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  • Writer's pictureCatherine Laz

Le Globish, que’est-ce- que c’est?

Updated: Oct 22, 2020


Globish is a hideous hybrid of Global and English. It is an international language that most people speak throughout the world in order to communicate. It is a kind of English at its most superficial, used as a vehicle for commerce, and devoid of soul. Globish doesn’t know Shakespeare or The Beatles, it only knows what’s been said in board rooms, or what computers understand. It is empty of any human experience or feelings. People who speak Globish may think they speak perfectly reasonable English, but they don’t. They talk like machines.

This is why the rise of Globish in popular culture is worrying. Not only it disconnects the speaker with his original culture and background, it contributes to the transnational mush big corporations are so keen on. If everybody speak the same language, a brand global image is that much easier to sell.

Which is the wrong approach when the product or the person is not British or American. In a frank interview on France-Inter, Robert Charlebois, the French speaking Canadian singer demystified the whole attempt of pretending writing sensitive English lyrics when you never even lived outside France. Listening to Christine and The Queens, I can only agree. My ears bleed every time she sings “areless” for “heartless”. Please spare us from Globish.

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