Globalization may make us aware of the diversity of culture. It’s true that without it you couldn’t hear about the Indian caste system, for example. But a process that may be even stronger is homogenization.
Take these facts:
English became important probably because of British Empire’s power, during the period of European colonialism. Nowadays, although English is only the fourth largest language by number of native speakers, it is the most thought and the most used language in international communications.
Therefore, English is the globalization tool; it’s a world linguistic patrimony.
Actually, English starts being used more often than each person mother tongue, especially in computing science and in universities. So, globalized communications tend to homogenize local language varieties, which may contribute to the decrease of number of languages or dialects and with them some cultures may disappear.
However, language homogenization is not always negative. Take the Indian example, which we already saw on this blog: there are a lot of dialects there and this number is decreasing because of English influence. Although cultural wealth is being lost, people can communicate better inside the country.
English may contribute to another homogenization phenomenon: Americanization. Seems like American culture is everywhere: we heard American music (instead of ours), we are getting fatter because of American fast food, we see American movies, most of our idols are Americans, we include English words in our daily communication, we follow American politics, etc.
Powerful American companies like McDonald's are everywhere.
Of course it is important to have a way to communicate globally. But, if we want to keep our culture, we should give more importance to it and we shouldn’t copy foreign habits.
Sources:
http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/images/mcdonalds.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language
Take these facts:
- Two billion of people are learning English;
- My friend and I are going to see Beyoncé, an American singer;
- Over 80% of all information stored electronically is in English;
- My class is good in English because a big part of it plays online games in English. Actually three of them call one game “our world”;
- A great part of Portuguese people never went to cinema to see a movie non-talked in English;
- My brother, a software developer, can barely talk about his job in Portuguese;
- 89% of schoolchildren in European Union have English as a foreign language;
- My classmate did a work about Linking Park, his favorite band. He hates Portuguese music;
- My sister, who is studying Economics in Lisbon, has classes in English.
English became important probably because of British Empire’s power, during the period of European colonialism. Nowadays, although English is only the fourth largest language by number of native speakers, it is the most thought and the most used language in international communications.
Therefore, English is the globalization tool; it’s a world linguistic patrimony.
Actually, English starts being used more often than each person mother tongue, especially in computing science and in universities. So, globalized communications tend to homogenize local language varieties, which may contribute to the decrease of number of languages or dialects and with them some cultures may disappear.
However, language homogenization is not always negative. Take the Indian example, which we already saw on this blog: there are a lot of dialects there and this number is decreasing because of English influence. Although cultural wealth is being lost, people can communicate better inside the country.
English may contribute to another homogenization phenomenon: Americanization. Seems like American culture is everywhere: we heard American music (instead of ours), we are getting fatter because of American fast food, we see American movies, most of our idols are Americans, we include English words in our daily communication, we follow American politics, etc.
Powerful American companies like McDonald's are everywhere.Of course it is important to have a way to communicate globally. But, if we want to keep our culture, we should give more importance to it and we shouldn’t copy foreign habits.
Sources:
http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/images/mcdonalds.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language
That's a bit alarming. Only when we think a little, we can see how much 'Americans' we are! We watch American movies, we eat at McDonald's. We do many 'American' things that we don't even know that they are American!
ReplyDeleteYes, it´s true that "America" is spread all over the world. But you have to think...almost all the good cinema is made in America, which makes this country really poppular.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if other countries try to follow the America´s example, things would change!