Could There Be Only One Culture
Could There Be Only One Culture?
Globalization is an idea which has spread throughout the whole world for the past couple centuries. Technological development has enabled the expansion of globalization. Now in 2012, the idea has evolved into a reality that to which every business, government, and individual has to adapt.
English is inarguably the global language. Ironically, it is not the largest spoken language, but it is the most wide spread. 375 million people speak it as a first language, and 375 million know English as a second language, and another 750 million people are learning it. The statistic that stands out the most, is that a third of the population is exposed to it in one way or another. The phrase, “English is taking over the world,” is definitely not an understatement. If English continues its expansion, then the world could be looking at a super-language. This would be a big step for globalization. The effects of this can only be speculated.
To understand the possibility of English taking over, we must first see the extent of its growth and how far it has reached. It is important to see the areas of society it affects the most. According to Henry Hitchings the author of The Language Wars: A History of Proper English, “In the twenty-first century the world is becoming more urban and more middle class, and the adoption of English is a symptom of this, for increasingly English serves as the lingua franca of business and popular culture.”
Hitchings also points out that English is the dominant language in other areas of society such as shipping, diplomacy, computing, medicine and education. Others may argue the extent of how dominant it is, but English is without a doubt very prominent in each of these areas.
In a study done among the students of the United Arab Emirates, they said that, “Arabic is associated with tradition, home, religion, culture, school, arts and social sciences,” whereas English, “is symbolic of modernity, work,
Globalization is an idea which has spread throughout the whole world for the past couple centuries. Technological development has enabled the expansion of globalization. Now in 2012, the idea has evolved into a reality that to which every business, government, and individual has to adapt.
English is inarguably the global language. Ironically, it is not the largest spoken language, but it is the most wide spread. 375 million people speak it as a first language, and 375 million know English as a second language, and another 750 million people are learning it. The statistic that stands out the most, is that a third of the population is exposed to it in one way or another. The phrase, “English is taking over the world,” is definitely not an understatement. If English continues its expansion, then the world could be looking at a super-language. This would be a big step for globalization. The effects of this can only be speculated.
To understand the possibility of English taking over, we must first see the extent of its growth and how far it has reached. It is important to see the areas of society it affects the most. According to Henry Hitchings the author of The Language Wars: A History of Proper English, “In the twenty-first century the world is becoming more urban and more middle class, and the adoption of English is a symptom of this, for increasingly English serves as the lingua franca of business and popular culture.”
Hitchings also points out that English is the dominant language in other areas of society such as shipping, diplomacy, computing, medicine and education. Others may argue the extent of how dominant it is, but English is without a doubt very prominent in each of these areas.
In a study done among the students of the United Arab Emirates, they said that, “Arabic is associated with tradition, home, religion, culture, school, arts and social sciences,” whereas English, “is symbolic of modernity, work,