Sunday, September 26, 2010

Interpreting Globish

Globish is not enough global and a reduced version of English to totally skip the interpreter. More and more clients in business speak Globish. However, they do not speak a "standard" version of English. They rather speak simple English, simplified, stripped down, flaky and heavily tainted by their mother tongue version of English. Globish in this sense is first of all a mutual understanding that it is OK to speak English even awkwardly, even stripped of nuances. Despite this, an interpreter is required when various versions of Globish on both sides are too weird enough to allow for minimal understanding, or as is often the case in my experience, one top brass on either side can't even cope with Globish and needs to communicate with his mother tongue. Although English is a foreign language to me, listening and interpreting in a Globish environment offer challenges I am just starting to make sense of these days. Poor Globish is a bone asking to be beefed up with meat, otherwise, interpretation gets tougher as you struggle with the fact that what was said is a but a poor version of what could have been said in richer, more nuanced English. Interpreting from B to English is also challenged by two things. One is that using English that is not Globish sounds weird, in a sense, and raised the issue of knowing whether your listeners are OK with more standard English than their Globish, or do they feel annoyed at your arrogance to try and speak more "sophisticated" English? The second point is that listening and reacting to Globish for hours on may impact your own competence at English, making it substantially awkward to your ears, without any certainty that it sounds standard Globish enough to the listeners. Globish impact on interpretation. What a swell academic subject, n'est-ce pas?

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