Question : What impact has globalisation and modernisation have on the practice of culture in your country?

 Our partner schools’ responses differed quite a bit.  Most of the answers indicated that there has definitely been an in pact on the way that culture is practised in their countries.  In a country like France there is a feeling that the global trend is so strong that the local customs, costume and music is totally lost for many teenagers

 Students from Romania indicate that while these issues affect things like music and traditional food, they feel that enough of the youth still take part in traditional festivities and therefore traditional national costume and dance is still practiced in their country.  They also feel that the internet has led to young people no longer considering books as valuable sources of information.  Some groups (France and Romania) felt that the easy access to international trends in music and cinema threatens the use of their own language and thus their culture

 Our Latvian partners pointed out that outside influence in their country has been a constant for a long time since their occupation by the USSR had a huge impact on their culture due to the suppression of those parts that was seen as a threat by the USSR.  They indicated that the impact was huge not everybody at the time saw it as negative; censorship and a lack of contact with the rest of the world was negative but problems like unemployment were less.  The one area that they feel there is very little impact is in traditional dance because of the importance of dance at almost all schools and the chance to take part in national competitions.

 Students from Liberia point out that exposure to international trends and being exposed to international scrutiny has been positive for especially women and how they are treated.  They feel that negative cultural practices such as female genital mutilation has been abandoned as a result.  They also point out that education has become more important and that girls are now encouraged to study further than before.  On the other hand they feel that they lost traditional customs like drumming because of modern communication methods

 Our Egyptian partners feels that while modern clothing has had an impact on the cloths that are worn by young people, Muslim conservatism has also impacted on the way women are expected to dress.  They feel on the other hand that while Egyptians are very tolerant of other cultures many Egyptian customs has stayed the same such as marriage, respect for adults, and many of the traditional dress codes.

 Many of the findings that was sent to us were echoed by our group.  We feel that while globalisation can be bad for the traditional practices of cultures, many examples exist where the influence of other cultures has strengthened traditional culture.  We feel that it is up to the individual cultures to protect their culture and there are quite a few of the answers that we received that proves that to be true.