Learning about cultures other than your own is one of the most things you can do as a person. Journey is an excellent method to accomplish this, as simply walking outside your front door allows you to see and hear things that may be very different from how your family perceives the world. It is, however, not a one-way street. Sharing and trading culture is critical for the entire planet, therefore in this piece, I’ll explain what I mean by cultural exchange and why it’s so important.
What Exactly Is Cultural Exchange?
A cultural exchange is simply sharing any parts of your culture with someone from a different background to you, and vice versa. Culture is described as “the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society,” therefore a cultural exchange is simply sharing any characteristics of your culture with someone from a different background to you.
It could be sharing information about what clothes you wear, learning to play an instrument, or discussing religion or politics together. It could be discussing each other’s opinions and beliefs about everything, from daily activities to special occasions, what food you prefer to create or the sport you play.
The Value of Cultural Exchanges
Mark Twain once said:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
That is one of my favourite travel quotes, and the first time I read those words it really struck a chord with me. Imagine if you never speak to anyone outside your family. You might never know that there are different ways to view the world. That there are different religions, different clothes that people wear, different foods that other people eat.
That seems tragic to me, going through life not even knowing that different cultures exist. Of course, these days we have the internet, books and TV to tell us that they do indeed exist, but we should really see these things for ourselves to properly understand them.
That actually is quite a narrow way of looking at cultural exchanges, as there are lots more benefits to cultural exchange that help make all of our lives better.
Benefits of Cultural Exchanges
I truly believe that through travel, the more we learn about each other and our differences, the more we will realise how similar we are. That is how travelling helps in cultural exchange and if I can promote cultural exchange through travel then I will do my best!
If we all travelled more and shared our ideas and experiences with each other there would be no need for wars about religion, no excuse for treating people of another sexual orientation, gender or skin colour differently (not that there is any justification for that of course, but there would be no excuse no matter how misguided)
Any kind of travel involves a certain amount of cultural exchange, but to go beyond the superficial, the best way to learn about another culture is to speak to someone from that culture. Get to know them, learn from them, and talk about the differences and similarities in your beliefs and lifestyle and you’ll see how powerful exchanging cultures can be.
Not only will cultural exchange benefit you on a personal level, but being exposed to different cultures can be incredibly inspiring, as you are influenced by new food, art, music, writing and every aspect of life. Cultural exchanges can lead to a wonderful fusion of styles, in particular for creative people, but for everyone!
In a business context for example, learning from others helps you to find new ways of designing products, or using the influence of architecture to create a new style of building that could be more eco-friendly. The benefits of cultural exchange go far beyond simply expanding your own experience, it can have far-reaching effects in all aspects of your own culture too.
Learning Languages
Language is a huge part of our culture – how we express ourselves and nuances in the words we use often lose a lot in translation. Learning another language opens us up to a wider understanding of how we see the world, and allows us to communicate with a lot more people who don’t speak our language.
I’ve found through my travels that being able to speak to people in their own language (in my case by speaking Spanish), I’ve met some incredible people that I wouldn’t have been able to hold a conversation with otherwise. The smiles on their faces as I’ve greeted them and asked them about their country are more than worth the effort it took to learn Spanish!
Cooking Together
Food is one thing that brings us all together – we all eat! One of my favourite things to do when I’m travelling is to take a cooking class or a food tour so that I get to know some of the local food and drink wherever I am, and learn about the dishes from someone who knows a whole lot more about it than I do – from the history of salt cod in Portugal on a food tour in Lisbon to roasting cashew nuts in Belize!
Learning how to cook a new dish, and then sitting down together to enjoy the food you’ve made is a wonderful experience and one I enjoy every single time I do it. Even watching a woman flipping corn tortillas between her hands before slapping them onto the griddle is something I don’t see every day at home.
For chefs or enthusiastic cooks, what kind of food do you enjoy, and what would you like to learn more about? French patisserie? Mexican street food? How about Peruvian fusion cuisine? The world if your oyster.
