GLOBISH - The language of Globalization

Through Globisthe language of the Globalization- there are no language barriers any longer. Do you agree?

Globalization has led to many improvements in our societies, such as better and faster means of communication. This is no less important if we take into account the impact it has on langauges, specially the spread of English in the Internet (which is referred to English imperialism) and the threat it means to other languages.

Nowadays, even English is being threatened by a new product of Globalization, that is Globish. This is a simplified version of English, specially for business. One of its most interesting arguments is that you can only speak Globish wiht 1500 words. Thus, it is a new way out for people who want to integrate the globailized world. But at the same time it is a threat to English and other languages as well.

These days, we may find books and courses about Globish. So, this also implies that many languages may become extinct, and it seems to be that Globalization will allow this if there isn’t any change about this. For example, some European countries were implementing some protectionist laws against English in order to protect their mother toungues. It is mainly a policy to foster and protect the tradition and use of their mother tongues.

So, if we let Globish get into our lives without being conscious enough of what it really implies, we can lose an essential feature of our indentity as a nation and as a people. As it is stated above, this is a business language, which may work or not, but it is not an entire corpus full of traditions and culture such as a language (for example the English language). We should take it, just for what it is meant to be, a way out to the –many times- difficult negotiations between two or more countries whose langauges are different.

Esteban Arrieri