HO CHI MINH has switched to Salems, forsaking his usual Philip Morrises and Camels. This interesting piece of news was recently reported by a foreign diplomat in a cable from embattled Hanoi and was duly passed on by his government to the U.S. State Department, which is still pondering its significance. In France, Premier Georges Pompidou recently complained before un meeting of the Society for the Protection of the French Language that it was really a bit much to arrive at Orly Airport and be told by the hôtesse d'air that le Welcome Bureau d'Air France was at one's disposal. And in Kenya, Economics Minister Tom Mboya, momentarily putting aside affairs of state, delivered himself of the opinion that Bonanza, shown on local TV, is exerting "a good influence on Africans. Good is good. Bad is bad. The hero always wins, and I enjoy it."
Such are only a few surface signs of a phenomenon that has come to be known, often disapprovingly, as the "Americanization" of world culture. There is no doubt that things American have traveled fast and far. The American influence can be seen in the blue jeans under the flowing robes of Oxford students, in the garish neon signs in Bangkok, even in the Russian youths who exchange jazz tapes in Moscow cafeterias. It is responsible for the aching shoulders of bowling-alley patrons on six continents, for the new tendency of Iranian pilots to name their children Mark or David or Joe instead of Reza or Parviz or Taghi, for the popularity of Velveeta cheese in Germany, Kellogg's cornflakes in England and the ubiquitous hotto doggu in Japan.
Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Are Made for Walking is among the top ten on record charts in Mexico City, Rome, Bonn and Geneva. Batoman is wowing them on TV in Tokyo and playing in Buenos Aires and London as well. Bonanza is big not only in Africa but in the Middle East and Europe; it is one of South Vietnamese Premier Ky's favorite programs. Pictures of Rock Hudson and Doris Day are pinned on the walls of Philippine homes right beside the family crucifix, and a Budapest newspaper recently exhorted its readers to imitate the manners in My Fair Lady. Bestselling books in the U.S. frequently become bestsellers in West Germany. The whole abstract-expressionist movement that originated in the U.S. with Jackson Pollock has spread to almost every continent.
Perhaps one of the most indicative—and amusing—effects of American influence has been the infiltration of American English into other languages. Japanese sometimes sounds like Japlish: masukomi for mass communications, terebi for TV, demo for demonstration and the inevitable baseballisms pray bollu, storiku and hitto. Franglais permits a Frenchman to do le planning et research on le manpowerisation of a complexe industrielle before taking off for le weekend in le country. German now is splattered with such terms as discount house, shopping center, ready to wear and cash and carry. And the latest expression in Frankfurt ad agencies is Ziehn wir's am Flaggenmast hoch und sehn wir wer gruesst —Let's run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes.
Thirst for Novelty