ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the notion of globalisation and its different perceptions, both from below (the South) and from above (the North) in order to introduce a term 'glocal languages' that the author has been developing and discussing in various geographies, cultures and languages within the scope of different topical research projects. The term 'glocal languages' was introduced by Manuela Guilherme during her work with the project Intercultural Competence for Professional Mobility funded by the European Commission's Leonardo da Vinci Programme, of which she was the sole coordinator. Glocal languages are spoken both at global/local, translocal/glocal levels, at national, transnational and intranational levels. They are used in geographical regions that are distant to each other as well as spoken widely by the so-called native speakers as well as by second or foreign language speakers, the so-called non-native speakers. They were used in colonial settings and some are used by the new states as official languages.
