We live in one of the most multi-cultural times that the world has ever seen, with foreign nationals from most of the world’s countries, living in other countries and cultures. What is vital during this time of multiculturalism is that we take the time to understand and learn from people with different backgrounds, and from different cultures. My buddy Mack Prioleau was instrumental in shaping my ideology about different cultures, and he was introduced to this from a very young age when his parents took him traveling the world at age 8. There is so much to discover about other cultures and instead of being afraid of them like many are, here is why we should look to embrace them and learn more.
Wider Understanding
When you learn about other people and their cultures, you begin to get a wider understanding of the world, and not just the world around you. It can be easy to mock other cultures because they are different, but it is not until you learn more about them, that you will start to understand why things are the way that they are, how the culture progressed to where it is now, and this understanding can make you a more worldly and well rounded character.
Understanding Yourself
Something else which learning about other cultures can do is to shine a light on your own life, where you can begin to add things to it based on another culture, and highlight pieces of you which you perhaps don’t like, or didn’t realize. For example we may look upon a certain culture and think that it is somehow poor, simply because of economic disadvantages. In such a situation however we measure people based on money like we do in our own culture, instead of realizing that there are other riches which are not financial.
Becoming Better
When you learn about and embrace another culture, you get the opportunity to add parts of their identity to you, making you a better person. The idea of multiculturalism is to come together, bringing with you your own culture, and then learning about others and combining the positives of both. It is only when we learn about where someone else has come from and what makes them who they are, that we can begin to change small parts of ourselves, to fall in line with a positive action of another culture.
Feeling Comfortable
If you are in a new country then not understanding the culture can cause you some real problems so focussing on learning more can really help you out. For example something like learning the language can help you to communicate, understanding customs can also help you to avoid any problems and generally understanding the locals will make your life a great deal easier.
Don’t close your mind to new cultures, open up and learn as much as you can, it can only benefit you.
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