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A sentence from JapanesePod 101:

北米とヨーロッパでは通常スカートは女性がはくものと思われているが、世界的には多くの男性がスカートをはく。

In North America and Europe a skirt is thought of as something a woman wears, but in many countries men wear skirts.

I don't see why it's 世界的には rather than 世界的では, especially when では is used in the first clause. で seems to fit both clauses (location of action).

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  • If it said あるの地域では男性がスカートをはく, では would be appropriate because 世界の地域 (parts of the world) is a noun.
    – rurouniwallace
    Sep 2, 2013 at 16:21
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    @Ataraxia Did you type あるの地域 but intend to type 世界の地域?
    – user1478
    Sep 2, 2013 at 20:17

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的 makes 世界 into a 形容動詞 ("na-adjective"), which, when functioning as adverb, turns into ～的に. ～的では is simply ungrammatical.

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世界的には is being translated as "in many countries", but this is just the natural English translation.

"世界的" means "global" or "worldwide", and functions as an adverb when に is attached as Earthling explains. So "世界的には" here is kinda hard to translate literally but means something closer to "globally" or "on a global scale".

世界的には Looking at the world as a whole
多くの男性が many men
スカートをはく。wear skirts.

Or in more natural English: "In many countries men wear skirts."

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    I do not see where "countries" comes from, why not just keep "globally"?
    – dainichi
    Sep 3, 2013 at 0:36
  • Thanks! But is the contrastive は then marking an adverb (世界的に)? I thought は could only be used on nouns.
    – Viridian
    Sep 3, 2013 at 3:52
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    The contrastive は can be used on almost everything.
    – Earthliŋ ♦
    Sep 3, 2013 at 9:43

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