Globally Speaking

It's easy enough to say that clarity is crucial in preparing English for a global readership, but writing clear English is more difficult than meets the eye. To write in Global English — the universal standard that we're talking about — you must be aware of the potential pitfalls.

One common pitfall is the lack of one-to-one correspondence in meaning when some words are translated from one language to another. Here's an example of what can happen: In some Southeast Asian language-cultures, the concept of formality and the concept of politeness are closely intertwined. If you write the word informal in your English text, it could be translated into the same word that means impolite.

For example, if you write:
     The elephant is an informal symbol for the Republican Party.

It might be misunderstood as:
     The elephant is an impolite symbol for the Republican Party.

To avoid this misunderstanding, it would be better to write:
     The elephant is an unofficial symbol for the Republican Party.