TOEFL iBT Writng for an Academic Discussion Has Globalization Gone Too Far? - revised -

Lesson 24  Has globalization gone too far, or is its progression beneficial to the global community?

 

 

☆Let’s think

1.        What is globalization? When did it begin?

Note: Globalization is originally an economic term which means the expansion of the international trade by free trade through lower tariffs. Although globalization in a broader sense had been going on since the ancient times (e.g. the Silk Road), what we call globalization today is said to have begun in the 1820s, after the Industrial Revolution and the advancement of transportation and communication.

 

2.        What are the positive and negative effects of globalization in the following aspects?

・Economy of developed countries and that of developing countries

・The environment, life of ordinary people, public health, and culture

 

3.        What is the difference between globalization and imperialism/colonialism?

 

 

☆Ideas and Expressions

Positive effects of globalization

1.        The standard of living has generally risen worldwide, and some countries in the Global South have seen economic development through world trade.

2.        Products are distributed to countries far from the producers, helping both the producers and consumers.

3.        People can travel abroad for special experiences or immigrate for better life.

4.        Cultures around the world are shared, especially in developed countries.

5.        New cultures are created through fusion of different cultures. e.g. new type of food or music

 

Negative effects of globalization

1.        Indigenous people were massacred, their land and asses stolen, and their civilization destroyed.

2.        Wealth gap has widened as poor countries have become poorer while rich countries have become richer through free trade. This is because rich countries buy raw materials from poor countries at low prices to manufacture and sell the products for high prices. Free trade also replaced domestic products with cheap imports.  e.g. NAFTA, Japan-USA FTA, etc.

3.        Unemployment has gone up in developed countries because of off-shoring (outsourcing to other countries such as moving factories to developing countries, where human rights are violated by extremely low labor costs and poor working conditions).

4.        Monopoly of multinational corporations has occurred and small businesses have disappeared.

5.        International transportation reduces resources and raises carbon foot prints, exacerbating climate crisis.

6.        Economic refugees have increased and immigrants are discriminated against in other countries.

7.        Pandemic has become easier to break out and faster to spread.

8.        Major cities around the world now look the same due to the development of the skylines with modern buildings, wiping out old traditional buildings.

9.        Indigenous cultures, including indigenous languages, are being lost as cultures and languages of the Western countries spread through globalization.

 

 

☆Sample Response

Globalization has intrinsically been bad to most people on the earth. It is the economic colonization of Global South by the West. The non-Western countries that produce raw materials have been exploited by the Western countries for 5 hundred years since the beginning of the Age of Discovery. It has made Africa, Asia, and Laten America poor while the colonizers have prospered. People other than the ruling class in poor countries have suffered from enslavement. While it is true that the development of transportation and communication combined with technological breakthroughs have made a number of non-Western countries better off, people in many countries, especially those in mineral-rich countries like Congo and Bolivia, still suffer from deprivation and violence manipulated by the West. People or countries that resist have been punished by colonizers, especially the USA, the most recent case being Palestine and Venezuela. All in all, globalization has been evil in nature from its inception. The silver line would be that the power-balance between Global South and Global North has started to change since around the birth of BRICS Plus, the countries with natural resources once exploited by the West now gaining their own economic self-determination. (196 words)

Write your draft on this topic. Give feedback to other people’s drafts, asking questions and making suggestions.

 

 

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