Native American Culture Essay

Living in a post-colonial world, combined with continuous advancements in technology, our world becomes more globalized with every passing day. A common understanding of globalization is that it positively encourages a spreading of culture and beliefs, which thus creates a stronger interconnection between people on a global scale. However, it is vital to examine whether this spread of culture is equitable throughout the entire world, and look into which cultures are being spread and which cultures are being suppressed. Language is an integral part of culture, and individually, each person’s cultural identity. While there are multiple languages spoken in the world, language in itself is a common tool used by every person since it is our

The Ladakh region is a “remote region north of the Indian Himalayan range.” (Bleth) This region is a very unique place in the world in the sense that until recently it had been relatively untouched by the rapidly changing, modernizing, and globalizing world. The area of Ladakh is very “isolated from the rest of the world, and was characterized by a way of life based on harmony with nature and strong community ties” (van Beek), attributes that are often forgotten in our globalized world. Life in Ladakh is recurrently compared to a modern utopia. Helena Norberg-Hodge, author of Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, describes Ladakh as “a society which there is neither waste nor pollution, a society in which crime is virtually nonexistent, communities are healthy and strong, and a teenage boy is never embarrassed to be gentle and affectionate with his mother or grandmother.” (Norberg-Hodge 4) The Ladakhi people are frequently used as an example to clearly showcase the negative impact globalization has on culture. Life in Ladakh “is now rapidly being destroyed by ill-conceived, if not ill-willed development, modernization, or "Western industrial monoculture".”(van Beek) According to Norberg-Hodge, the process of globalization and spread of modern Western-influenced culture is “undermining the very foundations of the traditional culture and

Rupchandra Gopali, an English teacher at a school in Nepal states, “English is one medium that can be used in every country, whether people know other languages or not. If they know English, they can do jobs everywhere.” (Hildebrandt) Nepal is a country that has embraced globalization for better or for worse. Private schools in Nepal have been using English rather than Nepali as the language of instruction for multiple decades; however, the total number of schools (both private and public) using English as the only language has increased significantly over the last few decades. For many Nepalese students today, the key to success is “not so much education in general, [but rather] competency in the English language…” (Hildebrandt) Many public schools are losing students to private schools, since the students will be guaranteed an education in English. Losing enrollment in public schools equates to losing funding from the government, which could result in the closing of some schools in extreme cases. In an effort to maintain enrollment in public schools, some “community-run schools have started teaching in English, which is assumed to mean a better education by dint of its long association with