Culture and Language Diversity: Worth Keeping?

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As communication media brings the world together more and more, we are seeing English come out on top as the lingua franca. It may not last forever, but I think English will remain the language of communication for the near future. I also think it will consolidate that position as more and more countries wire up to technology and trade.

I think that the disappearance of language and diverse cultures is a good thing as they meld more and more into a single one based on recognition by many. Recognition and familiarity breeds trust; foreign things are looked upon innitially with suspicion and distrust. Our species history is potmarked with cultures clashing and probably the worst wars between peoples are those between groups of different languages. Yes, some same language nations war with one another, but generally speaking, it is nations speaking and culturally seperate from other nations that war the most amongst nations.

Languages and cultures disappearing to become one would go a far way in stabelizing the world. A hundred or two hundred years ago it may not have been so important, because at that time we were not so bunched up on this little blue planet and recourses could still handle the population rather easily then. Now, however, recourses are dwindling and the population squeeze is cause for alarm. Now, more than ever, there is a need for direct communication without the querks of diverse cultures clouding issues. It will be even more important in years to come.

Your thoughts?
 
I agree in principle that speaking a same language increases mutual understanding. However some cultural differences exist in spite of the language (e.g. UK vs US, or even US vs Canada), which are more linked to the political system, local history and actual people who make up the society.

I think that we are going toward having one lingua franca in Europe, and this will be English. The "Arab" world (which is not really ethnically uniform) has long used classical Arabic as its lingua franca. China has Mandarin. India has Hindi and English. Yet Europe, India and China all have dozens of languages besides that (even hundreds in India's case). English is becoming increasingly like a second language in Japan and Korea. It is in the way in China too. So eventually, yes, I think that everybody will have to speak English. It will get people closer together, but it won't erase all cultural differences, only a few.

I think that all countries and regions should keep their original language for the sake of diversity and cultural richness, but I hope that the knowledge of English will bring a common field for communication fostering a better language-based understanding.
 
Maciamo said:
It will get people closer together, but it won't erase all cultural differences, only a few.

I don`t think "English" will be the "Great Eraser" of diversity -- I think it will be capitalist consumerism that does so, but the tool to corporations having an edge over their opponents in the international market will be English. This triumph of capitalist consumerism will be spread through fashion and music to the young in each succeeding generation.

Just one example -- look at Japan, the Kimono has virtually disappeared as daily clothing. Of course, I don`t think this is wholly due to English, but it is due to a new culture influx. English, however, will accelerate the influx of western culture into non-western nations further degrading diversity.

I think that all countries and regions should keep their original language for the sake of diversity and cultural richness, but I hope that the knowledge of English will bring a common field for communication fostering a better language-based understanding.

That "hope" is a good one, indeed. However, personally, I feel a uniform world culture and language is the best chance for a long lasting and stable peace. Language and culture cements regions and relationships in their bonds. Look at India and even China, due to ethnic, cultural and language diversity, there is always strife amongst the differing cultural regions within those countries. Take Japan, now, a uniform language and culture has practically erased all regional strife. If Okinawan and the Ainu of Hokaido had never had their cultures and language diluted, I might suggest that in this day and age of cheap weapons and countries willing to supply them, those areas of those people would be ripe for insurgent if their language and cultures were prone to nationalistic sentiments.

I am willing to sacrifice culture and language if it indeed would lead to a more peaceful world or even more peaceful regions. The richness would always be there for scholars or romanticists who would want to get together to study or reenact those time periods of those cultures and languages. If diversity is so much valued by those people, they will go the extra mile to seek it out. If not, then they will be just as happy listening to U2 and sipping Pepsi while wearing an English print T-shirt. What is absent through having been forgotten is not missed.
 
In as much as we support cultural variety and identity, we recognize the enormous value that a diversity of languages has to this effect. A language barrier is the most efficient self-defense of any independent community against wholesale US cultural imperialism. English may serve the purpose of communication between different cultures. But of what pertaines to the internal aspects of a culture, as much as possible should be in a language of its own. And not just in a spoken language of its own, but if possible also in a writing system of its own.

Actually, because not every language is equally suited to express certain ideas, the ideologies that make one culture different from another, are, to a certain extend, a direct consequence of the fact that a different language is spoken and written. For in the same way in which our economic interests form our opinions, so a language has its own dynamics of creating ideas. That East Asia is the culturally most diverse corner of the world is in direct corelation to the presence of more different languages and writing systems than anywhere else. This must be preserved.
 

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