How Does Globalization Relate to the Changing Geography of the World - Assignment Example

Globalisation, ‘the end of geography’. The English language as the globalization instrument within Japan. The interrelations between English and Japanese language. The emergency of this research is determined by the fact that the modern world has undergone dramatic changes which still matter they got the definition "globalization". These changes are characterized by increasingly interconnected global system. In the context of a globalizing world there are a lot of significant changes in the socio-cultural sphere. In this paper we focused our attention on Japan, whose peculiarity lies in the fact that its modern traditions are the combination of East and West innovations. So, for example, experts from the United States who work in the international companies in Japan bring the elements of their culture and language in Japanese society. The disappearance of national barriers that divide the world and the increasing interconnectedness open a wide range of opportunities for the information exchange. In all these processes the language plays one of the most important roles. In this paper, we consider borrowings from English language in the Japanese and also we critically evaluate its impact on society of Japan. In the mosern world the international language is English and in many countries it is considered to be (officially or not) the second language. This phenomenon makes it possible to say that the nations unite in a single society, speaking the same language. Does this mean that we are witnessing "the end of geography"? The aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the proposition that globalization is leading to the end of geography using the example of Japanese language and the English borrowings in it. During the work over this paper we analyze and evaluate that the phenomenon of the ‘end of geography’ is not so vivid and the boundaries between countries are slightly blurred but not completely washed away, so geography remains vital to its study. Ulrich Beck, the research worker who studies globalization, argues that: "Globalization affects mainly the social micro-level, structured on the genesis of certain forms of cultural, socio-cultural systems and the genesis of ethnic and cultural systems." (Beck, 1999) The most successful model developed in relation to globalization, belongs to Japan. Throughout most of its history, Japan has shaped their culture on the basis of borrowing religious doctrines of Buddhism, Confucian ethical and religious system, arts and crafts from China, however, since the Meiji Restoration, the country has become, so to say, westernized very rapidly. The peak of this Westernization of Japan accounts for the years of American military occupation, when the country gained access to the values ​​of Western liberal democracy. For a long time the Japanese gained information from the West, being guided by the slogan "Eastern spirit, Western technology." However, in recent years the Japanese have made tangible progress not only in the technological and economic development, but also in preserving their national spiritual culture, and technology has become rightfully called the Japanese ones. This happened due to the innate psychological closeness of the Japanese from foreigners, formed in the period of isolation of the country, which lasted more than two centuries during the reign of the Tokugawa clan. The Japanese language is the most vivid example of globalization. The number of Americanisms in the modern Japanese is very large, almost every English word can be borrowed by Japanese speakers, at least as a part of some word-combinations. There are a lot of compound words and phrases that are created from the British roots in Japan and do not have English parallels: wan-man-basu or wan-man "a bus without a conductor" (one + man + bus), no-iron "product that shouldnt be ironed "(no + iron), no-mai-kaa-dee" day, when it is recommended to refrain from the use of private cars "(not + my + car + a day). English borrowings in the Japanese language are written special alphabet - katakana, and you can find quite a lot of full text, entirely written using this alphabet, with only small patches of the other characters and the alphabet - Hiragana. These texts consist of Americanisms with the addition of only grammatical elements, the minimum necessary verbs and Japanese proper names. However, this does not mean that the Japanese language is filled with boundless Americanisms. Conversely, not for the first decade there exists almost unchanged balance between Americanisms and other vocabulary. A number of areas are almost entirely given to Americanism, which constitute 53% of the terms of management, 75% of the terms of marketing, 80% of trade terms, and even 99% of computer terminology (Loveday, 1996: 101-103). A lot of these borrowings are concentrated in the lexis of such fields like sports, tourism, pop music, cooking, fashion, consumption of household appliances and so on. These areas mainly can be simply divided into two: high technology and prestigious consumption. In this very spheres the globalization is faster and foremost affects peoples daily lives. In Japan, there is even a term "katakana profession." These are the prestigious profession like an interior designer, fashion designer of haute-couture; terminology of these professions consists of Americanisms and is written in katakana (Tanaka, 1990 p. 90). In essence, the Japanese borrowings from the English language are separated into a kind of "ghetto-style language", though it is quite prestigious one, beyond which there are few borrowings. As it may seem to be strange, but in Japan the level of knowledge in English (and the other languages​​)os quite low. At school everyone learns learning English, but this subject is one of the most disliked and, after graduation, if person does not associate his/her future professional life (for example, running a foreign trade company) with the English language, then he/she can even forget what he/she used to know. One of the American research workers who specialize in Japanese language interviewed 461 informants. All of them once studied English, but only 0.4% said they use it at home, 5% - that speak it with their friends (including foreigners), 9% - use English in the professional field, and 54% said they do not speak it at all (Loveday, 1996. p. 175-176). Apparently, the area of language here shows some common Japanese model of behavior. In Japan, the country that has always been distinguished by insularity and isolation from the other world, spontaneously developed a model of such behavior, which allows people and culture to simultaneously fit to the globalization and preserve their traditions and their culture. The development of Japan in the past served as a model in this case; in Japanese culture there are a lot of the Chinese borrowings, never formerly associated with the active knowledge of the Chinese language. The above examples of Americanisms, invented in Japan, formed not only by the rules of English word formation, as according to the rules of education in the Japanese but are the compound words of Chinese roots. Of course, it is difficult to say how long Japan will be able to withstand the chosen her path under the powerful pressure of the globalization. With all the structural differences, functionally the role of English in modern Japanese society is similar to the role of the Chinese language in the past centuries, and the Chinese (Cango) and English (Gairaigo) layers of vocabulary are of different stylistic characteristics and are similar to word-formation opportunities to the words that broken away from the target language source. There are quite many discussions concerning what does the English language means to the Japanese people all over the country. Thus, the situation is paradoxical. On the one hand, the researchers write that English in Japan is everywhere, like the air that the social atmosphere requires the knowledge of the language. But, on the other hand, some of them point out that in Japan the level of bilingualism is very low and it exists only at the individual or family levels. Outside observer, at least in major Japanese cities, the role of the English language can seem very significant: a lot of ads, signs are written in English, and over the past two decades, their number has increased markedly. Here we can observe some geographical pattern. Language of the written signs, for example, can vary this way: in the Shinto temples of Nikko signs in English are few, but at the same time at the railway scheme district of Kyoto - Osaka we can read the names of the stations of the main lines in two languages, ​​but the station local lines, in which the foreigners are rarely interested, these line-names marked only in Japanese. According to the Japanese standard representations, for them - the Japanese people - there is Japanese language, while for others - there is the English, but it should be used only in case of necessity. For a significant number of the Japanese the issue of communicating with foreigners still not too relevant, and their native language in considered to be enough. Not only once in Japan there appeared the idea that the English language must be regarded not as a language of United States, but as one of international communication, it should not be necessarily associated with Americans and American culture. From this it follows that the Japanese do not simply adopt the vocabulary of the English language, but use it as a tool to communicate with foreigners and to enrich their culture and country. The tourists and business partners from different countries mainly communicate in English, besides English language is much easier for the foreigners to learn than the Japanese. In conclusion we can say that in the case under the study we do not observe the so called ‘end of geography’. Of course, such a large-scale phenomenon of the present stage of world development as globalization generates the profound changes in various spheres of public life. English is not imposed to the Japanese society, but is offered as a mean of international communication, which allows both the foreign countrys and the Japanese economies to get to the next level of development. This language opens up new opportunities for all the world countries, for example, a single language that everyone is able to understand and speak enables society to remain a single entity; this can prevent even some conflicts. Globalization is one of the most important aspects of the development of society in the modern world, it blurs the boundaries between nations and cultures, but in this context we can not say that it reduces the role of geography and leads to its end. So, to us the phenomenon of ‘the end of geography’ seems to be non-suitable in the case of Japanese language within the frames of globalization. Annotated bibliography Bates Stephen (Senior Fellow). The End of Geography. Annenberg Washington Program. Washington DC, USA.1995. Retrieved October 23rd, 2014 from http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/cybspasy/sbates.html This article is posted on the official website of the Yale. It is mainly focused on the topic of globalization with regard to the field of languages. The author covers the topic of how globalization can help the languages which now are in danger of extinction. It is a wide research full of useful facts for the students and other researchers. The author claims that: "They (the languages) function as vehicles for the transmission of cultural traditions, environmental understandings and knowledge about medicinal plants." This article is useful for the students who are interested in the branch of globalization that deals with languages. The article is written with the use of quite simple language that makes it easy to understand and penetrate into the given issue. Beck Ulrich. What Is Globalization? Polity Press; New Ed. edition (26 Nov 1999). Ulrich Beck is a famous German sociologist and political philosopher, professor of the Ludwig-Maximilian’s University and the London School of Economics. In his book “What is globalization” the author provides the readers with interesting debated about the phenomenon of globalization. The author shows different points of view on concerning the given issue and critically evaluates it. Beck precisely examines different paradoxes of globalization, with regard to society, economics, politics, ecology and culture. Also Beck suggests ten ways of addressing and answering the challenges of the global age. Mainly the book is focused on social problems of the globalization phenomenon. Bethlehem Daniel. The End of Geography: The Changing Nature of the International System and the Challenge to International Law. The European Journal of International Law Vol. 25 no.1. 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of EJL Ltd. Globalization & Languages: Building on Our Rich Heritage. Materials of the UNESCO international conference. United Nations University. Retrieved October 23rd, 2014 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001831/183170E.pdf Loveday L. Language Contact in Japan. A social-Linguistic History. Oxford Press, 1996. The author of this book is a very famous researcher Leo J. Loveday, Professor of Linguistics, Doshisha University in Japan. So he knows the language and the society from the inside. This book reveals the main peculiarities of the Japanese language and the style of life in this country. His study is mainly focused on the Chinese and English influence on the Japanese language and the changes it has undergone in the recent yeas – the era of globalization. In this book the authors provides statistics that shows the percentage of borrowings and include the examples of them. This article depicts the linguistic situation in Japan and is understandable even for those who are not acquainted with the Japanese culture and history. Tanaka 1990 – Tanaka K. “Intelligent Elegance”. Women in Japanese Advertising // Unwrapping Japan. Society and Culture in Anthropological Perspective. Manchester, 1990. Turin Mark. Yale Global, 3 December 2013. Globalization Helps Preserve Endangered Languages Retrieved October 23rd, 2014 from http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/globalization-helps-preserve-endangered-languages Read More