Glob-ish: global English, the worldwide dialect of the third millennium

What is Globish??? There are many definitions. I just collected information I can find on the net.

“It is designed for trivial efficiency, always, everywhere, with everyone.”

http://www.globish.com/

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/12/glob-ish.html

I wasn’t alone in noticing this change. In 2007 I came across an article in the International Herald Tribune “the worldwide dialect of the third millennium.” Nerrière, posted to Japan with IBM in the 1990s, had noticed that non-native English speakers in the Far East communicated in English far more successfully with their Korean and Japanese clients than British or American executives. Standard English was all very well for Anglophones, but in the developing world, this non-native “decaffeinated English”—full of simplifications like “the son of my brother” for “nephew,” or “words of honor” for “oath”—was becoming the new global phenomenon. In a moment of inspiration, Nerrière christened it “Globish.” about a French-speaking retired IBM executive, Jean-Paul Nerrière, who described English and its international deployment as

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This is not the end of Babel. The world, “flatter” and smaller than ever before, is still a patchwork of some 5,000 languages. Native speakers still cling fiercely to their mother tongues, as they should. But when an Indian and a Cuban want to commission medical research from a lab in Uruguay, with additional input from Israeli technicians—as the Midwestern U.S. startup EndoStim recently did—the language they will turn to will be Globish.

Graduate schools in humanity: Just do not go?

I encountered quite interesting articles. I was aware of the risks involving in going to graduate school. At least no physics and mathematics professor I know recommended me to go to graduate school without talking about risks. Or probably no one really recommended me to go to grad school even though I never asked their advice either. They told us that you will see other people who just do any given tasks easily and make you think their brain are made of unknown materials etc. Also many books already informed me the hardships of graduate schools.

But it is quite nice to see some one writes so clearly about the danger of going to graduate in humanity. I am really not in humanity but many things are true in science as well.

Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go By Thomas H. Benton

Just Don’t Go, Part 2

The Big Lie About the ‘Life of the Mind’
What to Advise Unemployed Graduates
Graduate School? Socrates Would Approve
An ‘Unsavory’ Appraisal of the Humanities Market

He described horrific life in graduate school, but life can be much worse than he described. Any case, no matter what people write, I would go to graduate school in science or engineer even if I had a chance to change my life completely. Of course I would plan it better than before. Depending on the topic of studies, scientists may show no sympathy to difficulties of graduates from humanity disciplines. Some of the topics they study seem to be just an extension of hobby, but the real value of education is hard to measure.

MBA: a cash cow

A MBA is very useful for people to understand business analytically. But if one is really serious about theories then you do economics and mathematics. Except serious prominent schools, a MBA is one of easiest cash cows for many. For business people who teach them, it is good opportunities to sell their company and possibly to recruit them.

In a professional program, as long as they are accepted, pay a ridiculous amount of tuition and study normally, they can graduate. Many people in a professional program encounter difficulties in the beginning but their difficulties are not insurmountable. Most of the people will achieve a happy Hollywood ending in the end. Or what is the failing rate in B-schools?

Getting a PhD is a totally different from getting such a professional degree. At least that is how many PhD’s see such a degree. Many people who failed a PhD program or failed to see any meaning of the program often switch to a MBA and they usually do well. Or I do not know any one who failed a MBA but did very well in a PhD in science or engineer.

University of Waterloo ウォータールー大学

Waterloo is located 100 km west of Toronto. No one will stop by unless they are coming to universities or high tech companies since no particular attraction lures tourists. But it is a good place to get things done and lead high quality life without active night life. It has plenty of places to play soccer. When I was in Canada, I took nature and greens for granted. A Kurdish man told me he would never see such beautiful playing fields in Iraq. It is beautiful but it is flat as well. An often cited excuse for Waterloo is that it is just 2 hours away from Toronto. But from Waterloo, it will take more than an hours to get to Grey hound bus station. There is a Japanese culture club but I went there only a few occasions. It is mostly for undergrads and those grads who just come there for an exchange program and Canadians who like Japanese stuffs. These days that means they like games and mangas and not traditional cultural things, I think. US people have more stronger interest in Japan than Canadians in general in the east.

University of Waterloo, Ont, Ca was on Globe, Asahi.

ウォータールーは「金鉱」

ScienceCareers: Graduate school — Welcome To My Nightmare

ScienceCareers, in Science, gave me useful quick guidance about graduate schools and postdocs. Their information shed light on various aspects of the issue. Here are some highlights and links from the magazine so please read the original articles since they are open articles.

Science Careers (keys “Graduate school”) Here you see the entries about graduate schools.

Welcome To My Nightmare

“even at its best, graduate school can be a supremely unnerving experience. And at its worst, the pressure can kill you.”

“By the time you finish a Ph.D., you will be several years older and drenched in blood, sweat, and tears. Will it have been worth it?”

English problems of Japanese (日本人の英語の問題) — “English by osmosis”

Non-Japanese often, if not always, think English of Japanese sucks. In general it does sucks, I must to admit after watching some UN meeting video; especially that of some politicians and also journalists of second class papers.

They — should I say we? — may become defiant about their poor English skill; particularly some Japanese English teachers, judging from information from the web pages written in Japanese. Some Japanese are not even aware of how bad their oral communication is while many are totally aware of it.

Many of my friends, who do mathematics and physics, told me that they often do not understand a presentation given by Japanese, while their contents are sufficiently interesting enough to attract serious attention. I went to Boston University a while ago for a meeting for system biology. Many graduate students from Kyoto U gave a talk but some of them are horrible in presentation style and English. In other occasion, I did see many good presentations by Japanese, but some people just did not understand the questions at all. Some time a questioner got angry. During a long meeting, if you give an incomprehensible talk then people will just go to sleep to recover energy or just go to restroom.

Now let’s see what they are saying.

English Proficiency: Japan vs. the Philippines

I see his point.  Comparing Japan and Philippine, however, is not meaningful, since their social and economic structures are totally different. They have every reason to learn English, but many Japanese regard English as a hobby. Also Philippine has 171 languages. So English is a tool to communicate among different groups. Japan has one. If other minor languages like Ainu, Okinawa and Korean are counted then it has 4.

There are highly motivate non-Japanese English teachers around there.  But, to be honest, who is teaching in English in Japan? I know many of my friends who went to teach English abroad from Canada and US. Some of them might have been dreaming about teaching since they were 3. But most of them are teaching opportunistically. Like, “Well I finished my college but do not know I want to do in my life. Humm,  going to Japan might be fun and it will give me some time to think about my future. Also I can see an exotic country.”

Most of Japanese are not well prepared to communicate in English but many English teachers from abroad are also totally unprepared to teach English effectively in a foreign country and just feel frustrated. A teacher cannot teach students who are not intrinsically interested in any subject. They however  can not teach when they themselves consider their job as an extension of a hobby.

Of course, Japanese do have a lot more things to learn.

Using English grammar to process

• my growing awareness of a belief among Japanese students of English that they can somehow learn English ONLY by being in the presence of an English-speaking foreigner – “English by osmosis” – and that practice (alone or with a Japanese partner), drills (both oral and written), learning vocab, are either irrelevant or can somehow be bypassed when you have a real, live, English-speaking (and preferably blond(e) and blue-eyed because we all know that those are the only real foreigners) “gaijin” to yourself, if even for a few minutes;

1. a growing awareness of a patronising attitude (in some cases, open disdain) on the part of colleagues towards the “conversation” teachers: glancing references like “students are not going to progress much if they’re just repeating ‘hellomynameis’ every day” (so that’s what they think we’re doing).

“But what if students’ desire to “talk to the foreigner” was actually (at least in part) a desire to use (English) language to create meaning?
Something I should realize by now that has probably been sadly lacking in their experience of English language education.”

To sum up, Japanese are too passive. Fair enough.

A sweat shop for poor souls or a heavenly paradise (Graduate schools in Canada and USA） カナダ＆アメリカ大学院の一面： 天と地

Undergraduate and graduate
People have different experience in school but some things are also common; we can learn many things from the people who went through. I went to universities in Canada and the States both in undergrad and graduate and found many good books and articles in the web that seem useful. These days you can also Google by yourself to find many stories in webs and blogs. When I was doing graduate study I found a book in a library and it is my favorite (1). This book is based on experience by many people so you can glimpse a wide range of graduate school life. Here are some books I checked.

1. The Ph.D. Process: A Student’s Guide to Graduate School in the Sciences Authors: Dale F. Bloom, Jonathan D. Karp, Nicholas Cohen. Oxford University Press, USA
2. A Ph.D. Is Not Enough: A Guide to Survival in Science
3. Guide for PhD Candidates: at Cambridge Computer Lab
4. Guide for PhD students (and post-docs) aiming for a successful career in science:science article
5. So you’d like to… Pass your PhD qualifying exam in Physics
6. Graduate School: Winning Strategies for Getting in With or Without Excellent Grades

It is for a science prof but the following book is really good; you can see the prof side of graduate life.

1. At The Helm: A Laboratory Navigator: Books: Kathy Barker

For an interview book, I think this book is useful,

1. Sweaty Palms: The Neglected Art of Being Interviewed …

This is the book I had with me when I came here for my interview; I should have read more papers though.

English proficiency of Japanese (日本人の英語)

Commonly Japanese are not known for speaking English very well. How come?? Or is this an urban legend? — I do not know and it does not matter mostly, since the skill of each individual is quite different. But I think living in countries like USA, Canada, UK, NZ, AU, Ireland etc., whose official language is primarily English,  for 6-13 years may be sufficient for one to become proficient in English. “Proficient in English” means that your life is constrained by your brain and capacity not by your English.

Learning a language, however, would never end. Writing in English or for that matter in any language demands constant learning since writing cannot not be separated from writer’s knowledge. For instance, how do you explain the life cycle of Leishmania in a sand fly, if you do not know enough about them? How do you make people understand an algorithm of computer simulations? The level of English proficiency required is so diverse that there is no easy way to measure the competency. One must build the knowledge and competency required in their own field in any language. I would rather be a good scientist, but good English would not hurt science either…

sampling biases

I, however, should say that Japanese may think other nationals may particularly better at English than they really are, though not many people are pointing this out. There are “sampling biases”. That is, Japanese only see people who can speak English very well since people who speak English speak more, obviously. If non-Japanese-non-English speakers come to Japan, they tend to know English better than average person in their own country; i.e, French farmers and scientists who have no interest in English will not likely to come to Japan and speak English nor come to the meeting in US and UK. A rather famous French scientist claimed that he would speak English only at a gun point. People who go to a MBA are likely to speak better English than average folks. They are social people with business in their mind and with strong intention to expand their social and business network. Intelligent people who do not speak English  well tend to be quiet in English conversation. Also in conferences, English of some of Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Indian people is equally odd.

A lot of local shop keepers do not speak fluent English other than the words they constantly use in Antwerp and Trieste or shops outside of tourist districts. It is not uncommon that I suggest words for them when they cannot come up with English words during conversations with Dutch, Belgian and German etc. Surely they have correct pronunciation and grammar than mine but overall the level of English in Europe is lower than I expected. Partly because many European does not care and often look down UK and USA. Not so small number of European people do not care about English as long as they know “enough”. Normally conversation speed is 1.8-1.2 slower those of Brits and Americans, so many European do have troubles in communicating in English. Many people in Japan may be not realizing  other’s difficulty so much.

Any case, a plenty of people are chatting about English proficiency of Japanese so I just selected some blogs. I may not particularly agree with the contents but they shed interesting light on.

読者の方からのご質問「日本の学校での英語教育を受けても話せるようにならないのか？」

中途半端な語学力は諸刃 の剣

Related topics:

日本を飛び出す理由　英語を学ぶ理由　〜日本は既に沈没船説〜 (5)

アメリカの就労ビザ が欲しければ留学せよ

海外で勉強して働こう

15歳の君たちに告ぐ、海外 へ脱出せよ – Rails で行こう！

大学院に行く間違った理由

海外脱出アドバイスのダメなところ

社会人の大学院留学の機会費用とリスク１

These people provide interesting perspectives but read them with a grain of salt: many people including myself are often just selling themselves in their advice. Put everything on the table and think about it. Think once, twice and so on, and think one more time. If you decided to come out, you may see both heavens and hells which you have never imagined before. Either way, the world will engulf Japan sooner or later. People may have to compete with billions of people including Chinese, Indians and Africans etc who are eager to toil away to reach a better life.

Knowing English may help you out since the ability to communicate in English can convert “strangers” to information source and partners. Your playing fields can expand to many countries whose semi-official language is English. It is all up to you. But if you spread yourself too thin without specialized skills and just dreaming ever changing dreams, then you may literally hit a sudden death in the end. Some may argue that people should learn Chinese now since it might take over the coming decades. But as far as communication in science is concerned, English will be the dominant language in foreseeable future.

blogs on remotely related topics:
Each country can learn so many things from each other to improve their own country. The end of improvement and learning means the end of progress and competitiveness of society.

日本とフランスと海外の，留学，研究，技術，政治，経済，外交，歴史，文化について考える
A strong advocate of a laid-back French life style: one of the most unique opinions and fairly convincing even if entries tend to be wacky. But he lives in France…

Un ardent défenseur de la vie d’un style décontracté français

Een uitgesproken voorstander van een laid-back stijl van het Franse leven (This is Dutch not German. Notice no Capitals. via google translate.)

も うそろそろ日本はもうダメだと言わなくてもよい

怠 け者同盟の社会の中で輝きを取り戻す日本

This is very logical even though it looks illogical at first glance. If this is practical is another issue. I think this idea is a little bit similar to Amish and Mennonite who mostly reject convenience of modern life. I am not a historian but this type of ideas has been prevalent in societies with a limited amount of resources. In Belgium, people who do not take their holidays are already punished. One must use up certain holidays in a given year, otherwise he will lose the same amount of holidays he missed next year. That is why I asked a secretary to register my all unused holidays at the end of the year, even though I did show up at the office.

「日 本人はなぜ悲観論が好きか Media of any countries provide exaggerated pessimistic as well as optimistic articles. I am not sure if Japanese are any pessimistic than other nationals. Probably they are, right now.

フランス人から見た日本特集『Un oeil sur la planète: Japon : le reveil du sumo ?』（2/2）。”フランス人は基本的には日本のことを良く知らないので、問題も深刻に伝わってないのだと思います。逆にフランス 人はフランスの抱える問題について熟知しているため、日本の方が楽しい国だと想像する人もいます。”

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. But the opposite is also true, like China, Japan, Korea, America, Iran, Iraq, Islam and Christian bashing etc … Distorted information is partly based on sampling bias and media who try to oversimplify complicated subjects.

Discussion on English education in Japan:

Interesting discussion is going on about English education in Japan. The author is in MIT MBA program. Some of her blogs are quite interesting, though she does not seem to know much about Europe and many other things. Any case, it seems that people defending the English education system had never really lived in other countries.

日本の中高の英語教育がマイナスにしかならない件について

じゃ あ中高の英語教育をどう変えるべきか考えてみる

Good luck. I think this is a dead end discussion. Teachers can educate students a subject up to a certain level.  But the required skills are too diverse in the current competitive global society so it is hard to find an optimal teaching method for all. Ultimately the responsibility rests on an individual; you can adjust faster and better than an organization or institution whose interest is directed toward majority and not to specific need of individual. It seems  community colleges like in the US  may harness educational opportunities for people who need or like to acquire  new skills. Learning is fun after all when we know what we can do with it and are self-motivated.

日 本を飛び出す理由　英語を学ぶ理由　〜日本は既に沈没船説〜

He managed ESL programs in Fiji. The program seems to attract a bunch of unique people and drifters. It may give real game changing opportunities for some. But it is not kind of place I recommend, unfortunately. The overall standard seems to be so low since one of the most important factors of school is the quality of students and these students seemed to be marginal.

Coming to a university in Canada and USA

International students may experience different problems than people who grown up in a country where a school is located, but most difficulties can be overcome in the end. Some problems, though, can cause you to give up school and if that happens the life can be not so easy but this is the case for any one. Giving up school is sometimes better than being stuck on to a bottomless ditch. For graduate students, changing supervisors may help and for undergrads, changing schools or majors.

In regard to dealing with new people, I think changing elementary or high schools in your own country will give you more headaches; people in the US said same thing. There are many extremely smart international and domestic students; the best part of studying and living in a new place is you can meet many eccentric folks. On the other hand some graduate students in Canada are more interested in immigration than their studies and are happier to get their permanent residence card than their intended degree. Some always complain about their new places especially when people from a country get to gather

Education system of a second language varies significantly in many countries: 第二言語の教育方針は国の言語、文化、歴史、規模、戦略などに左右されてます。

I ended up living many countries and met many people across the globe and here are my observation on education of a secondary language etc.

Canada: They learn either English or French as a second language. Most of the people however do not speak French unless they live in Quebec,  New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, eastern Ontario or a small pocket in Manitoba. They have immersion programs in which they learn many subjects in a second language. Some people speak two languages perfectly, but Québécois are better in language skills since they have more economical insensitive to learn English. Many federal government jobs require the proficiency in two languages. Quebec anglophones derogatorily call a francophone a Pepsi meaning that a francophone can only afford Pepsi since it is cheaper.