Gathering Places
Gathering Places
By 2010, conservative projections indicate that 30-35 percent of the world's population will be able to communicate in English. More importantly, 85-90 percent of the world leaders will communicate with each other in English. How many Englishes
do you speak?Not all English, however, is the same even though it has become the world's lingua franca, the language most used in international contexts. Fluent users of English are found in every country, and 20-25 percent of the world uses it with some degree of fluency.
Indeed, differences in English are so great that language professionals use the term "Englishes" to define the cultural, functional and formal variations in the language. Now we recognize not only British English and American English, but also Indian, Chinese, Nigerian, Singapore, Philippine, Korean and Japanese English. An increasingly appropriate question: How many Englishes do you speak?
Thus, what sounds like good news for Americans, who are notorious for being monolingual, may not be. We have discovered that people everywhere are using English but it isn't American English. Even though standard English grammar is much the same the world over, pronunciation, vocabulary and ways of speaking are not.
Expressions of "civility" and "politeness" are different. For example, a Thai may call me "Mr. Larry" rather than "Mr. Smith" and expect me to call him "Mr. Somsak," (his given name) not "Mr. Sukwiwat" (his family name). A fluent Korean would find that to be impolite. The Thai and I would be expected to call the Korean "Mr. Lee" (his family name) not "Mr. Jae-Hyun" (his given name), while an Australian may prefer to use a nickname for each of us.
Similarly, in a negotiation, a Japanese may say "Yes," at each stage of a proposal but when we conclude with a statement of an agreement, he may say, "That will be difficult," meaning "No."
Often we understand the words used but not understand the person's meaning or intention. "I'm sorry " or "I apologize" may mean very different things to an American than they do to a Chinese. At other times, even though the pronunciation is crystal clear, Americans may still be confused as when an Indian requests that an activity be "pre-poned," as opposed to postponed.
Multi-cultural and multi-ethnic Hawaii plays a key role in spreading the use of English. The East-West Center has done extensive research on English as an International Language (EIL). The Japan-America Institute of Management Science not only teaches EIL but also has developed an interview protocol for evaluating a person's ability to use it in a business setting.
Hawaii is also expanding its role. The Ohana Foundation of Honolulu is supporting a worldwide research project during the next two years on the use of English as an international language and this month the International Association for World Englishes with membership in 47 countries will establish its headquarters in Honolulu.
Elsewhere, two professional journals devoted to this topic are: "World Englishes," published in Oxford, England; and "Asian Englishes," published in Tokyo, Japan. Hong Kong University Press publishes a series of books called "Asian Englishes Today" and several universities in Britain and the United States teach courses on world Englishes.
Larry E. Smith is president of
Christopher, Smith & Associates.