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Suzanne Bardasz
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Teaching English Abroad-Cultural Imperialism?
November 7, 2005 - 01:50 AM
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I can't help but wonder if teaching English abroad is a form of cultural imperialism? On the one hand, English is becoming increasingly used in many different business/cultural settings. Plus, there is a demand from schools and students to learn English. On the other hand, are cultures being destroyed and languages becoming extinct because of this cultural phenomenon? I honestly see both sides of this issue.
Any other thoughts?
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Abdul Wadood Jamal
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Re: Teaching English Abroad-Cultural Imperialism?
November 7, 2005 - 02:57 AM
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Language is the mean for communicating a message. The words are meaningless unless they communicate the proper message to the receiver. Due to globalization the world is become as one village of different languages, cultures and nations. For communicating the message it is necessary to have a common mean of communication. In present era the English language is being adopt as that common mean, therefore, it is increasingly used in different business, cultural set ups and there is demand from schools and students to learn English, which can not be criticized for the destruction cultures and extinction of languages; local/national languages and cultures are the assets of each society and nation. The existence and improving of theses assets are necessary at their position.
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Saladin
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Re: Teaching English Abroad-Cultural Imperialism?
November 10, 2005 - 05:38 AM
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I think the term "cultural imperialism" manifests obviously in a country like Algeria.
The French occupied the country from 1830 until 1963, the period during which they systematically uprooted the Arabic language and "francophonized" the country. De Gaule even considered Algeria as a core part of France.
Algerian generations who witnessed the French occupation became nearly francophonized, and lots of Algerians went to France as French citizens. Now, the French people still look at them as "pieds-noirs" or "black feet" citizens. Moreover, people like Jean-Marie le-Pen and Nicolas Sarcozy still work on expelling them from the country.
France has erased their identity, francophonized them, and now it even does not want them to live as equal French citizens. I wonder where the heck is the slogan "Liberty, Equity, and Brotherhood" from this respect.
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Anu maheshwari
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Cultural imperialism?.....naah
December 21, 2005 - 10:53 AM
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i agree with wadood that english offers the best means to connect and communicate on a global level. and who says english is a FOREIGN language? i think its as much my own language as it is of the English themselves.
This language opens itself to every culture that it comes in contact with(though this fact owes very much to the english colonisation). But whatever.....I feel that today english has become a tool to empower ourselves. And in the GLOBAL VILLAGE, 'Cultural Imperialism' is a term which has almost lost its currency and is soon going to exhaust itself !!!
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Hayk
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Re: Teaching English Abroad-Cultural Imperialism?
December 26, 2005 - 08:59 AM
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I agree with most said here. But as it was mentioned spread of any language backed by the fact that it belongs to imperial or otherwise powerful country is a double-edge sword.
Take the example of spanish (and ultimately english) coloniazation of North America or english colonization of Australia and Tasmania. Many local languages have become extinct because of that and even in Papua New Guinea now, where there are more than 1000 local languages on a territory size of Texas state, this effect can be felt. Local traditions, habits and everything that characterized those people till now are given up to be replaced by english language or sometimes som creole created on top of it.
Btu now again, as mentioned above its inevitable and the best is to integrate some of english culture and language in daily lifes of those people and preserve the traditional at the same time!
And yes, all boils down on how good certain nations and countries are in this flat world to deal with this adoptation of new vs. preserving the traditional!
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Injy
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Re: Teaching English Abroad-Cultural Imperialism?
December 26, 2005 - 11:08 AM
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Reading the thread, I thought of well, English is a Lingua Franca leading me to search for the definition of Lingua Franca, here the definition from Encyclopedia Britannica:
auxiliary or compromise language used between groups having no other language in common. Examples are English and French for diplomatic purposes, Swahili in eastern Africa, Hindi and English in India, Melanesian Pidgin in the South Pacific, and Bazaar Malay in the East Indian archipelago. The term lingua franca (“Frankish language”) was perhaps first applied to a jargon or pidgin based on southern French and Italian, developed by crusaders and traders for use in the eastern Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. In the post-Renaissance period of European exploration, many other such contact languages developed—e.g., Indo-Portuguese (Ceylon), Annamite-French (Indochina), Papiamento (based on Spanish, spoken in Curaçao), and several types of Pidgin English—all of these based on the languages of the European colonizing nations. Insofar as a European language was simplified or distorted in pronunciation or grammar, it became a pidgin. When such a pidgin or other lingua franca replaced the original language of a speech community, it became a creole.
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Jason Lee
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Imperialists
January 20, 2006 - 10:30 AM
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Imperialists do not neccessarily speak English. It is simply a legacy of British colonization that many parts of the Asian world have experienced imperialism. Perhaps today the issue of imperialism comes from cultural imperialism as opposed to language led imperialism.
Learning English is an economic strategy and a must in today's world. However, after the mastering of the language, it becomes much much easier to tune in to mass media that propagates homogenity. For example, MTV, American sitcoms as well as English literature.
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Anu maheshwari
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???
January 22, 2006 - 02:02 AM
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Zerodude,
Let me get this straight!
Are you implying that MTV and American sitcoms propagate homogeneity?
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Hayk
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Re: Teaching English Abroad-Cultural Imperialism?
January 23, 2006 - 11:10 AM
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I think what Zerodude meant was homogeneity in terms of culture, eamning American culture. But then its not homogeneity but a cultur propagation! And indeed it is, take Japan for example. Youth are getting more and mroe of flavors of US-originated street culture and freedom notion in everything they do. A research showed that 20 years before compared to now japanese were clinging more to traditional and local cultural points whereas now there is a big element of Americanism in there, whether in music, arts, dances, or in simply way of dressing.
In France, at one point of time, french radio stations started prohibiting emissions of english(mostly english but also some other language) for not more then 20% or so if remember correct. Being caused an an increasing alarm of Americnization of french youth government decided to act like this..
So right, American culture(I would say British) is spreading around and language of that culture facilitates access to info and gives larger comprehension. And opposing to what you say its not British but American culture that spreads, althouth it wasnt America who colonized India nor China and not even Japan...
To conclude, language plays a big role but its culture that spreads and with it also the language.
Imperialism, as you put the word, can be rather nicely defined if you take an economic development level of a country. And yes in that case America is Imperialist country, its currency is the reserve currency of the world and its language is the lingua franka of this day, whether other nations want it or no!
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Joel
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Who does English now belong too
March 3, 2006 - 09:09 AM
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One of the mistakes in critisising English as a cultural invader, is in defining who English belongs too. For a culture to be threatened then there has to be a clear dominating culture.
It is quite clear that English is no longer the 'Language' of England/UK, it also does not belong to the USA. In fact as you go around the globe, the adaptation of English as an semi-independent language by particular countries or sub-groups within a country is marked.
As a UK English speaker I certainly find some Jamaican pattois close to unintelligable. It has different words, differing usages and a distinctive accent. The same can be said of many English speaking groups. This flexibility of English is, in my opinion, why it has become so widely used as a Lingua-franca.
English is a language that has spent the last 2,000 years learning how to adopt and integrate new words and this flexibility and openness is why it now succeeds on a world scale.
What is apparent is that there is a standard English that rises above English speaking countries and is shared with other language speakers. This shared English is now so widely spoken (appox 1 billion speakers at some level) that for the first time humanity has the possibility of a true world language.
When we consider the advantages of being able to communicate freely with our peers, such as TIG offers, then we really have reached a wonderful new world. It is irrelevent as too which language we use, the ability to communicate is the Golden prize we have all gained.
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A. Tsang
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Speaking good English is our status quo
March 21, 2006 - 04:40 AM
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For many Chinese, learning English mean climbing the hierachy ladder. If u want to work at some big company in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, u need to hold degree(es) awarded by English speaking university. Speaking good English, holding an "English" degree, English speaking country's passport and consuming Western brand products already become our status quo.
That is a kind of "Imperialism" but now it fuse into our society.
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Hayk
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Re: Teaching English Abroad-Cultural Imperialism?
April 22, 2006 - 01:51 AM
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Originally posted by jconxus
First and foremost, the english language is limited and doesn't accurately translate to all language.
So is every other language! Languages, in the time of their formation, were comprising words, expressions and phrases decribing their environment, events and surrounding subjects and thus couldnt be unlimited due to limitidness of environments where they were created and further developed...
Granted the spread of english is allow us to communicate cross-culturally, in a sense, it give english-speaking people a home court advantage in the business world and beyond becuase everything is being defined on their terms.
It is normal that industrial, political, or economic strength of a country spreads its language.. Considering that during the Industrial Revolution, starting from end of 18th century the UK was having a booming economy and considering later staring from the end of WW1 the US came to replace the UK in terms of economic and political leverage, it is not surprising to see english language proliferation throughout the world...
There are words in the english language that don't accurately translate in other cultures, therefore, a person who is using english as a second language is limited in their ability to truely express themselves the way that they want.
Not true... I m not a native english speaker, and nor i m a native french speaker but living and studying abroad made me take many words from those lanuages of which equivalents are unknown to me in my native langauge. Moreover, i think in french currently, or in english depending on the context.
Believe me living, working and studying abroad changes a lot your mentality, your habits, and everything else.
But one can never forget his/her own language  that's almost impossible unless one really wants to...
H.
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Jullien Gordon
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Re: Teaching English Abroad-Cultural Imperialism?
April 22, 2006 - 11:38 AM
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First and foremost, the english language is limited and doesn't accurately translate to all language. Granted the spread of english is allow us to communicate cross-culturally, in a sense, it give english-speaking people a home court advantage in the business world and beyond becuase everything is being defined on their terms. There are words in the english language that don't accurately translate in other cultures, therefore, a person who is using english as a second language is limited in their ability to truely express themselves the way that they want.
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Anu maheshwari
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Re: Teaching English Abroad-Cultural Imperialism?
April 23, 2006 - 03:37 AM
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Originally posted by jconxus
First and foremost, the english language is limited and doesn't accurately translate to all language. Granted the spread of english is allow us to communicate cross-culturally, in a sense, it give english-speaking people a home court advantage in the business world and beyond becuase everything is being defined on their terms.
well isnt it a good thing that 'english speaking people' can interact with each other no matter where they come from .
it is a must to know ones own language . but whats the harm in learning english so that everyone can communicate freely without any linguistic barriers. india is a multilingual country and i am afraid to even imagine what the sitution would have been if we didnt have Hindi and english as common languages for use.
In India 22 languages are scheduled for official use:
Assamese — official language of Assam
Bengali — official language of Tripura and West Bengal
Bodo — official language of Assam
Dogri — official language of Jammu and Kashmir
Gujarati — official language of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Gujarat
Hindi — official language of Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal
Kannada — official language of Karnataka
Kashmiri — official language of Jammu and Kashmir
Konkani — official language of Goa
Maithili — official language of Bihar
Malayalam — official language of Kerala and Lakshadweep
Manipuri or Meithei — official language of Manipur
Marathi — official language of Maharashtra
Nepali — official language of Sikkim
Oriya — official language of Orissa
Punjabi — official language of Punjab and Chandigarh, second official language of Delhi and Haryana
Sanskrit — language of Hinduism, required teaching in many schools
Santali - language of the Santhal tribals of the Chota Nagpur Plateau (comprising the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and Chattisgarh)
Sindhi - language of the Sindhi community
Tamil — official language of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry
Telugu — official language of Andhra Pradesh
Urdu — official language of Jammu and Kashmir, some districts in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_languages_of_India
moreover this is just the tip of the iceberg...;-)
these languages have many dialects in them and sometimes the speaker of one dialect cannot understand the other one.
for example hindi has its own dialects ;
1.Awadhi
2.Bundeli
3.Chhattisgarhi — language of Chhattisgarh
4.Hariyanavi (Haryanvi) — language of Haryana
5.Hindustani — a mixture of Hindi and Urdu, spoken largely in the Northern part of India.
6.Kanauji — language of Uttar Pradesh
7.Marwari — language of the Marwar Region in Rajasthan
it would have been utter chaos without a common tongue !
Originally posted by jconxus
There are words in the english language that don't accurately translate in other cultures, therefore, a person who is using english as a second language is limited in their ability to truely express themselves the way that they want.
this is not a problem specific to english.
each language has certain limitations.
a few years back i was doing some translation from Hindi/Urdu to English and i stumbled across this word
" abhimaan" which to my surprise doesn't have a corrosponding term in English. i had to change the whole paragraph to express the sentiment that the single word " abhimaan" carried !
we in India have 'Hinglish' , a mixture of English and Hindi. there is also an institute here called CIEFL( Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages) which distinguishes between Indian english and Standard english.
there are certain aspects imperialism which english language inadvertently supports . But the positives of learning english are far too much. English doesnt appear a foreign language anymore, as it has been so 'chutneyfied' to embrace each culture it comes in contact with.
ciao!:-)
Anu
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Jullien Gordon
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Re: Teaching English Abroad-Cultural Imperialism?
May 1, 2006 - 03:53 AM
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Thanks for all of your insight and wisdom. I agree with a lot of what you have said, however, the reason that there are so many dialects in India, Nigeria, and many other countries throughout the world is that language is inextricable from culture and land. When you take away someone's language you are also taking away their culture. The reason English, French, and Spanish are taught internationally is because they were the colonizers of most of the world. I don't know how many of your agree with colonization, but I don't. Replacing a people's native tongue was one step of colonization. Relgion, culture, government, and economic systems were also parts of that process. It provided another way to create division among these culture between those who could speak English and those who couldn't. As a result, class, economic, and political systems in which race could not be the differentiating factor were established which have contributed heavily to how the world is today.
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