subject: Speak Globish? [print this page] Speak Globish? Speak Globish?
When I read an article from the Newsweek some time ago, a new term, "Globish" appeared in my mind (This article is also available online: All the World Speaks Globish Newsweek). There is an interesting suggestion that English as we know, is no longer the same language that we have learnt in school. It has become, or rather been evolved into a new breed of communication medium that is commonly used by people worldwide. The new form of language has less vocabulary, less complicated grammar and is easier to learn.
According to Wikipedia, Globish is a subset of the English language formalized by Jean-Paul Nerriere with the use of only 1500 English words. Although most of non-native- English speakers (people who use English not as the first laguage) know more words than 1500 English words, in general, most people will only use limited volcaburary. I am one of the people that falls under this category. Hence, due to our limited knowledge about the language, we can only use simple and easy to understand terms. Furthermore, words we used for conversation are actually a mix of English with some local languages or dialects. For example, we have "Singlish" in Singapore and "Manglish" in Malaysia.
My friend from Australia told me that he worried about how English is used in the non-English speaking world, and how the language is used in SMS and emails. These people who simplified the words and phrases, created new acronyms for communications may break the English as a complete language. I can understand his concerns, as English has gone beyond recognition to the original English speakers, and yet it has been widely accepted by even larger population in the non-native English speaking world that uses English as a working language, in countries like China, India, Singapore and Malaysia.
When I first came back from England after my two and a half years study in the UK, my local friends told me that I spoke like an English, rather than an Asian. At first, I took it as a compliment, but soon realized that there was a communication gap between them and me. I need to adjust my language to regain acceptance of the people around. Naturally, after some time, I switched back into English with local accents, which we called Manglish or Singlish. Now, I realized that we are speaking Globish!
If you find my articles easy to understand, eventhough I use the language in a way that is funny to the real English speakers. Now I can confindently tell you that I am using Globish, a language that brings together people from all over the world in our global village.
