In Vietnamese there is a saying: “Go/do for the sake of understanding it.” (di cho biet):
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Travel to see for yourself!
Definition of “Đi cho biết”:
- Di means to go.
- Cho means “for”
- Biet: means to “understand”
To me, I think the benefit of traveling is to put yourself outside of your comfort zone, to expose yourself to novel ideas, life philosophies, to understand more about the world and other people, and to learn more about humanity with your own two eyes!
Direct experience is the best experience
Believe nothing of what you read, believe half of what you hear, and believe three-quarters of what you see.
Direct experience is a Buddhist, zen, Taoist concept in which to truly learn and understand, we must have direct experience with our own two eyes.
There was probably some truth to “doubting Thomas”; be skeptical to the fear tactics that the media and your friends and family say about foreign places. Use traveling to truly understand that Middle Eastern, Islamic people, etc are human beings, just like you! Traveling to Beirut, Lebanon and Dubai has made me so much more open-minded about middle eastern folks, whereas most Americans are afraid of Islam (because of fear tactics from the media, in which fear news drives more clicks, eyeballs, and advertising dollars).
Travel to understand more of the world, and to open up your heart and mind to the rest of humanity!
Case study: Natalie and Stoytcho
Our friends Natalie and Stoytcho traveled the globe for a year, and blogged about it (NEVER ENDING EVERYWHERE, because they wanted to better understand the living conditions of people all around the globe, in order to try to figure out:
How can we maximize our strengths to make a positive impact on the world?
They taught me how much social and economic inequality there was in the world, and how incredibly poor some people were, especially in South America, Southeast Asia, and many other countries. By being able to directly experience this inequality, they were able to form their own judgements and opinions, rather than hearing it second-hand from others.
So the lesson is this:
Travel to understand other cultures, but also to better understand yourself.
Travel to learn more, to create more and to empathize more. Don’t travel to consume more; travel to produce more.
ERIC
This is an except from our upcoming book, “Travel Notes”. Subscribe to ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER to be notified once the book is published!