Cultural Awareness
What does it mean to have cultural awareness?
Cultural awareness or cultural sensitivity is the ability to recognize cultural differences and similarities, but not judge people. You can observe cultural differences and not judge them.
It doesn’t necessarily mean you should be an expert in all cultures. This simply means that you should be willing to listen and ask questions in order to learn more, not reacting with a knee-jerk response to any opinions that aren’t yours.
What is the importance of Cultural Awareness?
A lot of places are multi-cultural. This means that traditions and people from other cultures and countries are celebrated and recognized in these countries. You’re likely to encounter many people and be exposed to many situations you don’t know.
You can have meaningful interactions with others by improving your cultural awareness or understanding of other cultures. This builds empathy and respect for others, as well as celebrating similarities and differences. This will make it less likely that you treat someone differently just because they come from a different cultural or ethnic background than you.
Cultural Understanding and Awareness: Ways to increase it
It is easy to stay with what you know rather than to try to understand others who are different. But, it’s possible to open yourself up to new experiences by actively seeking to understand and embrace cultural differences. Here is the best thing you can do:
Travel!
Living among other cultures is one of the best ways you can experience and appreciate them. Although it might be difficult to save up, planning a trip to another country can open you up to other cultures. Through Travel and the ability to truly immerse yourself in a new and different culture, you can open new ways of understanding and experience.
Read more about the Zen of Tripello here.
