Let me introduce a book packed with intercultural insights. The Post-American World is written by an India-born American journalist, Fareed Zakaria
What’s more important to me than his C. V. is Zakaria’s cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity displayed throughout the book, some of which are just brilliant. I am especially struck by some of the implications of what he wrote. I am presenting here three of these intercultural insights I’ve drawn out from his book.
1. Culture follows power (and money).
As much as I’d like to deny it, it is true and real. Culture is influenced by the rich and the powerful of the world. Zakaria points this out by observing the fading interest in Shakespeare in India after its independence from Britain:
“The passion for Shakespeare, it turned out, was directly related to British rule in India. Culture follows power.” (Bold print mine)
Let me add that culture also follows money. I saw this firsthand among my own people. Most Korean Americans in my generation (those who are in their 30′s and 40′s) who were born in the U. S. or immigrated to the U. S. when they were young speak or understand little or no Korean. There was just no merit for them to learn Korean as they were growing up, maybe except for communicating with their first generation immigrant parents, but many of them were never there for them in first place because of their long hours at work.
On the contrary, many of today’s Korean American teenagers and twenty-something’s not only speak Korean well but also are quite into the Korean pop culture. What’s the difference? The Korean high tech economy and its ensuing media appeal. Korea became an economic power during the 90′s, and its IT, media, movie, electronics, and auto industries became world-class during the this past decade. More than ever before, there’s a lot more interest now to learn the Korean culture and language. The attitude of Korean Americans reflect this. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there were many Korean Americans who have gone on and become actors and celebrities in Korea in the past decade.
In a similar fashion, in the late 80′s and early 90′s, there were so many university students in the U. S. taking Japanese courses. Now it’s Chinese Mandarin. Power and money influence people’s perception and attitude toward cultures and languages, which determine what’s cool and what’s not, what stays and what goes, which in turn shift and shape the cultural elements of a society.
2. You need English… (but it’s not enough).
The domination of the English language as the global and international language of communication in the past century is the reflection of domination of the world by Great Britain in the 18th and19th centuries and by the United States in the 20th. Although China and India are becoming world superpowers, they are actually contributing to the continued domination of English. English as the global language, it seems, is here to stay for a while.
However, there is another strong trend. It’s the growth of local languages. Zakaria also points out:
“Look more closely at the hegemony of English. While many more people are speaking English, the greatest growth on television, radio, and the Internet is in local languages.”
This is true in Korea. It’s also true in Morocco. There’s a lot more TV and radio programs and movies in the local Moroccan Arabic dialect as well as Berber. I believe this trend is a byproduct of growing nationalism and wide distribution of media technology. Like many things that are becoming more and more polarized, so are languages.
English may stay for a long time as the second language of billions of people, but the importance of learning other languages (and thus cultures) is growing. This isn’t important just for linguists, but for commerce. Zakaria also points this out. He says:
“Being on top for so long has its downsides. The American market has been so large that Americans have always known that the rest of the world would take the trouble to understand it and them. We have not had to reciprocate by learning foreign languages, cultures, and markets. Now that could leave America at a competitive disadvantage.”
Spread of English is giving an advantage to non-English speakers for they are going both global and local. But the native speakers of English who have not mastered another language(s) are at disadvantage for they know less about others. They are becoming more local than global. American secondary schools require their students to take a foreign language course, but the level they attain is often very low. The variety of languages that immigrants and their children bring into America will be advantage to them as well as Americans if they are willing to learn and take advantage of it.
3. Western issues are “too western” to be enforced globally.
I agree with the concept of human rights. I believe it’s honorable and values human beings. But unfortunately, it’s something that’s primarily advocated by advanced economies of Europe and North America. Although I believe it is a universal human value, it has become an important western issue and a non-issue with non-western regions. Zakaria writes:
“Take human rights, an issue on which non-Western countries in general and China and India in particular are likely to have very different outlooks from those of the United States.”
Why do they have different outlooks? According to Zakaria, it has to do with a couple of reasons. One, these other countries think that they are still poor, developing countries that have other crucual priorities over this issue, and two, their cultures are not based on proselytizing Protestant values that demands universal application of these values.
I would think it sad that an issue such as human rights is viewed in this way and has hard time finding its way in these other countries. The approach to enforcing human rights or any other issues have been largely political with economic pressure as a primary means of enforcing it. But if I were at the receiving end of such pressure, I would easily identify this as a western propaganda and pressure to dominate my country just as these western powers had done for centuries and would react with anger and feeling of injustice. This will create a viscious cycle of neglect, pressure, angry reaction, and worsening relationships.
There’s probably no easy solution to this. I would think that in order for these important issues to become not only western issues but global issues, a lot of global leadership need to come out of non-western nations. Can we expect India and China to lead in this way? Can we wait for them to become such global leaders? And more importantly, can the western nations including the United States be willing to defer to them on crucial issues?
The time will tell how all these will unfold. And I’m willing to bet that whatever issue we may face in the future, the attitude of respect and willingness to learn and grow are the key whether at national or individual level. Thus, I believe that the role and profile of interculturally skilled people will be raised higher in the future.
