Final- Globalization

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 might have been the dominant culture of globalization due to its well-known international firms, which includes McDonald's and Starbucks, in different parts of the world (Global Envision, 2006). Besides venture 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 American culture (Meunier, 2010), the flow of people and the rise in technology still have influence on countries.

Thus, in order to preserve indigenous culture, countries make attempts such as promoting a common language as well as emphasizing the importance of having cultural identity.

Language is considered as one of the tangible cultures that has to be present in every nation where communication exists. In Singapore, cultural preservation is important due to its multi-cultural nature. The Bilingual policy adopted stresses the use of English as a neutral language across the different ethnic groups as well as learning their own language to cultivate the individual ethnic culture (Tham, 1996). However, the effectiveness of this attempt might hinder the ageing population in Singapore where most of the elderly speak in dialect (Wong & Teo, 2011). Unfortunately, under the influence of the government policy, most of the younger generation has already lost their ability to speak their own dialect due to a lack of exposure (Phneah, 2013). 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 which might reflect the significance of those languages.

Therefore, it is important to review the effectiveness of policies in achieving the 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 as to the indigenous people and open it up as an option for the younger generation to learn. This not only helps to avoid the loss of culture but also aids in building a stronger relationship, as well as bonding across generations.

Besides, governments have been very active in building cultural identity for the citizens. Taking Singapore for instance, strong emphasis is placed on cultivating cultural identity through embedding a compulsory program such as the National Education (Ritter, 2013) in schools as well as encouraging citizens to participate in the yearly National Day celebrations.

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 conduct public education through campaigns and intensive use of media to bring across the message. Moreover, having an open discussion with citizens on the ways they perceive 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.    

In conclusion, although cultural loss might be a prominent threat to the nations when dealing with globalization, it is still possible to preserve culture by having the right approaches to deal with such an issue. By encouraging dialects to be spoken in countries can definitely help to connect citizens better. Hence, through having a strong cultural identity in the country, people are more likely to preserve culture.

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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.

Phneah, J. (2013). Reintroduce dialects back into Singapore. Retrieved 29 October, 2013, from: http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2013/03/reintroduce-dialects-singapore

Wong, Y.M. & Teo, Z.W. (2011). The Elderly in Singapore. Retrieved 29 October, 2013, from: http://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/publications_and_papers/population_and_population_structure/ssnsep11-pg1-9.pdf