Introduction
Globalization has gradually become
inevitable in the contemporary world. As countries are becoming increasingly
interconnected especially with the transmission of knowledge and information
through media technologies, many countries face the threat of cultural loss (Suárez-Orozco & Hilliard, 2004).
In the past, Americanization seems to
be the dominant culture of globalization due to its wide spread of global
organizations, which includes McDonald and Starbucks, in different parts of
the world (Global Envision, 2006). Besides venturing organizations
internationally, intangible popular culture and music also influence people heavily in the global village. Although in today’s context,
globalization is no longer solely represented by America culture (Meunier,
2010), the flow of people and rise in media still place an influence among countries.
Thus, in order to preserve indigenous
culture, countries made attempts such as promoting a common language to be used
locally as well as emphasizing the importance of having cultural identity.
Promoting
the use of Dialect
Language is considered as one of the
tangible cultures that has to be present in every nation where communication
exists. In Singapore, culture preservation is the main focus due
to its multi-culturalism nature. Bi-lingual Policy adopted stresses the use of
English as a neutral language across the different ethnic groups as well as
learning its own language to cultivate the individual ethnic culture (Tham,
1996). However, the effectiveness of such attempt might be hindered with the
current trend of ageing population Singapore which most of the elderly speak in dialect. Unfortunately, under the influence of the government policy,
today’s younger generation has already lost their ability to speak their own
dialect due to the lack of exposure. Ironically, instead of dialect, other
countries' native languages such as Japanese and Korean are offered in school for the
students to learn. Some of these languages are also graded in which might reflect the significance of those languages on par
with other core subjects.
Therefore, it is important to review the effectiveness of policies in achieving its goal in preserving local culture
while at the same time allowing globalization to take place for the countries' economic benefits. Countries can therefore stress the importance of dialects as
well to the indigenous people and allow it as an option for the younger
generation to learn. This not only help to avoid the loss of culture but also
aid in building a stronger relationship and bond across generations.
Promoting
Cultural Identity
Besides, governments have been very
active in building cultural identity for its citizens to stay grounded and
rooted. Taking Singapore as an illustration again, strong emphasis is placed on
cultivating cultural identity through embedding compulsory subject such as the
National Education (Ritter, 2013) in schools as well as encouraging citizens to
participate in the yearly National Day celebration.
Although the government has proposed these extensive
efforts in stressing the importance of having cultural identity, the
effectiveness of these approaches might not guarantee the most optimal result. Hence, it might be more useful for the nations to do public
education not restricting to only students but instead to the nation as a
whole. Moreover, through having an open discussion with citizens on the ways
they perceived to be better in promoting such identity can help to increase the
willingness and foster a stronger sense of ownership in creating identity
within the nation.
Conclusion
In all, although cultural loss might
be a prominent threat to the nations when deal with globalization, it is still
possible to preserve its culture by having the right approaches to deal with
such issue. By encouraging dialect to be spoken in the country can definitely
help to connect citizens better. Likewise, through having a strong cultural
identity in the country, people are less likely to experience cultural loss.
620 Words
References
Global Envision. (2006). Americanization of
Globalisation?. Retrieved 15 October, 2013, from: http://www.globalenvision.org/library/33/1273
Ritter, Z.S. (2013). Singapore’s Search for National Identity:
Building a Nation throught Education. USA: American Jewish University.
Meunier, S. (2010). Globalization, Americanization and Sarkozy’s
France. Princeton: aWoodrow Wilson
School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.
Suárez-Orozco, M. M, Hilliard,
D. Q, (2004). Globalization: Culture and
Education in the New Millennium. London: University of California Press.
Tham, S.C. (1996). Cultural Forces and Counter Forces in
Contemporary Singapore. Singapore: National University of Singapore.
