One world one Culture Essay
One world one culture
Essay
Dr Kenneth J. Pakenham Associate prof. Emeritus in the Dept of English University of Akron, Ohio, USA. Has earned his Ph D from University of Pittsburg. He specializes in: Theory and Practice of teaching/Learning ESL ESL Reading Text Book writing, First and 2nd Language Acquisition and Sociolinguistics.
JO MCENTIRE Has done BA from Manchester University. > An ESL Faculty at Shoreline Community College, Washington, USA > Has authored a lot of textbooks for several Universities.
JESSICA WILLIAMS - A Ph. D in applied Linguistics and is Professor Emerita Linguistics at University of Illinois, Chicago, USA > Has several scholarly articles and textbooks to her credit.
ANALYSIS OF THE TEXT
> Cultures are not static but dynamic and in the continuous state of flux.
> Due to globalization, countries have interconnected socially, economically and culturally.
> Immigration leads to crisscrossing of cultures.
> The process of cultural levelling is also achieved through establishment of companies like Shell, Samsung and Mitsubshi.
>These huge companies export same products to every nook and corner of the world leading to what sociologists called “cultural levelling".
> These companies capture the energy of culturally diverse people to survive in the competitive environment.
> Cultures that were once distinct will become similar: every shopping mall in every country will have the same stores, clothes will be of same brand, Toyota adds will be on every TV etc.
>Experts argue that this standardization diminishes the rich value of cultures.
> Some sociologists argue that individual cultures cannot be threatened easily because a country can go to any extant to safeguard and protect it's culture. For example North American icon, Starbucks was opened in 587-year-old Forbidden City of Beijing. Chinese government decided to remove it from that historical place and shifted it to some less culturally important location.
>Globalization also has profound effect on individuals working for these MNCS for example employees working for outsourcing in India( sending some of the work of a company in one country to be done in another country)
> India produces 44% outsourcing worldwide because English-speaking-Indians are ready to work for less money and longer hours than workers in developed countries.
> These companies give extensive training to their employees to appear “American".
>Globalization and outsourcing has brought some advantages like increase in economy.
> But this progress is coming at a price.
> Before Globalization, cultural changes were slow.
> Americanization of employees at Indian call centres is rapid. They take western names, wear western clothes leading to 'hybrid culture' and thereby hybrid life.
> The American media also had profound effect on culture in other countries. American media communicates American point of view on Sex, religion etc.
> America is sometimes accused of cultural bullying; pushing other cultures to accept American values.
> But this accusation seems unreasonable since the demand for American movies and television has grown significantly, resulting in huge profit to American film industry.
> America is sometimes accused of cultural bullying; pushing other cultures to accept American values.
> But this accusation seems unreasonable since the demand for American movies and television has grown significantly, resulting in huge profit to American film industry.
> Governments of some countries have attempted to limit the demand for western media.
> Eg. France has tried to protect French media against Hollywood's influence by restricting the number of American shows and movies.
> Most countries welcome the influx of western media. > Young people can listen Lady Gaga in Bulgaria, serf western internet sites in Vietnam.
> Media communicates ideas and values of the culture of origin. This does not mean that these values replace those of anther culture.
Rap music originated as an expression of African street culture. It became popular quickly, spread throughout the globe.
> In 2006, rap came to Afghanistan through artist DJ Besho. They uses same distinctive rap beats, rap in Dari-a local language, avoids profanity-a feature of western rap. Thus They have taken music from western culture and imprinted it with its own.
> To adapt ones culture is an artistic part of human survival.
> So the influence of one culture on another has been there since ages.
> Globalization has only increased its speed of this process.
> As long as cultures interact, they will continue to adapt and change.
Summarizing one world: one culture.
The article "one world: one culture?" was written in 2013 by three authors who were Pakenham, Mclntire, and Williams. Firstly, the authors introduced the topic by showing out two main factors which caused culture change. The two factors were immigration and globalization. Secondly, they gave evidence of how globalization affected culture such as cultural leveling. Also, cultural leveling caused some pros such as getting new cultures to strength their own unique characteristics. Besides, there are still some cons from cultural leveling. In the third part of the article, it talked about how globalization affected India, which was influenced deeply in their culture, economy, and clothes. There were also two arguments that did globalization bring advantages or not. It seems that globalization was a bad influence on them. On the other hand, American media was a representative for globalization which dominated other countries. There was also a conflict between the citizen and the leadership who were trying to prevent the attack of American culture. After all, the human demand on this western culture won by the fact that movies and music production from the USA were being spread out all over the world.
Glossary
adapt ( v) : to change something to suit different conditions or uses.
distinct (adj): clearly noticeable, casy to identify.
dynamic (adj): energetic and forceful.
immigration (n): when one goes to live in a country different from on country of origin.
globalisation (n): the phenomenon where available goods and service or social and cultural values gradually become similar in all parts the world .
erosion (n): the process of gradual loss of an element as a result of a ongoing process
hybrid (n): anything formed from two or more different things
profanity (n): extremely disrespectful usage of language; slang
elimination (n): removal
bland (n): insipid and uninteresting
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