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I'm not suggesting this "cultural imperialism" is deliberate. After all, the English are not forcing French people to use these terms - in fact in most cases English speakers are unaware of these developments. I am suggesting that it is merely a consequence of when two cultures and language groups come into contact - they exchange words and concepts in the same way they trade goods and services. And the stronger of the two, in the sense of "better" or "more numerous" will have the greater effect. After 1066 the French were the more dominant, and loads of french words were imported into English (some 20,000 I believe, about half of which are still in widespread use).

This interaction need not neccesarily be a bad thing either. Interestingly, when modern French people use English words they often put their own slant on them, which basically means they are changing them. For example, what the French call "Le People" is what we would call "celebrities". They dont quite mean the same thing. So language has developed.

Of course it can be very sad if an influx of a foreign tongue does away with custom and tradition and the "uniqueness" of a society, but I would argue that any tradition that cannot stand such competition obviously cannot mean that much to the members of that culture. Tradition is fine, IF it provides a sense of community and a link to the past. If it stops doing that though, you really have to ask if its not time it goes.