The World Opens Up: The Explorer’s Guide to Accepting Others
The sense of securing your belongings, smelling something unusual and hearing unfamiliar words are all signs you’re starting a true learning experience through travel. Going beyond the perfect moments people share and typical tours, travelling opens a door to new experiences. One important point it emphasizes which the world desperately needs today, is learning to be tolerant. In the true sense, travel encourages us, inspires us and can even coax (or sometimes force) us from our safe circles, so that we have to meet someone different, often showing them to be just another person, like us, in their thoughts and feelings.
The primary reason people are not tolerant is often a lack of knowledge and fear. We are most likely to fear anything we don’t understand and then we demonize it. Easy assumptions, called stereotypes, are used instead of real people and true cultures by many. Because of the way media, politicians or others talk about countries, we often judge whole nations with just one broad and often negative sketch. Travel can help dissolve the hard ideas people have about certain places. A man in a Marrakech market whom you think is rough has his whole face light up with a wide grin if you try to say thank you. The rural Japanese family may at first seem reserved, but they will welcome and even help you once you really appreciate their way of life.
Observe things first to start this process. With everything unfamiliar, every sense reacts more quickly. We pay attention to how rituals are carried out each day like how they greet each other, work, share meals or choose which gods to honor. At first, these differences might feel too different or a bit awkward. What is the explanation for eating with hands? Why do the shops close during the middle of the day? Why is it sometimes treated as very flexible and other times strictly enforced? This feeling of unease is really important. The hardship helps the stone become sharper. It leads us to doubt the customs we normally follow, because it becomes clear that our way is different from what everyone may think is the right way.
Language is typically the first obstacle that people notice. Struggling to share ideas – using gestures and bits of learned language – may leave a person feeling a little humble. Still, experiencing awkward moments as a group allows people to connect. Trying to form bonds in another language feels very open and honest. You gain patience toward yourself and toward the person trying to understand what you are saying. The moment understanding clicks and we laugh together about something silly, we notice the bond is not about grammar. You learn that language is a way for people to share their thoughts and feelings in various ways. This situation encourages you to respect others in your neighborhood who are learning a new language and often to feel their struggle more deeply.
Learning to eat different foods teaches us to accept all kinds of people. An item you might never order where you live can taste wonderful when eaten in the country it is served in. Eating durian in Southeast Asia, fermented shark in Iceland or insects in Thailand can be a bold food adventure and it also challenges our cultural beliefs. Trying different dishes usually introduces us to exciting tastes, yet it also shows that tastes and “good food” are strongly shaped by culture. We find out that our own distaste for something comes from cultural background, rather than being a natural reaction. It makes people understanding that other perspectives, even ones that seem unfamiliar, can be explained by their background and development. Eating together, something everyone does, can introduce us to new culture and ways of thinking.
Going on a trip often means learning about the way other people value things and organize their lives. In one culture, being part of a group is most important; in another, valuing independence means the most. Time, private space, obligations within families and ways of making people laugh can each change from one culture to another. Seeing these things with your own eyes helps you understand them better than if you read about them only in a classroom. You may first think that siestas are just about being lazy and not caring about work, but you will realize that it helps your health and bringing people together is actually more important. There might be places where arranged marriages take place and even though you personally disagree, you begin to see the reasons why this happens for others in that society. Here, tolerance doesn’t ask for agreement, but simply for acknowledging that voices exist beyond your own point of view.
Trying something new means you have to reflect on yourself. Visual contact with other cultures causes us to consider our own in a new way. A culture obsessed with buying often looks different to someone used to the satisfaction felt by those with few possessions. Compare breathing in another country’s political air, it can make you see things about your own government’s decisions that you may not have considered before. The point isn’t to make clear that one culture is better than another, but to appreciate how cultures have come up with diverse approaches to shared problems. It encourages trusting that no culture has every possible answer.
Traveling usually requires dealing with things you are not used to and dealing with unexpected hurdles. Things like not catching a train on schedule, being caught up in a protest or facing a complicating government system aren’t only problems; they help us get stronger and more flexible. In such instances, people you don’t know usually help you. Happenings such as a stranger finding your bus, a nice family in a cabana giving you a break from the rain or a fellow hiker offering you water make you feel less like a stranger. They demonstrate that there is a basic good shared by people of all cultures and nations. This idea helps us learn tolerance: we find that we are more similar than we imagine.
Taking a tour is like stepping into the past and feeling what happened there. Seeing the Forum in Rome, exploring the ruins of Ayutthaya or visiting war memorials lets visitors feel the history of each society. You start to realize what happened in the past that impacts a nation’s way of thinking now. To develop tolerance, people need to understand their culture in this way. The reason that politicians hold certain stances or cultures respond the way they do becomes easier to understand. It softens judgment by adding empathy.
Travel doesn’t, by itself, guarantee open-mindedness. It is possible to travel far and still just spend time at grand hotels and follow guided routes that do not get beneath the stereotypes. The fact that “ugly tourists” are rude, demanding and insensitive is evidence of what happens when people are not interested in others’ cultures. A traveler who wants to become more tolerant must be curious, receptive and ready for new experiences. It requires active involvement, not only the passive watching of a show. It means staying at a smaller hotel nearby, sampling local street food, learning some basics and listening to what others have to say most of the time.
Of all kinds of travelers, the solo traveler is quite often faced with situations that rapidly need them to adapt and feel true empathy. Their own culture is not by their side, so they find themselves having to engage, get help and entrust people they do not yet know. Facing difficulties can create much stronger bonds and respect for the kindness shown by people, regardless of who they are.
Also, the new understanding of diversity gained by a traveler often influences them when they come home. The world which was once just a theory, is now full of real people and real events. A report about another country now touches me deeply because it reminds me of all I’ve lived through there. Seeing the world in a larger way can help someone be more accepting toward immigrants in their area, appreciate diverse traditions they encounter every day and examine biased statements about immigrants. The person traveling comes home with objects and a better appreciation of other cultures.
Because of the internet, it looks like people are more informed about the world than before. Still, due to social media algorithms, we sometimes get ideas that confirm what we already believe instead of helping us to see things differently. We follow pages that agree with our opinions and since the internet is so big, it becomes simple to distribute false statements and biased beliefs. Going on trips gives us a great chance to recharge. It feels natural in a digital world, is hard to manage at times and challenges us to go past the boundaries of our comfort zones.
Like any meaningful project, traveling toward more tolerance can be uncomfortable sometimes. There will be occasions where everyone doesn’t understand, things get frustrating and fear becomes part of the picture. These situations are what test and grow our ability to understand others’ feelings. Facing up to these issues by staying open to new things allows us to value the diversity of human life. It is revealed that being different is not the same as being less than anyone else and diversity is what makes the world strongest.
Travel helps people become more tolerant because it connects you to new groups and cultures. It creates characters instead of caricatures and substitutes experiences for assumptions. It demonstrates that the drawn paths on maps are meaningless when we look at what we share as humans: our hopes, dreams and difficulties. It can subtly or aggressively tell us that everyone has their own way of seeing things and there is a lot to learn from approaches that are not our own. No matter where we are heading next, whether close or far, we ought to keep in mind that traveling helps us open our minds and hearts and it shapes us into more tolerant members of such a rich and diverse world. The most valuable gift from travel is a broader and kinder way to see people.
Here I will give you another three paragraphs to add on to the conclusion.
Travel gives us a new and more understanding view of other people. Even so, tending to this lens is a continuous, ongoing job. Every experience or meeting with someone adds to our learning, but being tolerant needs to be worked on consistently to keep it strong. Going back to somewhere we have visited before, years later, might introduce a new side to the place, but also to us, because we see things with different eyes. Being tolerant doesn’t happen just once, but requires us to try to understand the world and others whenever they challenge our ideas. By repeating this process, people understand that everyone and every culture has their story and it should be accepted with an open mind and kindness.
Also, the open-mindedness gained from traveling comes with a special and meaningful role to fill. Every time we go to new lands, we cannot help but appear as representatives of who we are. How we act, how much we value local ways and how interested we are in what others do each day can help improve the world’s view of tourists or make it stay the same. So, true tolerance works both ways. Being open to learning and being mindful about how you present yourself in groups helps more helpful interactions to take place. This requires careful action, good listening and noticing that we influence others, working to make our actions unite people rather than divide them.
In the end, the understanding travel encourages is important for both people and the world as a whole. Because of the division many cultures face, someone who welcomes differences, tries to link with others and sees things from another perspective often ends up softly resolving issues. Many individuals changing in this way, on many different trips, creates a shift that allows people all over the world to address problems as a team instead of in conflict. So, traveling is more than exploring the globe; it pushes us to participate in new places, learn from the variety all around and return home as people with more empathy, respect and newfound knowledge, eager to apply it to our surroundings for a peaceful, integrative society. As a result, the map that a person follows as they travel is not just geography; it is an inside landscape formed by compassion and each experience, difficulty and happy moment becomes a memorable waypoint in this continuous and lasting journey to accept different people.
