Globish is a simple, pragmatic form of English created by Jean-Paul Nerrière, a retired vice-president of IBM. Mr Nerrière, 67, originally sought to help non-English speakers in the era when business meetings were held in English. Since he noticed that non-native speakers of English from different parts of the world could understand each others despite the mistakes they made, he advised that instead of struggling to master the Queen’s English, they should content themselves with Globish. Around 1bn people are learning English at the moment, and this number will probably peak at around 2bn in 10-15 years.
Latin was once the shared language over a vast area, but that was only in Europe and North Africa. Never in the history of mankind has a language been as 1. __ as English today. English is the language of intercultural business communication and the key to prosperity. English is no longer spoken just among 2. _, but it is the language in which Croatians speak to Germans, Germans to Italians etc. About 50 years ago, English had more native speakers than any language, but today English is also challenged by other 3. ___ languages such as Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic.
However, English will survive since it is easy to learn. Verbs remain unchanged apart from the third person singular present (he works), definite and indefinite articles are unaffected by 4. __ (the actor, the actress), and there is no need to remember whether a table is masculine or feminine. Yet, there are plenty of difficulties about English. Try explaining the difference between ‘I stood up to him’ and ‘I stood him up’. English did not 5. _ around the world only because it is easy; the British Empire and then American economic and cultural influence ensured its 6. ___. English has definitely become 7. ______ and it is unlikely to see this challenged in our lifetime.
