Traveling and being exposed to different cultures while growing up is very important. Some kids don’t get exposed to enough cultures and can be discriminative to people and their cultures both intentionally and unintentionally. 

Being born in Thailand and traveling to many places, I have always experienced many cultures. I have always been open-minded to try to respect other people’s lifestyles. When I started living in America, I met a lot more people that were less open-minded. I found out that some people thought it was weird to eat frogs and chicken feet in my culture. Even some of my friends would think it was weird when I ate things that they were not used to like pig liver and whole fish with the head. Some of my other friends that were exposed to more cultures or are a part of different cultures would get made fun of or called names for what they ate and what they did for their culture like for what they wear or celebrate by people that were less exposed to cultures and less accepting of something that they were not used to. An example is when one of my friends started saying what they normally eat in their culture, like pigeon, and the people in the group around her said that it was weird and gross to eat that kind of animal.

The people that I have met that have been less discriminative are the people that were exposed to more cultures while growing up and were willing to try new things. Some ways people can be less discriminative are by traveling and trying to experience cultures around the world. Another way is by eating the traditional foods and going to explore other religions. Respect for culture can also come from just researching and trying to understand their traditions.

Some people would say they don’t need to experience other cultures because they want to focus on their own culture. This can be a good thing for people to participate in their community, but this can make people less open-minded to other communities. They would be more discriminative to people and the cultures that they would not be used to. Which could cause bullying at school which would cause kids to grow up in an unsafe and uncomfortable community which is a big part of growing up knowing that you feel comfortable with your culture. Some people would also say that it is very expensive to travel, but you don’t need a lot of money to experience other cultures. Some ways to experience other low costs is to try new restaurants from different cultures like a Thai restaurant located in Lincoln Nebraska on 4451 N 26th St Suite called Blessings Thai. Or visiting other religious temples other than your own.

Traveling and being exposed to different cultures while growing up is very important. It will make you more open-minded and accepting to other cultures and religions.