I have forever heard that going to far off places is a positive experience, and teaches a lot of important information. Could someone tell me what it is? I mean, I’ve already come to the conclusion that people are people everywhere, and that the people in forig- in different countries are likely to be just like the people here, except that they live somewhere else. So, what is learned by travelling?
Foreign.
I’ve learned that I really like my home. Specifically my house. And I like sleeping there more then anywhere else.
But, you could learn that there are many different ways for people to live and interact with each other. That different people have different attitudes towards not only life but politics and government and that it works fine for them. And that seeing and touching the Tower of London is a much better experience then seeing it on TV or reading about it.
Survival skills.
You go to a foreign country, you REALLY need to be prepared for all kinds of situations that you’d think would be common sense. Having been to Europe several times, I’ve learned several things:
- Foreign languages are a lot harder than high school classes let on.
- Money should be kept in a secure place where it can’t be stolen.
- Big European cities aren’t laid out in a nice, American “grid” pattern.
- Personal identification is really important. (In the U.S., you can reasonably go most places without your ID. In Europe, I found really needed my password everywhere.)
- Reading a European city map is a foreign language in itself.
- When you’re reading that map, don’t do it in a big open square with lots of people. (I hope I don’t have to explain this one.)
Etc., etc. Point being, going abroad challenges your personal survival skills because you’re outside the “safe” zone of the U.S. (or wherever home is). I have no problem running around a new city on a whim; in Europe, I’m at a certain disadvantage based on unfamiliarity and the fact that somebody could take advantage of that.
People are people everywhere, but then again they are not. Different cultures/languages affect people, and they are not the same as you are. That’s a great thing to understand.
I like Mark Twain’s take on the topic:
I don’t think “people are people everywhere.” Look at areas where women are not regarded as they are in Western cultures. But that’s another issue that’s been addressed on other threads.
You learn that things really *are[/i[ different. Despite our many similarities, there are a myriad different little details, and often quite a few whopping big differences. That’s the basis of Culture Shock. You learn what things are important to other people, and what are not. You learn a difference in attitude and philosophy and outlook – things hard to come by in reading about a foreign country, and much easier to experience first-hand.
Growth. IMHO, it is both true and not true that people are people everywhere. The experience of travel is required to understand that. Even in the USA, there are differences among regional cultures.
Seeing the various wonders of the planet. I long to see macaws flying in the wild even though I can see and touch them at my local pet store.
Like Violet, I think that Mark Twain’s quote speaks volumes.
I think travel taught me a whole lot about how I behave in strange, different, and sometimes perilous situations. I learned I could keep a level head when people around me were freaking out, and that it’s often better to be overprepared for things than not. I shall never go anywhere without antibiotics again. I learned to be respectful of what other people believe, even though I might not agree with it at all. I also learned to listen a lot better, to nuances in language as well as in cultural customs.
I believe I’m a better person for crawling into the Pyramids at Giza (when you still could), for dipping a toe into Loch Ness, for taking the Star Ferry from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon, and for watching lions tear into a carcass in South Africa. There’s a kind of heightened awareness you get only when in an unfamiliar place that makes what’s around come vividly and graphically alive. And when you have to take malaria pills on top of that, oooh.
In theory, it teaches you that there’s a world outside your living room. However, too many people react to this by demanding that world immediately become their living room.
It taught me how fat this country is. My first day after I returned from two weeks in Austria, I noticed that I had seen more fat people that day than I’d seen the entire two weeks previously. And not just overweight, but extremely obese. And I worked at a hospital at the time - these were health care workers.
It also taught me to hate airplanes. Being a tall guy with legs. I find long flights to be excruciating.
So far it’s taught all my relatives that you really can drive at highway speeds for 10 hours and still be in the same country.
I’ve found that knowing English, French, and being equipped with a German phrase book can get you around anywhere in the Western world.
That the sun is up until 10 pm in Norway-- and glacier water hits 30 degrees celsius!!!
European cars have head room! Hawaiians ride motorcycles wearing flip-flops and bathing suits-- and no helmets.
You’ll find weird foods that taste good. Cool music. Strange cultural events…
Foreign travel gives you a new perspective.
Not everything you do, eat, drink, celebrate, wear and believe is “normal” in other parts of the world…and learning of the differences makes you re-evaluate the way you live your life.
If I were dictator of the world, I would make it mandatory that every individual has to spend at least one year of their life abroad.
I have spent many years of my life as a broad! 
** Legomancer **, my guess is that Europeans are not as fat because they don’t drive cars everywhere like in many parts of the U.S.
You can learn culture. You also get to learn patience to deal with little toddlers on the plane.
Things I have learned from travelling:
Not everyone has as high an opinion of America as we have of ourselves.
There are a lot worse places to be/live than that podunk little town you couldn’t wait to get out of (please pardon my hanging preposition, “out of which you couldn’t wait to get” sounds pretty lame).
Sleeping in train stations builds character.
Foreign language skills increase rapidly in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol consumed.
It is still possible to go places where people have never seen or met an American.
Many people around the world live happy and content lives with much less than the poorest American.
There are beautiful people everywhere.
A single U.S. dollar and a bar of chocolate can cause a young mother in Bangladesh to cry on your shoulder.
I’ve done a fair share of travelling and what I truly, absolutely, completely, down-to-the-bones learned is this fact:
The world is not small. It is unimaginably big, packed with cultures and histories and beautiful people. You wouldn’t even begin to scratch the surface of its complexity if you travelled for a thousand years.
Of course globalization is rapidly changing all that. Want a Coke? Get out there and enjoy the confusion while it still exists.
Next time you feel like bitching about something in your life, think about Ol’Gaffer’s comment above.
Travel gives you perspective.
My perspective is a little different than most. I found that people in Europe seem an awful lot like people in the US, they just have a lot less appliances, and much smaller houses.
I also now feel like the World is a very small place. When I can get on a plane at 6:30 am and be in Europe by 10:30 pm (local) the same day, that’s a small place. Before I travelled, Europe seemed impossibly far away, and the effort and planning needed for such a monumental journey…impossible. Now I could grab my passport and 7-day bag, and jump on plane with no notice, and be perfectly OK.
I guess it’s made, for me, the World a much more homey place.
have you been anywhere besides Europe, Anthracite? I’m not sure you’d have the same reaction to meeting a Turkana from northern Kenya, for example.
In the short run, you learn a lot about foreign cultures. If you stay longer, you start to realize that you’ve learned a lot more about your own culture and yourself as an individual. Stripped of the familar conventions that serve to define you in your own culture, you are forced to really examine who you are.
South America too.
I do not travel to Africa or Asia, because I have no business there that needs me in person. I would go to Australia, should the opportunity arise.
It makes you realize how much you were missing by staying home and not going anywhere. It also makes you glad to get back home. You’ll never truly know what you are missing until you do it. 