Language death, one of the side effects that globalization caused.

I remember as a kid, I used to wonder why there are so many languages in the world and why we cannot speak the same language. I used to think that it would be so much more efficient since we do not have to spend years on studying foreign languages. But now, I appreciate the linguistic diversity more than anyone else that I know.

We all know that we are living in an increasingly globalized world. We eat food and use products from all around the world. But one of the issues of globalization is that usually minor and economically weak culture one-sidedly assimilate to the dominant and economically powerful culture. It is usually Eastern and African countries that adopt Western culture and lose their own traditional value and culture. It seldom happens in the other way around. Hence, this world is becoming culturally hegemonizing in a way.

I mentioned something about language at the beginning because I am talking about language. I feel like people are not very interested in or care about language death. And they have not realized that how important language is to us. Tom Colls, a journalist for BBC, expresses, in his article, how language is essential to one’s culture. He says “languages are not simply a collection of words. They are living, breathing organisms holding the connections and associations that define a culture. When a language becomes extinct, the culture in which it lived is lost too.” According to there are approximately 7000 languages that are spoken in the world in 2009. However, it is said that only 90% of them will cease to exist within 100 years. I think this is a serious issue that we all start pay attention to. I am specifically focusing on language because, I can relate it to my personal experience.

My mother tongue is the mix of standard Japanese and Kumamotoben, which is a Japanese dialect spoken in Kumamoto Province, which is the southern part of Kyushu island, because that is what my parents spoke to me and many people who I interacted with when I used to live in Japan. This dialect is in danger of extinction. Now, it is mainly spoken by people who are older than 50. For young people, there is a wide range of the ability of understanding but most of them do not speak it with other young people in daily life. Some youth cannot even understand it. I feel extremely ashamed of this fact, because I truly believe that my heritage is in that dialect.

The reason why my dialect became endangered is because it used to be prohibited to speak dialect in many schools in the Province until 1970s. The purpose was to eliminate the conflicts caused by misunderstandings between the people who spoke different dialects. Also, standard Japanese gave them more opportunities especially in terms of job. According to the many people whom I know and who are old, most of the people agreed with the promotion of standard Japanese.

Can't this relate to the globalization? English has become the international language and it already has killed a number of small languages. I have met a person from Marshall Islands. His mother tongue is supposed to be Marshallese, but he is a lot more fluent in English because his parents taught him English first. They thought that it would be helpful for him since Marshallese is spoken only by about 60.000 people. The number of people who learn English is getting bigger and bigger as the world is becoming globalized, because English will be essential if one wants to get a good job. What I really hope is that the people will realize how important language is before English becomes the first language of every single human beings in the world.

Work Cited

Colls, Tom. "BBC - Today - The Death of Language?" BBC News. 2009. Accessed April 25, 2016. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8311000/8311069.stm.