What are the reasons for losing a variety of languages and culture?
Culture is the learned and shared behavior of a community of interacting human beings. And languages are the cornerstones of a culture, defining who we are as a people. Just as the world is becoming less biologically rich, it is also becoming less culturally and linguistically diverse. There are a variety of reasons for the loss of cultures and languages.
1. Loss of Culture
a) Technology
Technology has now created the possibility of a global culture. With the invention of telephone, fax machines and the internet, communications are no longer limited by time and space. Quick transportations such as airplanes have swept away the old national boundaries and shortened the physical distance among people.
b) Impact of global media and entertainment.
Global media and entertainment companies shape understandings, values and dreams of ordinary citizens wherever they live. Local cultures are falling victim to a global culture. Few students in China like or even understand Beijing Opera; instead, they prefer Hollywood films and international stars.
The United States dominates the traffic in information and ideas. American music, American movies, American television, and American software are so dominant, so sought after, and so visible that they are now available literally everywhere on the Earth. This American culture is influencing the tastes, lives, and aspirations - in other words, culture - of virtually every nation.
c) Globalization - Economic cooperation and foreign trade
Foreign investment and international trade are taking place around the globe. This economic globalization has lead to a global culture. For example, a global fast food and drink culture has been spread all over the world by companies like McDonald's and Coca-Cola. In the meantime, local food and drink cultures are becoming less distinct and some weak ones will be gradually lost.
d) Immigration
Immigration has led to a more homogeneous society. Immigrants give up their own cultures in adaptation for the host country’s culture.
e) Physical damage done to communities either by natural disasters, disease or war.
War in Iraq destroyed not only its regime but also a culture that has developed for thousands of years. American ideology will be transplanted there.
2. Loss of Language
The world now loses a language every two weeks, a rate unprecedented in history.
The intricate combination of politics, genocide, geography and economics conspire in the demise of language.
Linguists estimate that in 100 years fewer than half of the world’s 6000 languages will still be in use. Will this mean a more peaceful, communicative worlds or an aird linguistic desert, subject to the tyranny of the monoglot yoke?
a) English is eradicating weaker languages
English language is becoming a dominant language in the world. If someone speaks English, he or she will have no difficulty communicating with people in almost every corner of the world. As a result, few people choose other small languages to study as a second language.
b) Loss of small ethnic groups.
Some small ethnic groups live a closed life without communication with the outside world. When the number of people within these ethnic groups diminishes, so do the languages they speak.
c) Political opposition to minority languages.
Some governments do not give official recognition to minority languages or aboriginal languages and do not encourage people to speak these languages. So these languages get less spoken and will ultimately become extinct.
