In the first part of this series, I wrote about the importance of traveling to understand the culture you are in, rather than simply for the experience. The three main goals of traveling are developing the ability to understand something that we are almost incapable of understanding objectively, broadening one’s mental capacity for culture and becoming a more well-rounded person. This article will seek to expand and flesh out the first goal, developing the ability to understand something that we can't objectively.
To begin, you might be thinking to yourself, “Hey mister, I can critically analyze and understand situations around me while removing my emotions and biases.” Well, maybe not that… Maybe something along the lines of, “I’m a reasonable person when it comes to stuff.” I am here to tell you that if your thoughts sound like either of the two, you’re more than likely lying to yourself—depending on your upbringing and cultural background. For the average United States citizen that was not born and raised, just being born does not count, out of the country, this article is for you.
For those of you that have not read books or watched interviews of Edward Said, he talks in great length about the concept of Orientalism and the concept of the "Other": people of Eastern civilizations. For those that don’t know, Western civilization is basically the modern culture of Europe and North America in its most basic form, although it extends to many other regions that have been heavily influenced by that culture. As I mentioned in the first article, everyone has a subconscious lens through which everything they see is then processed into something they understand by directly comparing it to their cultural upbringing. Said uses this notion to explain why Westerners have a hard time understanding the culture of the Middle and Far East. Orientalism has constantly influenced the lives of the Western world because what one views and believes are culture norms is with direct comparison to the dualistic view of the Orient. Before I go off on too much of a tangent on Orientalism, the point is that people have no choice but to engage with people based on what the culture they are in has invented. I am taking this idea and broadening it somewhat to argue that this applies not only as a concept between Western and Eastern civilizations but also between country to country as well.
It’s very easy to go to a different country and find tourists walking around starry-eyed while ogling at how different things are compared to the country they are from. I would argue that it is much more rare to find people walking around trying to understand why exactly things are different and that would be one of the best learning experiences to get from traveling. For example, when I went to Spain with two of my friends, I had a long conversation with one of them as to why fitness seemed to be more ingrained in the culture there than in the states. It was not abnormal there to see people running up and down the beach after midnight. Instead of just looking at all the people running and saying to myself “I could never do that,” I decided to try and figure out what exactly made the difference. I am going to write another article on this topic so stay tuned. In conclusion, it is these little analytic processes that will allow you to better understand the culture that you have decided to visit and experience rather than just seeing the sights. Also, I would highly recommend looking up Edward Said interviews on YouTube to get a better understanding of how one perceives the world around them.Link to the first article of the series: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-traveling-is-...
