Immersing Yourself in Different Cultures

in the world today there are 7.8

billion people seven continents and 6

500 spoken languages around the world

out of all that mess of people and

languages and places to live

there are people across the world who

think just like you

and just like me they have the same

thoughts actions and tendencies

even though they live in a different

culture i think immersing yourself in

different cultures is super important

because it broadens your horizons

and it doesn’t limit you to social

standards

i also don’t believe that you have to

fly halfway across the world to

experience a new culture

you could go 30 minutes down the road

and see how the amish live

you could go into a big city and see how

the homeless people live

see the homelessness problem you could

go anywhere

around you that isn’t like the place

that you live and you are immersing

yourself

inside of a new culture i think that you

can break down

a culture into three basic principles

the people

the way of life and the food the last

one’s kind of my favorite

i think in any small town especially

like here in hershey we live in

a bubble and this causes us to kind of

be

naive to what the rest of the world

looks like and

see the thing is you might be able to

see the rest of the world

through the lens of another person but

you won’t really get to experience that

for yourself

unless you see it with your own eyes

that’s what’s so powerful and dangerous

about

seeing the world through the eyes of

other people because while it’s super

easy with social media

and tv and all that stuff it’ll often

paint a picture

in your head of what these other

cultures are like that might not be true

but i think starting with

the people it’s really intriguing to me

to see how

other people think and their countenance

in these other parts of the world

i have been fortunate enough to go to

nine different

countries five continents and i’ve flown

tens of thousands of miles

and i think it’s really cool that i’ve

gotten to see all these parts of the

world and how

the people that operate for example in

europe

in england and in the czech republic

it’s it’s often like here in

america where at first the people are

kind of standoffish they’re a little

more closed off they’re not as

open to conversation whereas the people

in the south pacific like australia and

fiji

or in the middle east like egypt or

lebanon they’re a lot more friendly and

they’re a lot more open

to a conversation and they’ll even let

these

random strangers just inside their their

home because that’s how they bond that’s

how they show

appreciation that’s how they show love

and i think it’s really intriguing to

see how in these other parts of the

world like in

the middle east or in the south pacific

or in asia like

the people will literally give you the

clothes off

their back one time i was in egypt and i

saw this one guy

walking by and i really liked his

sunglasses so

i stopped and i said hey i really like

your sunglasses

and then immediately he didn’t really

speak

english super well but like he

understood what i said

and immediately he took his sunglasses

off and handed them to me

and i was confused because all i said

was that i

liked them but he wanted to give me

his sunglasses because he knew that i

liked them and he did this without a

thought he did this without

hesitation and he did this with no other

motive that’s just how the culture

operates

and i think this just goes to show how

in other parts of the

of the world even the more impoverished

parts they’re willing to give

they’re willing to show affection they

are willing to help

other people out more than in some of

these rich big

countries in the world now moving on to

the way of life it kind of ties in with

how

the people think and how they act but

this is this just

literally it goes back to the culture of

the place that you

are going to once again europe is a lot

like the

states where the people are promptly on

time

they don’t miss a beat you know they

follow a schedule they have these long

work days they have hours

but again like in south america

in the middle east and in other parts of

the world time

is almost non-existent so for example

one time when i was

in fiji i was there to do a church

service with my team

and we got there about 15 minutes early

you know to be

ready for when it starts so that we

didn’t just like spring ourselves on

the people who were hosting us but then

come to find out that there’s

a saying in fiji called fijian time

where a time for something to start and

end it basically does not exist

and it’s actually it’s really cool to

like see because the church service

started at 10 o’clock we didn’t actually

start church until almost 11 30 that day

and so it just goes to show that like

the people

value relationships more than time

because oftentimes the reason

that people are late is because they’re

spending time with friends they’re

spending time with loved ones

they’re spending time with their family

and they just know it’s that’s more

important than trying to stick to a

schedule

and i think there’s something really

beautiful about that fact because it

shows that in that part of the world

they really value

relationships one thing to realize as

well with

the way of life is what are the income

gaps

you see like here in the states you have

everyone from insane

poverty to mass mass mass wealth but

generally speaking the average person in

the states

is much better off than other people in

many parts of the world but on the flip

side

you go to a country in africa or in

the middle east and you see that they

are impoverished

like impoverished beyond impoverished

and it really breaks your heart because

a lot of times

they’ll have all these resources or

they’ll have all these things that could

accumulate their wealth but

the government in place and the

leadership

in place is corrupt and so that’s

another thing that really affects the

way of life and it also affects

the people but oftentimes you’ll see the

people they can

persevere a lot more through these

hardships than

the people in other parts of the world

they can still come out with a smile on

their face

the third thing i want to talk about

today is the food which is arguably my

favorite part

one of the most fun things when you

travel and experience a new

culture is getting to eat their

delicious food

and sometimes the food might sound a

little weird but it’s almost always good

so let’s say you’re one of those people

who want to experience a new

culture but you aren’t able to go across

the world or to europe or to africa or

to asia

you can go a 20-minute drive and eat

with the amish

and i’ve done this and it is such a cool

experience because you get to see how

their family works

they have these big families and they

all help out with the food and that is

their business is the food and they make

some of the best food you will ever have

i promise you

and then you can go to other parts of

the world like asia or

in south america where their food is

super good but it’s unlike anything that

you’ve had

it’s full of spices it’s full of flavor

and you get to eat a bunch of stuff that

you would never usually eat

just because you haven’t broadened your

horizons or opened your mind to trying

something new

and that all relates back to immersing

yourself in a different

culture and why you should do it when

you go and try to

immerse yourself in a different culture

you should go into it

observing these three points the people

the way that the people live and the

food that’s available to you