Its inventor, Jean-Paul Nerrière, doesn’t see it as a real language but a tool, a means of global communication. It’s a sort of English lite – a means of simplifying the language and giving it rules so it can be understood by all. Nerrière says. “The language spoken all over the world, by 88% of the people is not exactly English, but it works; it does the job .I don't think people who think this gives them an edge are right because it's not useful if they cannot be understood by English speakers.” Nerrière, who retired from the computer giant IBM, speaks excellent English. The main feature of Globish (Globe English) is that has only 1500 words. Grammar is not important. He had the idea while he was at a meeting in Paris. Before the meeting, one hundred colleagues from over forty different country were talking in a sort of English. Everyone was happy, and everyone understood. Then the two American speakers arrived to talk to the group but no one understood a world they said. And the Americans had difficulty understanding other people in the group! This is the problem, Do native Speakers of English understand Globish? No worries, Nerrière is writing a version of Globish to help the English understand, now available in the bookshops.
(from International Herald Tribune)
