If you want to travel abroad, it is crucial to learn to accept cultures on their own terms.

It can be all too easy to find yourself in a strange situation and begin reminiscing about home and the “normal” way of doing things, but this greatly detracts from your enjoyment of the foreign culture you’re being exposed to! The situations you find yourself in will often be awkward or downright strange, and occasionally challenge your own morals and beliefs.

Instead of reacting with defensiveness or hostility and thinking about “how strange people are here”, remember that your own culture isn’t perfect, either! This is called “seeing the strange in the familiar”. For someone growing up in another culture, being exposed to North American or European ways of life would seem totally strange, awkward, or even morally wrong.

Take the opportunity of traveling to open your mind to different ways of thinking. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to accept everything you see as right or better. Rather, don’t judge based on “better” or “worse” and simply accept each culture on its own terms. This is part of the adventure of traveling!

Once you have accepted that the culture has its own ways of doing things, and that this way isn’t any better or worse than your own, simply different, you will enjoy the experiences you have even more. You’ll find yourself free to observe things for what they are, and instead of engaging in moral judgment calls or comparisons, you can better engage in the experience itself!

If you know what your “triggers” are, what traits tend to make you intolerant, you can address your learned prejudices (most likely a simple result of growing up in a particular environment) and experience a more rewarding kind of travel.

Next time you find yourself in an awkward situation that would never happen at home, just smile and handle the experience on the spot without judging or comparing it to the “norms” at home. You’ll probably remember this unique experience for a long time!

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