What is global English and why do you need to know about it?

Imagine you’re in a meeting with your Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian and Hungarian colleagues. What language do you speak? English, right? You’re all managing to communicate very well, in spite of your different accents, and yes, despite your mistakes.?

Now let’s say your British colleague arrives at the meeting. What happens? Maybe, being British, your colleague makes a joke. You are not really sure if you have understood the joke (it must be your bad English, you think) but no one else in the meeting laughs, because they also don’t have any idea what he is talking about!?

What happened here? Is it your fault because your English is not “good” enough.?Or is your British colleague just not aware of how to communicate with the international team?

How about looking at this in a different way: you and your Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian and Hungarian colleagues are all speaking one language. Your British colleague is speaking a different language, but your British colleague doesn’t realise there is any difference.

What language am I talking about??

Global English. Also know as Globish, English as a Lingua Franca, or Business English as a Lingua Franca. It's is a big buzzword in my industry, but you might never have heard of it. So what is it and why does it concern you?

Let’s look at some numbers: Around 1.36 billion people in the world speak English. Approximately 450 million of these speak English as their first language, making the rest people who have learnt English as a second or foreign language.

(What’s the difference between second and foreign language? A second language is spoken in the place where you live: for example in India, your mother tongue might be an Indian language, but you go to school in English. A foreign language is one that is not widely spoken in that country: English in France for example.)

That means that far more people speak English as a second or foreign language than as a first language.?

Of course the levels in English as a foreign language vary enormously: according to the EF English Proficiency Index, the Netherlands were the best English-speakers in 2021 (no surprise there!) France was 31 out of 112 countries, which is actually pretty good and is getting better every year. In spite of these variations in level, millions of people are able to communicate every single day in English.

With so many non-native English speakers communicating in English in the international workplace, English has transformed from a language belonging to the British, Americans, Australians and all the other anglophone countries, to a language that belongs to the world. It’s become a tool for global communication.?

Because of this, the language has also transformed into a more simplified version of itself.?If your Italian colleague tells you, “He take a holiday” you will understand, whereas your British colleague would say “He’s taking a holiday.” Your German colleague might tell you, “Let’s discuss about this issue”, when your American colleague would say, “Let’s discuss this issue.”?Do these differences matter? If you're talking about effective communication, no. The message is clear.

Other vocabulary items, such as phrasal verbs (which are very difficult to understand, let alone use) barely exist in Global English: a native English speaker might say, “let’s look into this issue and go through it next week” but that’s quite hard to understand (go through….is it the same as go over or go along with?)?In Global English, you would more likely say, “Let’s investigate the issue and discuss it next week.”?

Some people might tell you that Global English doesn’t exist, it’s just “bad English”, but I don’t agree. Languages evolve through time, and what we are seeing now is the development of a new form of English. Just as American English is not the same as British English, Global English is a different English.?

Global English exists for a reason: it enables millions of people to communicate effectively every single day. You have done your part to learn to speak English. Perhaps the native English speakers need to do their part now: it’s up to them to learn how to communicate in Global English.

And next time you make a mistake in English, ask yourself, did the other person understand you? If so, you were speaking effective Global English.?

Would you like some phrases to help you communicate in different work situations? Download my free phrase list here.