Job Discussion Forums

[hippocampus]

What do you all think about Globish?

http://www.globish.com/
or
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2006/dec/03/features.review37

I think it's a good way to encourage students and give them some hope and confidence of mastering English.

Great!, if they want to learn 'The Queen's English' as well - and I am not sure Globish is not a subset of the Queen's English anyhow.

As for us native speakers. Mr. Nerriere makes an excellent point about simplifying our English to accommodate non-native speakers. It would be the considerate thing to do with people we know very well cannot understand native-speaker English, and it may help us deal with shopkeepers, customs officials and taxi drivers to tone it down a bit.

Excuse a brief rant please, but I have met way too many Brits who insists on using Cockney rhyming slang at schools. Even the non-native English teachers are baffled and often offended by this (like when an Oriental teacher is called 'China' (Cockney for 'mate' - China Plate). The poor man just isn't getting it, and he is a fairly competent English teacher. Imagine how confused the students must be to have such a Brit for a teacher.