There are many elements which define and make up the national culture of a country. These can include the Arts, race, religion, language and the Monarchy or Government. There are many aspects of the British culture which are ‘typically British’, and make people feel particularly British when doing them. For example, when you sing the National Anthem, reading literature by classic British authors such as Dickens, Austen and Shakespeare, supporting British football teams and eating traditional British foods such as ‘Bangers ‘n’ Mash’ and ‘Fish ‘n’ Chips’.
However, as Britain embraces the culture from other countries it no longer has a monoculture and is increasingly multicultural. This globalisation has led to contrasting opinions that the globalisation has added or taken something away from our national culture. One opinion is that globalisation had added to our national culture. This is because the embracing of other cultures can add a lot to our own national culture.
This creates a more interesting culture and a nicer environment into which people from other countries who come to Britain to live can be integrated into. As more and more people from different cultures with their own national cultures come into our country, they incorporate aspects of their culture into our culture and so our country becomes increasingly multicultural. This affects many different aspects of our culture, including our food and our fashion.
For example, due to globalisation we are increasingly being influenced by American culture. There are many American fashion trends that have crossed over and become part of our culture for example, baseball caps and the American fashion chain Gap. Also, there are many American food and drink chains that have been incorporated as part of British culture now such as McDonald’s and more recently Starbucks Coffee. These have added to British culture and extended it making it more interesting.
However, there is a contrasting opinion that globalisation is taking away from our national culture. This opinion is widely felt among some people because the globalisation is bringing so many new cultures into our country that our national culture itself is being lost completely. So, although, Britain becoming increasingly multicultural can be classed as a good thing as it adds to the British national culture, it is also taking something away from our national culture because it is drowning it out completely.
Due to globalisation, some aspects of our British culture are being forgotten completely and are being replaced with aspects of foreign cultures. The British culture is becoming so saturated with aspects of foreign cultures that we no longer have a traditional British national culture anymore. We are a multicultural country only. In my opinion, our national culture is no longer a national culture because it is so saturated with different aspects of foreign cultures which affect everything we do, from what we eat, to what we wear.
We no longer have a traditional national culture because we have become so multicultural that parts of our national culture have been forgotten in place of aspects of other cultures instead. I think that globalisation has definitely taken something away from our national culture, and although it has added a lot as well which has made the British culture more interesting and more welcoming to visitors from other countries, I find that this is all at the expense of the traditional national British culture that we already have.
