Acknowledgements

First of all, we would like to thank our Almighty God, because of His blessings were always with
us so that we were able to complete this report. We are grateful to many people for providing us
encouragement and support during our learning and working while making this report and we
want to show our gratefulness to these people. We are very much grateful to Mrs. Nasrin Pervin,
our teacher of English 105 course, who provided us opportunity to do this report. It was not
possible for us to perform this report without her sincere permission, constant support and
inspiration. We express our gratefulness to her. Our pleasant thanks to all of our respondents who
gave us all kinds of support and important information related to our report.

We would also like to thank our friends and peers for their encouragement, support, and
suggestions which helped us to make this report an effective one.

Abstract

The main focus of this study is to explore the impact of western culture on young generation. For
this purpose, survey design was used and data were collected from randomly selected 25 students
of North South University who are member of young generation that means the boys & girls of
the age from 18 to 25 years. Findings indicate that most of the people of young generation are
habituated with various pattern of western culture. They are adapted with dress pattern, film and
literature, family pattern, cultural festival, English language, education system, food habit,
religious behavior, technology and so on. Many of the respondents dont even know about our
traditional culture and they cant differentiate our traditional culture from western culture. This
study also indicates that our education system has failed to teach the young generation about the
culture and tradition of our country. But it is a matter of hope that, many of the members of
young generation still have the courage to maintain our traditional culture avoiding western
culture.
 Table of Contents

Introduction
Bangladesh is a melting pot of races; therefore, it has a mixed culture. However, her deep rooted
heritage is amply reflected in her architecture, literature, dance, drama, music and painting and
also in peoples lifestyle. She has own Language Bengali which boasts a rich literary heritage.

Now if we speak about Western culture, it is a wide range of culture that performed by the whole
world. Now-a-days this culture is highly spreading in our country and people are paying their
interest into western culture by the help of globalization. Mostly the young generations and
highly aristocratic families are very much influenced by western culture which holds negative
impact on our own culture. So, we have to make clear consciousness to the community for
making strong cultural bond and better society.
From that sense, it is necessary to take a research about the impact of Western culture in our
society. And, we believe that the following research report will help to find out the conclusion
with valuable recommendation.
.Secondary analysis:

The most important effect of cultural globalization is the commercialization of culture.

Production and consumption of cultural goods and services have become commodities, along
with the essentials of social life.
What once was an element of the way of life becomes a product, rather than something unique
men had made to suit their own needs and circumstances.
Cultural domination by electronic media within the society thus has eventually become a major
concern of sociological inquiry.
The present study is one of such effort to look at how the urban youth has accepted and
responded to their access to global culture.
Civilization means an advanced and organized state of human social development. Its culture and
its way of life during a particular period of time. Basically, a country or a nation is known by its
civilization. The influence of western civilization is the most talked topic. Western culture is
intruding into our culture in a very alarming way. This intrusion of Western culture has both
good and bad effect on our society. Western civilization has introduced us with the people,
society, education history and culture of the whole western world.

It helps us to make a comparative study between western civilization and ours and to judge the
standard of our culture. It also helps to enrich our civilization by accepting the good things of
western civilization. The disadvantages of western civilization for the society of Bangladesh is
very alarming. The young people are trying to imitate western gross and vulgar culture forgetting
our own culture. If this continues, our own culture and tradition will be abolished soon. As this is
the age of globalization, we will not be able to discard western civilization. Rather we should try
to imitate what is good in western civilization and give up what bad. The process of globalization
today is nothing but a new version of the speech of Macaulay in the nineteenth century. Starting
in the sixteenth century, Western adventures made a conscious effort to undermine the cultural
heritage of various people around the world. This was accomplished by imposing Western
religion and cultural practices on those with a different way of life.
While today the same is true of the march of globalization. According to Martin Albrow,
globalization is a process to bring all the human beings of the world in a comprehensive
community. There are, thus, various types of globalization, such as economic globalization,
political globalization, cultural globalization, etc. It is cultural globalization that is our main field
of interest here. The most important far-reaching effect of cultural globalization is the
commercialization of culture. Production and consumption of cultural goods and services have
become commodities, along with the essentials of social life that are the crucibles of cultural
creations. Culture whether it is music, food, clothes, art, sports, images of age, youth,
masculinity or femininity has become a product, sold in the market place. As the former
chairman of Coca-Cola, Robert Goizuaeta said: "People around the world are today connected by
brand name consumer products as much as by anything else."(Akande,2002) The
commercialization of culture has a disturbing impact on people. At the same time people are
continuously bombarded with new images, new music, new clothes and new values. The
common characteristic of the globalized culture is that it pursues the same "One size fits all"
idea: the archetypical middle class family according to the American model in which
consumerism is the norm. The result of this cultural process of homogenization is that a large
section of the world's population dreams of living like Cosby & Co or like the characters in any
other stereotype American soap opera. Traditional values have been overtaken by Coca Cola
culture. The Michael Jackson style of music and culture is taking over and we don't have the
values to cope with it. Cultural domination by electronic media whitening the society thus has
eventually been a major concern of sociological inquiry.
Young generation was the field of interest in this study, because the major responsibility of
preserving the culture goes to the young generation as they are the representatives of the future.
It is perhaps impossible to make any valid generalizations about young people's experiences with
globalization. The cultural impact of global economics will be very different in Western Europe,
Eastern Europe and Africa, and indeed individual countries.

As Goran Ther born states, "Globalization takes place in different spatial-historical contexts,
providing it with very different meaning and implications in different parts of the world."
(Rahman, 2010) 69 The impact of globalization is still evolving within and uncertain, as the
transformations that many countries are undergoing remain incomplete.

The only certainty is that globalization is characterized by increasing market power, and there is
always the danger that such power will be abused.
Research questions
My Research is to find out the effects and outcomes of Westernization on our society and I will
try to address the following vital questions

1 What is according to you is westernization?

2 What do you think we need westernization?
3 What are the benefits we are getting from westernization?
4 What are the bad effects of westernization?
5 Are we happy now with westernization or before without westernization?

Hypothesis
The hypothesis of my paper is what I believe about westernization. That is we are getting more
harmed by adoption westernization than the benefits. It is simply because that our youth, who are
the pillars to build a society are handling westernization in a wrong way. They are getting
motivated through westernization in a negative way, and are adopting the things that are not
beneficial for the society. Most of the people of young generation are habituated with various
pattern of western culture, who are adapted with dress pattern, film and literature, family pattern,
cultural festival, English language, education system, food habit, religious behavior, technology
and many other variables which increase their dependency on western culture.
Methodology:
The study is a research paper based on explanatory or descriptive process. The study has been
conducted through the use of survey design. Data has been collected through incorporating
relevant items in the questionnaire and analyzed and interpreted using descriptive techniques.
This paper is based on quantitative data.
The study is based on survey method and case study method. The study area is based on selected
students of North South University.
The people of young generation that means the people of the age 18 years to 25 years both boys
and girls will be the unit of analysis.
Data has been collected from the survey by using simple random sampling technique. It is a
probability method of sampling.
Here in this study, explanation is based on primary data which has been collected through field
work by interview with questionnaire. There is also some help and reference of secondary data
such as print media, electronic media etc.
The data has been collected with the help of some instruments like questionnaire papers,
notebook, multimedia devices such as mobile phone etc.
Field work is basically data collection which has been collected through interview schedule
technique, and has been asked and filled by the interviewer in face-to-face situation with the help
of specific questionnaire. Almost certainly the field work has been completed within 2 or 3 days.
Data has been computerized, analyzed and processed using various statistical techniques and
software like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word etc.

Limitations of the study:

There can be pointed out some limitations which have been faced to complete the study:

This study cant cover up all-embracing dimensions of young peoples culture.

There is limitation of logistic support to, correctly, gather and interpret data.
There is possibility that the informants might not provide the actual data due to
unconsciousness and conventional thinking.
There was problem of communication as the study area is limited.
Financial support is essential to conduct a comprehensive study, and as a student we dont
have that ability to conduct the study in large scale.
There is problem of experience as I am not much experienced in research.

Data presentation & Research Findings:

It is evident that among the respondents, 13 people were male and 12 people were female. It is
positive that there is a gender balance in terms of responses. The respondents are mainly student
of North South University. All of the respondents were under the age range of 22-25 years old.
This level of age represents larger portion of young generation.

Difference between traditional and western culture

No, I cant specify

Total

It is stated in the shown chart that how the respondents differentiated traditional culture from
western culture. Most of the respondents differentiated successfully. However, some of the
respondents cannot differentiate it; they are very little in number. As shown in the pie chart
majority of the respondents claimed that they could differentiate between traditional culture and
western culture; such percentage of people are 84%, while 16% of the respondents said they
could not specify any difference between the two.
 Western Dress vs traditional dress
60%

50%

40%
Percentage
30%
Disagree; 52%
20%

Strongly Disagree; 24%

10%
Agree; 12%
Strongly Agree; 8%
Neutral; 4%
0%
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Here the graphs represent how respondents preferred western dress to traditional dress. Most of
the respondents, however, preferred traditional dress to western dress, which is positive. As you
can see in the chart, of those who surveyed, 52% disagree preferring western dress to traditional
dress. That means majority of the youths still prefer traditional dressing.
 Type of Film Preferences
37
36
36

35

34

33
32 32
32

31

30
Bangladeshi Indian Hollywood

The bar above shows the type of film, music, movie and TV shows such as, Hollywood, Indian
or Bangladeshi generally respondents like to enjoy. Most of the respondents still watch
Bangladeshi Shows and movies and enjoys Bangladeshi music. However, a big number of
respondents enjoys Hollywood movies and TV shows and American and western music.
Number of respondents who enjoy Indian movies is no difference than those who enjoy
Bangladeshi movies and TV show. 32% of the respondents enjoy Bangladeshi film, music,
movie and TV shows, 32% enjoy Indian film, music, movie and TV shows and 36% enjoy
Hollywood film, music, movie and TV shows.

Importance of Social Customs

12

Yes, sometimes Very Rare Never

Where there is a proper social custom, the less are chances of odd and violent behavior. In our
culture we can see sometimes violent behavior among individuals as stated in the pie chart
below, where 48% of occasions we see that odd behavior quite often, 32% times very rare
followed by 20% times when we see no odd behavior.

Book reading preferences

18

Bengali Books English Books

Up next, respondents asked about their reading preferences: whether they would prefer reading a
Bengali book or an English book in leisure time. Majority of the respondents said they would
pick an English book. 72% said they would pick an English book for reading.
 Food Preferences

3
5

13

Local Street Food Western Food

Homemade Food Traditional Food

From this pie chart it is seen the food type preferred by respondents. Here, as it is evident that
most of the respondents(52%) like western items, that is mainly fast food. 20% of the
respondents preferred local street food, 12% preferred traditional food and 16% homemade food
items.
 Family Type

21

Nuclear Joint

According to this pie chart the family pattern of respondents in which they are living. It is
observed that most of the respondents family is nuclear family. Very few respondents answered
that their family is joint or extended. 84% of the respondents live in nuclear family and 16 % live
in joint family.
 Parents Affection

2
1

7
15

Very Intimate Proper Love & Affection

Dont give proper time Relaxed & Flexible

It can be understood from the pie how the parents of the respondents look after them. It can be
inferred from the data that most of the parents look after their children with proper love and
affection. Though nuclear family pattern comes from western culture, until now in our country
parents behavior are not like western culture. As a result, young generation of our country still
not fully westernized. However, some respondents answered about the behavior of their parents
leads to western type parents behavior, but they are very few in number. In addition, their found
little cases that their parents are very rigid (4%) about them like our tradition and old times, but
most of the answers says that, their parents are very relaxed (8%) about them because of
modernization and westernization. 28% of the respondents said that their parents look after them
with proper love & affection and 60% said very intimately.
 Social Customs

3
8

14

Yes No Maybe

From the chart it can be investigated that whether younger generations follow social customs or
not. Whether they follow or do not follow these social customs. It observed in this table that,
most of the respondents do not follow social customs properly and others follow partially. 56%
of the respondents said they do not take social customs much seriously, as they hardly get
involved into such activities. They maintain their own social life; while 32% said they do.
 Religious View

6 5 Properly
Partially
Very Rare
Dont follow
3

11

The pie reveals whether the respondents think that religion is very important or plays vital role in
our life. Most of the respondents are liberal minded they disagreed to it around 12%. They think
it is their individual and personal choice. Another portion of the respondents said that they do
take their religion and its associated customs seriously which is 20% and 44% partially follows it
while 24% do not follow at all.
 Technology Usage

19

Smartphone Internet Traditional Media

Here, it is shown what type technologies respondents use mainly for their daily needs,
communicational needs, academic needs etc. About 76% of respondents use modern means of
communication like smartphone. 12% of the respondents used multimedia phones and 12% uses
traditional media.
 Societal Perspective

3 3

12 1

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral

Disagree Strongly Disagree

Majority of the respondents, that is 48% disagree that the overall culture & tradition of our
country should be like western culture in order to keep up with the fast change in globalization.
Among those who strongly disagree is 12%. A segment of 24% agreed partially that it should be
as western culture; and a little number of respondents agreed that it should be like tradition
culture which is 12%.
Recommendations:

The impact of western culture is a part of modernization. But it can be considered as a problem
also in our countrys perspective. Because many of young people of our country are addicted day
by day to the negative sides of western culture. Below, there given some recommendations:
There should be vast opportunities for young people to know and learn more about our
traditional culture.
They should be made aware what is traditional culture and what western culture is.
There should be awareness program through various media like print and electronic
media for young generation concerning them about bad sides of western culture and
significance of our traditional culture.
Motivation program should be held encouraging for preserving of our traditional culture.
There should be governments steps to prevent elements such as pornography, drugs, and
hard drinks from reaching to young generation.
Exercise of obtaining religious rules-regulations should be increased among young
generation.
Family members especially parents should be aware of what their children doing in their
room, which type of company he/she keeping and where he/she goes etc.
Proper knowledge should be spread among young generation about the negative sides of
western culture, the significance of our traditional culture and not to adopt western
culture. It is the responsibility of educational institutions, teachers and parents mostly.
Patriotism should be spread among young generation.
Bangladeshi festivals should be observed with more importance nationally.
Bangladeshi entertainments such as movies, music etc. should be more advanced and up-
to-date so that young people will attract to it.
Easy access of western culture into our country should be more restricted by government.
Lacking and needs of young people should try to fulfill by government, society and
family.

Conclusion:
Eventually, it can be concluded that, this research has found a lot of significant issues that is
Western culture is not a curse to our society but it can bring a lot of negative effects. We must
understand that the young generation is the future image of our country. So, it is necessary to
enlighten them about our own cultural values which will make our nation proud.
Now a days the production and consumption of cultural goods and services has become
commodities, along with the essentials of social life (marriage and family life, religion work and
leisure). What once was an element of the way of life becomes a product, rather than something
unique men had made to suit their own needs and circumstances. In urban Bangladesh,
technology of multi-channels TV began in 1991 and hence satellite broadcasting has been
delivering 'lots of channels to viewers'. Cultural domination by electronic media within the
society thus has eventually become a major concern of sociological inquiry. The present study is
one of such effort to look at how the urban people, mostly youth has accepted and responded to
their access to Western culture.
In Bangladesh perspective, since it is the one of very few and one-way concentration on the
impact of western culture, it is precise that this thesis contains the groundwork of further
research, which may find useful tools considering the probable findings in the long run. No study
has been done at before. However, for doing this research best analysis was used to make the
research as full proof but due to short sample, it cannot be recommending as full proof. Thats
why; it is recommend for further modification as it is a phrase valid that research is a never
ending process.

References:
Gale, F. and Stephanie Fahay (2005). Youth in transition: The challenges of change in Asia.
The Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils (AASSREC) in association with The
Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA).

Gomes, G. and Mohammad Nafiur Rahman (2010). Impact of Western Culture in Bangladesh.
American International University Bangladesh; Research Methodology - Summer 2010.

Lamare, L. (2009). Cultural Globalization: What is it? Montray Kryol SPIP 2.1.10 [17657].

Dengar, K. N. (1996). America: Past to Modern. Trans. By: Hossain, F. (1999). Bangla
Academy, Dhaka.