Globalization of Culture - Huang Can
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Globalization is like a fire which has both advantages and disadvantages. As globalization is diversifying local cultures, it is also homogenizing them. As a result, local languages, customs and folklores are gradually forgetting by people and becoming unrecognizable. The most typical example could be the substitution of local cultures by American culture which is also called Americanization. In the past, when technology and media was not advanced, people were much influenced by local cultures, values and religious customs. For instance, when my parents were young, they did not watch television frequently. Indeed, all the TV programs and movies are i indigenous. However, the youth nowadays throughout the world tend to watch Hollywood movies or Disney cartoons. Besides, as pace of our lives is becoming faster, fast food such as KFC and McDonald’s are becoming more and more favored by people today. To the contrast, people in the past had not even seen hamburgers. Also, today, Pepsi and Coca-Cola advertisements can be seen all over the world. Another example is that ten years ago, most Chinese did not know what Starbuck is. Surprisingly and ironically, there is even a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City in China today.
Beside Americanization of local cultures, loss of native languages is another issue which people are concerned about. Although learning to speak global language can help people to overcome the language barrier, people should be shamed if they forget their own language. As the precious heritage from ancestors, native language symbolizes a nation. It helps to give the citizens their uniqueness and national identity. However, globalization is now eroding local languages. For example, in Singapore nowadays, most teenagers cannot speak dialects well whereas old generations often communicate in dialects. This implies that people are gradually forgetting about their ‘root’ and their unique identities. Indeed, statistics show thatover the last 300 years, Europe has lost a dozen, and Australia has only 20 left of the 250 spoken at the end of the 18th century. In Brazil, about 540 (three-quarters of the total) have died out since Portuguese colonization began in 1530.
[1][1] Ranka Bjeljac-Babic,
http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_04/uk/doss01.htm, “6,000 languages: an embattled heritage”, Unesco, date published: April 2000, date accessed: August 10th, 2008.