Student Blogger, Helal: Diving into Culture
What is the best way to overcome your personal limitations and broaden your thinking? How do you understand people easily and how quickly can you become friends with them? These are the common queries that I always look for answers. I get most of my answers from ‘Invictus,’ a movie based on the success story of the Noble Laureate, Nelson Mandela. I realized that his understanding of the cultural variations among South Africans made Mandela succeed within a very short period of time!
“A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.” — Nelson Mandela
I think cultural immersion will do the same job. It will bring social peace and harmony among people of different races and religions. When people value and respect each other’s cultures, beliefs, etc. then they will grow up in a happy and unruffled society. There will be less racial oppression and personal hostility in the society. The USA is a new place for me; it’s even the first time I am away from my country. So, everything seems new to me and there is nothing familiar. Very often I encounter many differences in styles and cultures here in the USA. In some cases, in my country those would be like an offense. That’s the key thing that drives me to know about cultures and I try to understand them. I believe education makes people more knowledgeable, which also bring economical and social prosperity. To me, it’s not the country rather the people from all parts of the world that have made this a different world! I feel I don’t need to visit other countries to know and understand them. All I need to do is to discover and meet more people here and make good relationships with them. That’s why I think I should be involved more with this new culture and new people so as to make it like home!
"The faster I am immersed in this culture, the more I can learn and enjoy my time here in USA."