Texto:

GLOBISH
Powered by the Internet and the global media, English has evolved into the world’s language

             Contagious, adaptable, populist, and subversive,
        the English language has become as much a part of the global
        consciousness as the combustion engine. And as English
        gains momentum as a second language all around the
 5 –  world, it is morphing into a new and simplified version of
        itself – one that responds to the demands of a global
        economy and culture. Having neatly made the transition from
        the Queen’s English to the more democratic American
        version, it is now becoming a worldwide power, a populist
 10 – tool increasingly known as Globish.
             The term quickly caught on within the international
        community. The Times journalist Ben Macintyre described a
        conversation he had overheard while waiting for
        a flight from Delhi between a Spanish U.N. peacekeeper and
 15 – an Indian soldier. “The Indian spoke no Spanish; the Spaniard
        spoke no Punjabi,” he says. “Yet they understood one another easily. The language
        they spoke was a highly simplified form of English, without grammar or structure, but
        perfectly comprehensible, to them and to me. Only now do I realize that they were
        speaking ‘Globish’, the newest and most widely spoken language in the world.”
 20 –     With the turn of the millennium, it appeared that English language and culture
        were becoming rapidly separated from their contentious past. English began to gain a
        supranational momentum that made it independent of its Anglo-American origins. And
        as English became liberated from its roots, it began to spread deeper into the
        developing world. In 2003 both Chile and Mongolia declared their intention to become 
25 –  bilingual in English. In 2006 English was added to the Mexican primary-school
        curriculum as a compulsory second language. In China, some 50 million people are
        enrolled in a language program, known colloquially as “Crazy English,” conducted by
        “the Elvis of English,” Li Yang, who often teaches groups of 10,000 or more, under the
         slogan “Conquer English to make China strong.”
30 –       The fact is that English no longer depends on the U.S. or U.K. It’s now being
        shaped by a world whose second language is English, and whose cultural reference
        points are expressed in English but without reference to its British or American origins.
        In the short term, Globish is set to only grow. Some 70 to 80 percent of the world’s
        Internet home pages are in English, compared with 4.5 percent in German and 3.1
35 – percent in Japanese. According to the British Council, by 2030 “nearly one third of the
        world’s population will be trying to learn English at the same time.” That means ever
        more voices adapting the English language to suit their needs, finding in Globish a
        common linguistic denominator.

MCCRUM, R. Globish. Newsweek. New York. Jun. 21, p. 24-27. Adaptado.
“U.S.” (l. 30) – United States.
“U.K.” (l. 30) – United Kingdom.

 

a) Describe the language program conducted by Li Yang in China.

b) Fill in the brackets with R (Right) or W (wrong).

Some of the characteristics that make Globish different from the traditional English
language are mentioned in the following sentences from the text:

• “it is morphing into a new and simplified version of itself” (l. 5-6) [ ]
• “The term quickly caught on within the international community.” (l. 11-12) [ ]
• “In 2003 both Chile and Mongolia declared their intention to become bilingual in English.” (l. 24-25) [ ]
• “ever more voices adapting the English language to suit their needs” (l. 36-37) [ ]