Hi, Mr. Lee, Before getting to the point, please allow me to take a guess first. You are surnamed Lee, aren’t you? Your article impresses me a lot. Actually I ever thought of writing something about “culture invasion”, but I failed. Your article arouses me again to take action of writing my ideas down here. I partly agree with you, but with reservations. A lot of things actually have already been Americanized, both on surface aspects and inner aspects. You know, quantitative changes will lead to qualitative changes. I was once crazy about Hollywood movies. I was shocked when I first saw Hollywood movie, I couldn’t imagine a movie could be as fantastic as Hollywood ones. “It must have been the most interesting and inviting movie around the world”, I believed. Afterward, I took no pleasure watching movies that were not made by Hollywood. I knew there were many French movies and Indian movies that were also as excellent, but I had already been not used to those non-English pronunciation and accent, or rather, those non-Hollywood style movies. Certainly I now don’t enjoy Hollywood as much as I did then, even I am somewhat tired and sick of seeing those similar movies. Anyway, I had been Americanized. Even now, I enjoy English movies, or Hollywood movies better than any others. My appreciation taste is Americanized. As a calm and mature man as I am, I cannot resist against the Americanization, say nothing of those who are still young and innocent people in China, or in other countries. Movie is only one aspect. But movies have been having a strong effect on people’s minds and thoughts. They didn't force others to accept, but they influence us a lot, of course not only the amusement taste, but also some more. Don’t you see that in many Hollywood movies the US is always the leader of the whole world, it is always at the helm when the earth is facing a critical moment or the earth is being invaded by creatures from another planet? We have been influenced, being told that we won’t do without the US, the earth will stop turning without the US’s leadership. We certainly think it’s not possible and it’s ridiculous, but there’s really something in our minds already, no matter whether you admit or not. What about our innocent next generation? They could be, no, they can be Americanized both inside and outside. Not only do movies try to Americanize people around the world, but also many other aspects like music, language, lifestyle, or even food American eat. What, movies are only for fun and not so many people enjoy watching movies? Ok, let’s take a look at our English teaching materials. I remember clearly that when I was in middle school, the English that I learnt along was absolutely British English; British English style pronunciation, intonation and spelling. Later, a discussion rose up on which one is better and more practical, British English or American English. With time goes, people do believe that American English is now more practical and useful. There once was a discussion about this on this forum, discussing about whether we are wasting time learning British style English. The author was once good at English at school, he always made high marks in English and he’s proud of that. But he soon felt lost when he went to US. Americans don’t at all speak in the way that he had been learning; he could neither speak nor hear. For example, people don’t say “I have to wash dirty clothes this afternoon,” but “I have to do my laundry this afternoon,”. It was quite a hot topic then, you can still find it by searching the title “Are you wasting time”? I am sure it’s a hot topic everywhere and also, I am sure finally people choose American English. My niece is a junior high school student, (see, American English again. We used to say “middle school student”, didn’t we?) who ’s been living with me. I often check her English textbook. Things keep changing. Now I can tell without a doubt that it’s complete American English. They no longer call “Teacher Wan” or ‘Teacher Chen”, instead, they just call “Mr. Chen” or “Ms Wan” like Americans do. In the first place, our teaching experts believed that British English might be purer and more authentic. But now they are Americanized by changing the high school teaching materials. And then all our young people are Americanized. It’s truth; it won’t change a bit even if you don’t admit. We now realize more and more about the importance of English, or rather American English, aren’t we Americanized? We are now studying English this hard, aren’t we Americanized? We certainly are. By studying their language, we know how they speak, how they eat, how they relax, how they amuse themselves, how they work and how they rest, what they read, what they watch, what they enjoy, what they dislike…little by little, we are being Americanized. But we do not have otherwise to do. To face up to the fact, we have to learn their culture, we have to know what they are thinking and how come they are stronger and richer than we are…let me put it another way, at this point of history, we have to be Americanized, we’d better be Americanized, with the original goal---to make ourselves stronger! It took me almost two hours to do this article, I hope you won’t find it only boring or tedious. Sincerely yours, Panpanpan.
By the way, I don't think the United States has won support and respect of most people around the world. By what America can win others' support and respect? By their foreign policy? Or by their international behaviour?
For discussions only.
