I travel to France on a regular basis and during my most recent trips I noticed just this fact: US culture was everywhere. This shocked me. Every store I entered played US music. All the movie theaters I walked by played US movies. The news were all about what was happening in the US. The US culture was definitely dominant. I wondered if this was good or bad. I came to the conclusion that this was probably both good and bad. Good because it exposed the French people to something different and bad because the French culture was not as dominant, at least in the media.
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I had a similar experience when I was in Norway this summer. During my visit, I was determined to experience the authentic Norwegian culture. I started with the Euro 2008 "football" tournament; It's similar to the American SuperBowl. I watched the game with complete Norwegian commentary and loved every minute! I was convinced that the key to learning the Norwegian language was watching local television.
About two weeks later, I decided to watch some Norwegian television for several hours of intercultural enlightenment. As I flipped through the channels, I found only AMERICAN sitcoms with NORWEGIAN subtitles!! I was appalled... It was cheaper and more profitable for Norwegians to import Hollywood hits without even subbing them in their own language.
The point of my story is that American culture IS dominant throughout the world and we should question whether it is interfering with local values, customs, and languages. How much is lost when countries imitate American customs for profit? How do we encourage globalization without losing individual nationalism?
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