Human geography regularly referred as the cultural geography encompasses all the human aspects of why certain things happen in certain places. These human aspects may involve demographics, farming, health, culture and industry. Human geography shows the interaction of human beings with their habitats and resources and the outcome of their lifestyles due to this interactions and relationships.
The process of globalization as an aspect of human geography influences all elements of the social relationships such as policies in trade, counties’ development, attitude to the climate change and the use of resources (Agnew 1996, p.26). The present essay analyses the language as a peculiarity of human geography. Obviously, the process of globalization influences the current position of the languages, when the weak one can be lost due to the high level of English language’s integration.
Globalization is one of the major aspects of human geography. In globalization, one can discuss economy, finance, culture, consumption, emerging communication trends and religion. However, this process has its benefits and its effects. On one hand, globalization is the central issue in the world today.
This can be illustrated by the emerging business trends globally, for example, the use of the internet to advertise and make sale of goods and services. On the other hand, globalization has affected the economies of various countries, whereby, some countries brain wash others so as to exploit their resources and benefit themselves and their citizens financially. Moreover, globalization has brought heated debates on whether it is more beneficial or hazardous (Aitken 2006, p.10).
In case of language, globalization also has its good and bad sides. As the ethnographic setting, language is closely related to the social processes within its nation or country. Therefore, the survival of language is depended on the other human sources (“Language and Globalization”).
Today, we can be a witness of the competition between the instruments with the same characteristics and functions. All languages serve for the population of speakers. Naturally, English has more benefits of globalization than other world languages. It is the result of the current world economical and political development. English affects all relevant parts of the modern society (“Language and Globalization”).
The increasing use of this language in the business and education demonstrates a confident progress. However, we should not forget about the other widely distributed languages. Thus, the continental European languages still show its vitality and functionality. The official meetings of the European Union do not use one official language. It is wrong to suppose that English can be considered as the possible official language within the European Union.
Although the current world political and social situation demonstrates the tendency of linguistic unification, an example of multilingual Switzerland can be explored from the position of the linguistic cooperation and integration within a domestic area. In this country, the major and minor languages’ speakers have the same rights and responses.
Country has four official languages such as German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Moreover, the last one is a language of the absolute minority of the citizens. However, it is defended by government as well as the most popular German. Therefore, Switzerland solved the problem of language’s separation and provided the same rights to its population.
It is the most systematic solution that allows save the territorial integrity. The Swiss example can be used by all other countries. Thus, Canada has a bilingual model that includes English and French as the official languages. However, the current situation demonstrates the dominant position of English. Only the local government of Quebec provided the strict laws that indicate the official status of French language.
It is obvious that globalization is a cause of weak and powerful languages to be in contact. Weak languages today are in a high risk due to the possibility of its lost. The governments have to provide an adequate policy that can help protecting the national language and developing it. However, as it was mentioned before, globalization is very strong process that involves many parts of social organization.
Even if the national counties provide some defensive strategies, it is very difficult to get the positive effects. There are other three major socio-cultural manifestations of globalization, namely: information services, news operations and social civilization (Fellmann 1997, p.19). In the past two decades, the use of computers has spread globally in conjunction with the use of electronic mails and social networks through the internet.
This has helped people from different regions of the world to share and communicate their opinions on diverse issues that affect their lives. However, this form of technology is only beneficiary to the illiterate and to people who can afford it (Becker 1993, p.23). Spreading of Internet only intensify the process of cultural unification.
In conclusion, globalization trends rise as communities revolutionize. However, its supersonic rise can be beneficial or hazardous to a society. The process of globalization leads to the irreversible process and, as the result, some weak languages can be lost, while English becomes an official international language.
Works Cited
Agnew, John A, David N. Livingstone, and Alisdair Rogers. Human Geography: An Essential Anthology. Oxford, OX, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1996. Print.
Aitken, Stuart C. Approaches to Human Geography. London: SAGE, 2006. Print.
Becker, A. Steele, and Harm J. Blij. Study Guide to Accompany Human Geography, Culture, Society, and Space. 4th ed. New York: Wiley, 1993. Print.
Fellmann, Jerome Donald, and Arthur Getis. Human Geography: landscapes of Human Activities. 5th ed. Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark Publishers, 1997. Print.
“Language and Globalization”. humanities.uchicago.edu. humanities.uchicago, n.d. Web.