British,Americans,Europeans,apanesendKorearu. hecommunicationascloseo excellentbetweenhe British and he Americurs.But t wasnotgood monghe othergroups, hen herewasa big suryrise:the communicationetweenhe astthreegoups,Europeans,apanesendKoreans, asamonghebest. hereseemedo be onegoodeason:heyweresayinghingswith eachother hattheywouldhave eena,taid o trywith nativespeakers-or fear of osingespect. oall thesenon-native peakerselt com-fortableandsafe n whatsofnded ikeEn$ish,but wasar from t.Thereweremanymistakesn theEnglish f non-native peakers,hepro-nunciationwasstrange.Words ereused n unusualways.Mmy nativespeakershink that English ike this shonible.However,on-nativepeakersweree4ioyingheir comrnunication.utassoon soneofthe En$ishorAmericanstartedspeaking, verythingchangedn onesecond. henon-nativespeakerstoppedalking;mostof themwereafraidof speakingo the ndtiveEnglishpeaken. one fthemwantedto saya word hat was nconect. t isoften hat wayacrossheworld.Non-nativespeakersavemany roblemswith En$ish.Some ativespeakers aynon-natives peakbrokenEnglish",ntruth non-native peakersalk to eachothereffectively ocausehey espectandsharehe sameimitations.Theideaof$obishcame tom hese imita-tions,Socomrnunicationetween on-nativespealers anbemuchmoreefrective hen heyuse$obish.OloblohEngil.h"Hello, eautiful,"heChinegesles.mancalledout as walkeddown he

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lf youcan'tmaster nglish,'{trow eweyyolu dictionariest" s the battle cry as Globishconque$culturegand continents.Globishmeetsourpraotica,lneed or a unlversal ,othertongue"- a,simple,neufual, ntelligiblemediumor eosscultural communicetion.

tion". Ratherhan duplicatinghee:rpressiveunctions f a mother-tongue,Globishmeets urpractical eed orauniversalother ongue" a simple,neutral, ntelli$ble medium or cross-culturalcommunication.nd as tspreads, eridre predicts,t will reducethe nternationalnfluence f Englishandeliminatehe advantageonge4ioyed y ts nativespeakers.f infuture he world'sbusinesss conductedin Globish, ativeAn$ophones,ikeeveryonelse,will find themselvesobligedo earn t.I saytomato'...yousay'red,oundfruit'. Increasingly,eople crossheworldusesome ortof English, ut t isnot heQueen's.obertMcCrumeportson whyGlobish EnglishJite is becom-ing the universalanguage fboard-room,he nternet ndpolitics.Globishis not pidgin'or broken'Engishbut tis highlysimplifiedandunidiomatic.Nerribreobserveshat in Globishoucouldnever ay,lhis erstwhile uddyofyourss a weirdduckwhowill probablyput he kibosh nall ourgood eeds".llut night make ensen London ut twill notplay n Buenos iresor Zurich.In Globishouwould xpresshisas:'Yourold riend s too strange.Hewouldruin all ourefforts".Globish,alsNenidre, s "decaffeinatednglish, rEn$ish-lite". lobishseshe samestandard rammar sEnglish.But whenspeaking obish,t is importanto useshortsentences,nd o avoidhumour,metaphor, bbreviation,diomsandclich6s.A liberaldose fgestures,odylanguagend acial expressionshouldalso eused,Globish ay eametaphor,ut it is notyeta reality,Booker rizewinnerswill continueooxpresshemselvesn varieties fBritishor Indianor Australian nglish.Dictionaries ill continueo deflneBritishandAmerican,ndeven ndian,versions f the anguage,

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8/13/2019 Globish - PK Jayaraj - Mathrubhoomi - Jan 12, 2014

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nuuket uringrnyvisittoChinalbwnnWashhgtonC,ulookhere,tryonthisStudent iscount 0%, ka6d triehandmade, ouwon't fndar\y. 'hingbetter," In China, oum{yseeonfuslng nglishranslations fevery-signs,rNorompingn thehall,"o Eqy onnndn4 nthe0r asimple,ftakewaterplacenpublicwatersource.All acrossworld, t seemshat e1rythingver-aterso Englishn somewqy.uch s heone encoun-abmad,make urc o ryeakaformn order oprofit tomestauranbwill have nof theirmenus; irlinesannouncrrnentsn English shenatire anguage;tglswillEnglishranslationsalthought times);franchisesearnames,nd English langrick-nglishisHinglishandJapish.bdqy

someEnglish, ccordingo theCouncil.0fcourseost fthesespeakerson,tspea&roperirey speak,,Globish"asim-dull, diom-freeersionofEnglishthrow awayyourdicdonariesareayourdictionariesl"s thecryasa simplifiedgobaltrybrittconquersulturesandconti_Globish elongso anewpost_waven which hestoryhaseframedo maket lessanglocen_RobertMcCrumsoneof severaleriteruwhoarguehat the atestgreatest chievementfEnglishshaveranscendedhe egacy fbd4y tsbounds resetsowideit can rulybesaid o belongo theSome ommentatorcven uggestmaynowbe happeningt theirhat s theviewofJean-paulthe ttench businessmanhohe erm,,Globish"n lgg6.Henoticed hatnon-native nglishn Asia ound t easiero doneanothorhanwithspea.kers.lobishwashisnamethekindofEnglishheywereusing:orsionwithoutcom-orculturalb-aggage.orhepolitical mplications reIbday,n everycountrystrug-oputicipatein democracy,t ie

hatprovideehemainavenue fwant hecapitallsmwlthout helll notsurvlven a world

where,hanks o Globish,everyonehasaccesso an unlimitodsuppf of datawhich loats . , in the nffniteregenobofcyberspace",Bona'nlng hSl|rhEnglishs rapidlybecoming inguafrancan intemational ommunicationfor commorcond rade,oducation,c

ence,nternationalelationsandtourism.t is the astestgrowingan-guagen theworld,withmorepeoplespeaking nglishhaneverbefore,Studentsn IndiaandChinaare earn-ingEnglish ta staggeringateas hesecountries mphasisehe mportance fEngishasa tickettoparticipatingnthegobaleconomy.owlry hendowecontinueo link thisevolvingnterna_tionalisinganguage ith asmall slandin Europehatonceupona timecon-trolled heworld?Perhapst isabouttimewegotrid of the,,English"andstartcalling t somethinglse interna_tional,standard rcommonanguage?tis mportanto understandhat there snotoneEnglishanguage;herearemany. ustraliansseStandardAustralianEnglish,which snotthesameEnglishhatonemight indin theUnitedKingdom,heUnitedStates,IndiaorChina.here arecounflessblends, idgiru,creoles ndmixedEnglishanguages.t thesameimethatEnglishs becominghe urguage finternationalisation,t is alsobecominglocalisedn differentpartsoftheworldasmultipleworldEnglisheslourish.English rowswild on oreignsoil. herearemorenon-nativepeakersf Englishthannativespeakersndnearlyouroutof iveEnglish-speakingnteractionshappen etween on-nativepeakersfEngish.Bise of Chfuiish and linglishEn$ishoncewasseenNanoppresiveforcen Asia,but t isnowpartof themainstrearnndconsidered pathwayt0prosperity, nglishs becominguchapartof ife in some ountries,hatpeoplen placesikeChina,KoreaandIndiahave tartedblendingEnglishphrasesntotheir nativeongues,orm-ingnewvarieties uchasChinglish ndHingish,Globalizationasalso edtothedevelopmentfnow arietiesofEnglish uchasChinglish,Hinglish,Konglish,MangishandEngrish.Increasingly,ativespeakersf Chinese,Hindi,Korean, alay r Japaneserembdngheirmotherongues ithEngieh o formnew anguages,lngish- a trybridof Engltbh nd lindi iethelanguagefgoballzationin thesubcon-tinent, n southAsla,Hlnglishhasbeen

' gvenamodern,ashionablepinby tswe on music hannels nd n advertis.ing,Areyoua',badmash"?nd fyouhad o getsonewheren ahurry,wouldyoumakean,,airdash"? qybe oushouldbeatyourdeskworldng,ruteadyouare readinghisaso"timepass".ThesereexamplesfHingish, nwhichEngtish ndHindioverlap, ith phrases ndwordsbor-rowedand e-invented,t is usedon heIndiansub-continent,ith EngishwordsblendingwithPu4iabi,UrduandHindi,andalsowithinBritishAsianam-iliesto enlivenStandard ngish.Uy nngilrh ls aot yourEngtirhLanguageshange onstantly ndEnglishsnoexception.irat causesconfirsionometimes,ndnotjust ifyouare earningEngishasaforeignan-guage.Withover1.6billionspeakersfEnglisharoundheglobe,he[nglishofEnglandstodayatinyminoritydialectof 'WorldEnglish,, ndgetting inier daybyday. he variations fEngishwhichhavedevelopedn theUSA,CanadandAustraliahavebeenaroundor sometime.Butotherworld e$oruhavealsodevelopedheirownbrandof Engish.Thereare egonalvariations f EngishwithintheUK tself.Singlish,Hinglish,Chinglish ndothersareall becomingmorecommonlyeard.This s the firsttime n historythatone anguageikeEnglishssowidelyused n theworldandhasgenerated numberofvari-eties,The easonor thedevelopmentfthese arietiesies n thepurpose f tsuse.n theend,hepurpose ill deter- lmine he utureof World ngtishes. 'ThespreadfGlobish ayevenanest hedisseminationf En$ish, ndinsteadreate spaceorotheran- :guages0 reasserthemselvesnd orlocaldentitieso bestrengthened.Whereasanguagesemain hevehicles i.ofculture,Globishepresentsothingmore hana communicativeool. notherwords,eamEnglishorShakespeare,nd earnGlobisho order .acoffee rdiscusshepriceofcom-modities. :p.K Jayarql ;@ait'comftelerenceAbleyMark:he Prodigal ongue:Dispatchesrom heFutureofEngllsh,HoughtonMifflin,2008McCrum obert: lobish:owEnglishBecameheWorld'sanguage, W.

Norton Compaqy,20llNeniereJeanPaulandHonDavid:Olobishheworldover,nternationalGlobishnstltute, 000no0d .|s 89