Globalization and Language
Globalization and Language
Globalization is the process of something becoming global, being transformed from a local or regional phenomena into a global one. With globalization, there is a movement of people coming together, unifying into a single society and functioning together. This process is not only an economic one, but also affects the technologies, politics, and cultures of the entire world. It is facilitated by the media of communications. Through radio and satellite information, we can reach the entire globe almost instantly; important events, or those deemed important by the people controlling the media, are broadcast around the world. This rapid flow of information around the earth is the globalization of knowledge, which is generally a good thing. However, with globalization there is the fear of homogenization when it comes to local cultures and customs. With popular culture being broadcast everywhere and imitated, the entire world is slowly starting to look, sound, smell, and even taste the same, no matter where you travel. This effect of globalization is commonly seen as a negative consequence of the modern world. Since the sharing of information is an integral part of globalization, the language or languages this information is transmitted in is fundamental to the process. Currently, experts believe there are around 6,500 languages in use today. Out of those, however, only 11 languages account for more than half of what the world’s population speaks daily. Those languages include Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, French, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, German, Japanese, Arabic, and English. On the flip side, it is believed that more than half of the world’s languages have fewer than 5,000 people currently speaking it, and on average one language is lost every two weeks. Since language is one of the major signifiers and connecting factors of a culture, it can be inferred by just looking at these statistics that so many languages being
Globalization is the process of something becoming global, being transformed from a local or regional phenomena into a global one. With globalization, there is a movement of people coming together, unifying into a single society and functioning together. This process is not only an economic one, but also affects the technologies, politics, and cultures of the entire world. It is facilitated by the media of communications. Through radio and satellite information, we can reach the entire globe almost instantly; important events, or those deemed important by the people controlling the media, are broadcast around the world. This rapid flow of information around the earth is the globalization of knowledge, which is generally a good thing. However, with globalization there is the fear of homogenization when it comes to local cultures and customs. With popular culture being broadcast everywhere and imitated, the entire world is slowly starting to look, sound, smell, and even taste the same, no matter where you travel. This effect of globalization is commonly seen as a negative consequence of the modern world. Since the sharing of information is an integral part of globalization, the language or languages this information is transmitted in is fundamental to the process. Currently, experts believe there are around 6,500 languages in use today. Out of those, however, only 11 languages account for more than half of what the world’s population speaks daily. Those languages include Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, French, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, German, Japanese, Arabic, and English. On the flip side, it is believed that more than half of the world’s languages have fewer than 5,000 people currently speaking it, and on average one language is lost every two weeks. Since language is one of the major signifiers and connecting factors of a culture, it can be inferred by just looking at these statistics that so many languages being
Cited: Amaladoss, Michael. “Global Homogenization” . Dubner, Stephen J. “What Will Globalization Do to Languages?” The New York Times, May 28, 2008. Hoelzgen, Joachim. “Language Nerds to Tackle Globalization” Spiegel Online, June 4, 2008.