From English to Globish: How to Improve Our Project Language

Yasmina Khelifi is a French project manager with 3 PMI certifications. She has been working in an international environment for more than 20 years. Yasmina can speak 6 languages and has an MSc in Mobile Telecommunications. She is a passionate PMI volunteer. Yasmina's new co-authored book 'The Volunteering Journey to Project Leadership' (CRC Press). is now available. Connect with her to continue the conversation.

  Communications Management  

We talk a lot about adapting to cultural differences, time differences and communication preferences. This is all important, but if we cannot understand each other, how are we going to collaborate? We often forget that the main obstacle to build relationships and deliver projects is language.

There are more than 6,000 languages in the world (and more than 800 spoken in Papua New Guinea alone!). English is the business language for written and oral communication, and two main versions are British and American, with various variants like South African and Australian (there are some differences, but they have much in common).

My mother tongue is French (I was fully educated in French), and my first foreign language learned was German, followed by English. Many of you are English-native speakers, or were educated in English. This is a huge advantage—but also brings with it high responsibility.

I’ve been working for 20 years in international environments and in global projects. Based on my experiences, I'd like to share some thoughts and tips on how to collaborate better in English.

For native English speakers (and people who were educated in English)

1. Talk Globish
Globish, or global English, is a simplified variant of English for communication purposes. Some basic rules of Globish are:

• Do not use jargon
• Reduce the use of idioms (or give an …

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