<?
$GLOBALS['user_language'] = get_user_language();

function get_user_language()
    {
    echo 'check';
    $user_language = 'en';
    $GLOBALS['user_language'] = $user_language;
    return $user_language;
    }

//somewhere in the script
print_r($GLOBALS['user_language']);
print_r($GLOBALS['user_language']);
print_r($GLOBALS['user_language']);
?>