ABSTRACT
Flows of culture appear decidedly one way in the constellation of processes that constitute contemporary globalization. The ubiquitous English language is a salient example. The language was once the preserve of a parochial people whom Defoe described in verse as ‘a Mongrel half-bred Race … With neither Name or Nation’. Today English dominates in the economy, diplomacy, the mass media, academia, education and popular culture across the globe. Cultural iconography from the United States with its own accent on English has made particularly visible inroads in many societies.
