Linguistic Imperialism through Popular Culture

Linguistic imperialism is defined as the "transfer of a dominant language to other people.” This can be done in a number of ways and there are many modern threats to the preservation of language. This allows English to become the dominant language rather than the many other languages previously spoken. One of the ways that this is done is through popular culture. Popular culture defines the mainstream ideas that are created through movies, media and other forms of expression. Pop culture is used in order to define which language is the one to use in order to stay relevant, modern and accepted. This has a great impact on people, especially the youth where they find the need to be a part of this culture. It communicates that in order for one to stay relevant and be wanted, they should speak English regularly. This means that the youth will prominently speak English in attempt to become a part of this culture and to conform to it. As a consequence, the younger generation will speak their mother tongue less and it will become weakened. For example, younger mothers increasingly prefer to teach their children English. They believe that this allows them to excel in their learning and overshadows their learning of their mother tongue. Further, it causes them to think of their mother tongue as inferior and one that does not allow them to progress. This can all be a result of pop culture’s definition of English as the dominant language. Using popular culture to define the language of power is one of the most useful modern threats. It appears as though people are willingly using English as there are no economic or political barriers. However, it is the way that reaches the everyday person, making it more powerful and widespread.