Tópico: Instead of English, speak "Globish"?

[Galileo]

Useful language learn quick now!
by Ben MacIntyre
TimesOnline, April 30, 2005
 
I was recently waiting for a flight in Delhi, when I overheard a conversation between a Spanish UN peacekeeper and an Indian soldier. The Indian spoke no Spanish; the Spaniard spoke no Punjabi. Yet they understood one another easily. The language they spoke was a highly simplified form of English, without grammar or structure, but perfectly comprehensible, to them and to me. Only now do I realise that they were speaking “Globish”, the newest and most widely spoken language in the world.
 
Globish is not like Esperanto or Volapuk; this is not a formally constructed language, but rather an organic patois, constantly adapting, emerging solely from practical usage, and spoken in some form or other by about 88 per cent of mankind. Its chief promoter, astonishingly enough, is a Frenchman, Jean-Paul Nerrière, a linguist and retired computer executive who has earned the loathing of the French Establishment by insisting that Globish — simple, inelegant and almost universal — is the language of the present and the future. In his primer, Parlez Globish, Nerrière points out that Globish is not intended for writing poetry or telling jokes, but for communication at the most basic level. It is not a language in the traditional sense, freighted with cultural meaning, but a supremely useful and ingenious tool, the linguistic equivalent of a Swiss Army knife.

The Frenchman has calculated that the speaker of Globish needs to pronounce and understand no more than 1,500 words, starting with “able” and ending in “zero”. The entire vocabulary of Globish amounts to less than one four-hundredth of the words in the OED.

Starting from scratch, anyone in the world should be able to learn Globish in about one week. Nerrière’s website (www.jpn-globish.com) also recommends that students use plenty of gesticulation when words fail, and listen to popular songs to aid pronunciation, including such unlikely language aids as What a Wonderful World and The Great Pretender. (What happens if one Globish speaker has an Elvis accent and the other speaks with a Satchmo twang? Will they understand one another, or do they need to simplify down to another level, and speak in Sex Pistols?)

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[Galileo]

Have you ever heard japanese people speaking english?It´s terrible.. :cry:

I have read instruction booklets for electronic devices written by Japanese people who barely know English. I am always surprised that these billion-dollar companies can't afford to hire someone who speaks English to at least proofread these manuals!

It is well known that the classic video game Donkey Kong was a Japanese mis-spelling of Monkey Kong!

[Alenônimo]

It is well known that the classic video game Donkey Kong was a Japanese mis-spelling of Monkey Kong!

Yes... That was to be an sathiric name for King Kong... But the mispelling named the wrong animal...

[GrieveR]

do you know the ENGRISH site? It is hilarious.

[Alenônimo]

Cool site!