Some people think the increasing business and cultural contact between countries brings many positive effects. Others say it causes the loss of national identities. Discuss on both sides and give your opinion.

Globalisation has resulted in more business and cultural contacts among different nations. This also means that in many ways people around the world are becoming more and more similar. This situation has both pros and cons which I shall discuss in the following paragraphs.

There are many benefits of globalisation. To begin with there are more jobs because of globalisation. Multinational companies have opened in many parts of the world providing jobs to thousands of people. Secondly, there is more efficient trade between different countries around the globe thereby improving the economies of developing countries. People have more opportunities to travel and therefore have awareness of other cultures. What is more, today people have more choices of products because of globalisation.

There are also many reasons why people say that national identities are being lost. We eat the same food, watch the same TV programmes, listen to the same music and wear the same clothes. People have also started speaking one language, English, in many parts of the world. In fact, English has become the lingua franca today.

However, I feel that this is a very narrow definition of national identities and nations are as different as they were ever in the past. Cultural identity is based on far more than just the films we watch or the clothes we wear. For example, take my own culture of India and compare it to the west. We may wear any clothes, but we never take the names of elders and call them with respect. In the west, it is quite OK to call anyone by name. In fact, they appreciate it more. I believe that after knowing about other cultures, we learn to respect our culture even more. So, some very deep rooted national identities will always be there.

To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that there are more advantages of increasing trade and cultural contact among nations. Whatever similarities we see today are only on the surface. Total loss of national identities can never take place.