In this day and age, it is clear that the distinctions among nations are increasingly fading, this is because populations across the globe share identical fashion, television, brands and adopt similar dietary patterns. While acknowledging certain benefits, I am convinced that the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages overall.
Admittedly, global cultural homogeniztion brings some genuine advantages. Previously, when cultures differed greatly, Vietnamese visitors to the West had to undergo severe culture shock, taking months to adapt to local customs. Such barriers consequently made visitors difficult to make friends, do works or feel isolated. Today, however, with cultural homogenization, Vietnamese youngsters are able to exposed to American culture through movies, music and digital platforms at a young age; as a result, when moving to America, they adapt within weeks rather than months. Consequently, international cooperation has become easier- trade, scientific research, and diplomacy are far smoother can be attributed to shared cultural foundations. Throughout history, most wars stemmed from cultural and religious differences, people who could not understand each other often easily fell into fear and hosbility. With shared culture, however, citizens in different nations are able to understand each other far better-fear of the unknown diminishes, laying foundation for mutual tolerance. This is conducive to global stability, as the number of inter-state wars have fallen significantly over the past fifty years, partly thanks to shared culture.
Nevertheless, the drawbacks far outweigh the benefits, particularly in terms of cultural identity loss and human heritage. Generally, today world has nearly 7000 languages-each containing a unique worldview and traditional knowledge accumulated over thousands of years. According to UNESCO, one language dies every two weeks, as young people have more tendency of switching to English for global career opportunities, by 2100 human may lose approximately half the world’s languages. Each lost language carries with unique local knowledge, such as herbal medicine, environmental understanding, oral literature, all vanishing forever from humanity. Additionally, each nations possesses a unique cultural heritage accumulated over thousands of years such as festivals, traditional food, arts and architecture, constituting the common heritage of humanity. As global culture spreads, young people increasingly favour imported cultural products, which, in turn, gradually erode local cuture, with no one to continue the traditions. In the long run, each disappearing culture represents a loss that cannot be recovered, as the world becomes the same everywhere, losing the richness and diversity that have defined human cilvilization.
To sum up, though acknowledging certain benefits brought by cultural homogenization, I firmly believe that the drawbacks are far greater as it erases cultural identity and local communities.