ABSTRACT
State-of-the-art information technology and electronic communication has effectively condensed the geographical distances between countries around the globe. Although oceans and mountains still physically separate countries and states, psychologists across the world share databases, review the published research of their peers, and ask questions and receive answers from each other within minutes across continents. The one prerequisite is a shared language. Most often this is the English language because of its worldwide importance among scientists that evolved especially after World War II. French is also being used rather extensively as a means of communication between psychologists from France and various French-speaking nations and regions located in Europe, North and West Africa, and Canada (Québec). In addition, Spanish serves as an important link among psychologists from many Latin-American countries and Spain. By contrast, German and Russian are now less often used
as means of communication between psychologists worldwide and other social scientists than in earlier times.
