Question

Why is it important to understand culture more nowadays than in times before? How should you prepare yourself when visiting another country so you do not deviate from their norms?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) Before the invention of the flight, people generally travelled long distances by ship. These journeys would take months and would mostly be for the purpose of permanent migration. Colonist, settlers and other migrants would travel with a view to living the kind of life that they wanted to live and not the kind of life that they were forced to live. This means that they would travel with a view to maintain their own lifestyle and perhaps even influence local life with their own ways.

These days, long distances can be covered within hours, technology can seamlessly connect people from antipodes and the internet works as a hub for watching and understanding the cultures of the world. If a person decides to travel today, it would hardly ever be with the notion of changing the native people but rather with an expectation that the place might change the traveller.

In the past, if one meant to influence the locals, it would be unnecessary to understand the indigenous culture. However, if in the present time, one must integrate and ingratiate with a culture, it would be essential to learn about them. Knowing and understanding cultural traditions, aspects and norms would be essential to picking up on a culture.

Learning about religions, food, rituals, traditions, social norms, dressing styles, communication nuances and other elements through the internet is quite helpful for the traveller.

Furthermore, a deviation from norms might result in being inconsiderate and offensive to the people. Such behaviour is not preferred and should be avoided. That is why it is essential to know about a culture and adhere to their ways if possible, in the age of globalisation.