You cannot go a whole day in London without meeting someone from another culture or race. Even when you are indoors; there is always a flatmate, housemate or roommate who is of another race or culture from you. This multicultural experience is one of the plethora of reasons why I love living in this exciting city, London.

The chance to meet people with different ideas, beliefs and ways of life different from yours is an opportunity I look forward to everyday in London. Indeed this is one reason I was motivated to pursue a degree at the London School of Economics and Political science.  Being in London has given me the chance to learn how to cook different types of meals from chapatti to dumplings to spaghetti Bolognese and the rest; speak or at least learn to say one word that is not my official language and realising how one word can be common to different languages and having several meanings all at the same time. This experience has been exciting and a great learning period for me. Having the chance to live with different people from different areas has been particularly informative. In the five year period I have lived here, I have observed and learnt how culture has a big impact on how we speak, behave and respond to problems, as well as reasons why some people compete and why others have a lackadaisical attitude towards things.

Unfortunately, these differences in culture are soon gradually eroded. Just as English football brings together different cultures to support one team or a night out at the club with music genres similar to us all or fast food restaurants like McDonalds which have brought westernised foods like burgers; globalisation may be blamed for this culture erosion, a problem no one can clearly solve.

As much as cultural integration allows for people to unite, live in peace and communicate in the same language (English as in London), it erodes our individual culture. Let’s take for example how the growth of westernisation in African countries is gradually reducing our strong values. Now children hardly or do not know how to prostrate to greet elders; cultural dances are replaced with ‘twerking’, ‘jumping’ and ‘dougie’; the African sense of dressing is now being replaced with ‘mini skirts’, ‘spaghetti tops’, ‘bum shorts’ and the rest; our main cuisine is now seen as ‘rice’ and even our youth and children tend to speak only English language and have no idea how to communicate in their father tongue.

I still support we do not let it erode our different values, cultures and beliefs which makes us individuals different and unique from one another. If there is no culture then life becomes boring and we have nothing new to learn from others.

What do we all think?

Please send in your views of culture and globalisation