English or Globish?

Anthropological linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf emphasized the link between language and culture decades ago. They hypothesized that one’s language affects one’s view of the world. For example, they reckoned that if your language did not have a word for a certain colour, you would not distinguish that colour very easily.  

Recently, The Guardian’s Peter Scott, a university professor and administrator, wondered what universities would be like if English was no longer the world’s lingua franca (“Will UK Universities Cope if English No Longer Rules the World?”). He began his article with the thesis that “Being an English-speaking country is a blessing – and a curse”. While being a native speaker of the language of Shakespeare, science, popular culture, tourism and business may appear to be a privilege, Scott rightly argues that in fact it locks one into “an anglophone prison”: this situation is disadvantageous because the less concerned native English speakers are about other languages, the less they will comprehend other cultures. Their understanding of others will remain superficial. He regrets the fact that the number of Mandarin speakers of English is much higher than the number of English speakers of Mandarin, pointing out that this is an advantage for the Chinese and that “monolingualism inhibits multicultural sensitivity”.

Scott then insinuates that English is no longer English in this globalized world: rather, it should be referred to as “Globish” as there are many international versions of it. Additionally, he regrets the complacent monolingualism of anglophone students compared with the confident bilingualism of other students, who are also highly skilled in their fields. Further, the open source publishing movement, being freer, will promote other languages, Scott believes, bypassing the traditional “gatekeepers” of international science publishing. He sees a bias towards Anglophone universities in the global league tables, which may soon change in a more pluralist world, noting that Chinese dominance is not the only “alternative future”. The message is that one must be able to imagine other alternative futures: Anglophone universities must be prepared for a more inclusive world, not just encouraging other languages, but also appreciating other cultures.

Robert McCrum, a British novelist and editor, has drawn a convincing parallel between English as a lingua franca and Latin: “Globish may be … a global phenomenon, but, like Latin before it, is vulnerable to change and decay. It won't be global forever” (“Globish and Its Discontents”). We are living in a fast changing world. It would be interesting to see what the coming decades bring in terms of global language and culture.