Jean-Paul Nerrière, a former vice president of IBM, believes that the benefits to nonnative English speaking managers and leaders of International English outweigh the difficulties. Nerrière invented his own language system, Globish, a sort of "English light" to help for struggling executives. "It is not a language, it is a tool," says Nerrière. "A language is the vehicle of a culture. Globish doesn't want to be that at all. It is a means of communication."

In his book, Parlez Globish, Nerrière sets out the principles of Globish: a simplified vocabulary of 1,500 English words, some useful gestures, and an emphasis on repetition. The point, he says, is to reach the threshold of understanding. "The language spoken worldwide, by 88% of mankind, is not exactly English," he says. "People who think this gives them an edge are [not] right because it's not useful if they cannot be understood by English speakers."