ENEM 2014 — Questão 95

It happens all the time: during an airport delay the man to the left, a Korean perhaps, starts talking to the man opposite, who might be Colombian, and soon they are chatting away in what seems to be English. But the native English speaker sitting between them cannot understand a word¹. They don’t know it, but the Korean and the Colombian are speaking Globish, the latest addition to the 6,800 languages that are said to be spoken across the world. Not that its inventor, Jean-Paul Nerrière, considers it a proper language. “It is not a language, it is a tool²,” he says. “A language is the vehicle of a culture. Globish doesn’t want to be that at all. It is a means of communication.” Nerrière doesn’t see Globish in the same light as utopian efforts³ such as Kosmos, Volapuk, Novial or staunch Esperanto. Nor should it be confused with barbaric Algol (for Algorithmic language). It is a sort of English lite: a means of simplifying the language and giving it rules so it can be understood by all⁴.

1. 1“cannot understand a word” — O nativo não entende: derruba B e E.
2. 2“It is not a language, it is a tool” — Não é língua de cultura: derruba A.
3. 3“in the same light as utopian efforts” — Não se confunde com o esperanto: derruba C.
4. 4“a means of simplifying the language and giving it rules so it can be understood by all” — Altera a estrutura do inglês para a comunicação internacional: é a D.