Learning about other cultures outside your own is one of the most important things we will ever do as people. Travel is a great way to do that, as simply stepping outside your front door you see and hear things that could be very different to how your family sees the world. However, it isn’t a one-way street. Sharing and exchanging culture is vital for the whole world, so in this post, I’m going to break down what I think cultural exchange is, and why exchanging cultures matters so much.
What Is Cultural Exchange?
Culture can be defined as “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society”, so a cultural exchange is simply sharing any aspects of your culture with someone else from a different background to you, and vice versa.
It could be sharing information about what clothes you wear, learning a type of instrument or talking together about religion or politics. It could be discussing each other’s ideas and beliefs about anything that you do, from day to day activities to special celebrations, what food you like to make or the sport you play.
The Importance of Cultural Exchanges
Mark Twain once said:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
That is one of my favourite travel quotes, and the first time I read those words it really struck a chord with me. Imagine if you never speak to anyone outside your family. You might never know that there are different ways to view the world. That there are different religions, different clothes that people wear, different foods that other people eat.
That seems tragic to me, going through life not even knowing that different cultures exist. Of course, these days we have the internet, books and TV to tell us that they do indeed exist, but we should really see these things for ourselves to properly understand them.
That actually is quite a narrow way of looking at cultural exchanges, as there are lots more benefits to cultural exchange that help make all of our lives better and increase understanding between people from all over the world.
Benefits of Cultural Exchanges
I truly believe that through travel, the more we learn about each other and our differences, the more we will realise how similar we are. That is how travelling helps in cultural exchange and if I can promote cultural exchange through travel then I will do my best!
If we all travelled more and shared our ideas and experiences with each other there would be no need for wars about religion, no excuse for treating people of another sexual orientation, gender or skin colour differently (not that there is any justification for that of course, but there would be no excuse no matter how misguided).
Any kind of travel involves a certain amount of cultural exchange, but to go beyond the superficial, the best way to learn about another culture is to speak to someone from that culture. Get to know them, learn from them, and talk about the differences and similarities in your beliefs and lifestyle and you’ll see how powerful exchanging cultures can be.
Not only will cultural exchange benefit you on a personal level, but being exposed to different cultures can be incredibly inspiring, as you are influenced by new food, art, music, writing and every aspect of life. Cultural exchanges can lead to a wonderful fusion of styles, in particular for creative people, but for everyone!
In a business context, for example, learning from others helps you to find new ways of designing products, or using the influence of architecture to create a new style of building that could be more eco-friendly. The benefits of cultural exchange go far beyond simply expanding your own experience, it can have far-reaching effects in all aspects of your own culture too.
Examples of Cultural Exchanges
There are lots of ways that we can share our culture with others, and arguably anything we do is part of our culture, so simply telling people about our day-to-day lives (and listening to them do the same) is one of the simplest cultural exchange examples.
However, there are some more specific ways we can exchange our cultures, which relate to our personal passions or hobbies. Being able to share something you love with someone from another culture, and learn about how they do it, is a perfect example of cultural exchange. You can also choose specific destinations which are renowned for their style of whatever you like doing.
Here are some examples of cultural exchanges that could relate to your interests.
Learning Languages
Language is a huge part of our culture – how we express ourselves and nuances in the words we use often lose a lot in translation. Learning another language opens us up to a wider understanding of how we see the world, and allows us to communicate with a lot more people who don’t speak our language.
I’ve found through my travels that being able to speak to people in their own language (in my case by speaking Spanish), I’ve met some incredible people that I wouldn’t have been able to hold a conversation with otherwise. The smiles on their faces as I’ve greeted them and asked them about their country are more than worth the effort it took to learn Spanish!
Language exchanges can be a fun way to improve your existing skills and meet new people, but studying a new language is a wonderful way to learn more about a different culture. Rosetta Stone and Babbel offer language courses online, with Babbel offering live online classes with language teachers.
Even learning a few words on Duolingo before you travel somewhere new can help you interact with people a lot more!
Cooking Together
Food is one thing that brings us all together – we all eat! One of my favourite things to do when I’m travelling is to take a cooking class or a food tour so that I get to know some of the local food and drink wherever I am, and learn about the dishes from someone who knows a whole lot more about it than I do – from the history of salt cod in Portugal on a food tour in Lisbon to making tacos in Mexico!
Learning how to cook a new dish, and then sitting down together to enjoy the food you’ve made is a wonderful experience and one I enjoy every single time I do it. Even watching a woman flipping corn tortillas between her hands before slapping them onto the griddle is something I don’t see every day at home.
For chefs or enthusiastic cooks, what kind of food do you enjoy, and what would you like to learn more about? French patisserie? Mexican street food? How about Peruvian fusion cuisine? The world is your oyster.
Music and Dancing
Music and dance are two forms of communication that you don’t even need to properly understand to appreciate the meaning or beauty of it. Different instruments and different dances have evolved all over the world, and being able to watch and learn how people make music and dance in their country and culture is a joy.
If you are a musician, for example, a drummer, perhaps going to Belize to learn how to play the drums like the Garifuna people, or heading to Japan to learn about taiko drumming would be an excellent way to learn more about Japanese culture. Alternative, for dancers, Cuba, Argentina or Brazil could be perfect destinations for you.
Cultural Exchange Programs
Student Exchanges
There are various platforms that arrange international exchanges where it is an actual swap between two people in different cultures and they either visit each other to spend time together in each place one after the other, or swaps where they essentially switch places for a period of time.
Some cultural exchange examples for students could be:
- a sports exchange where you travel to different countries and compete against other schools in the sport
- language exchanges where you visit people who speak the language you are learning, spending time in that country and vice versa for students from there coming to visit you
- a music exchange where you learn to play instruments from other cultures
When I was in school, in our French class we were given pen pals from a school in France, to help us to learn French. My pen pal Claudine came to visit me, stayed at my house for a week and I showed her around my town, had some traditional British meals at home and we took her to some of the tourist attractions nearby.
Then, I did the same and travelled to France to stay with her family. It definitely helped my French, and it was fun to eat crepes and live like a French person for a week! Student exchanges are probably one of the most simple kinds of cultural exchange, but also one of the most important.
The younger we start to learn about different cultures, the better! The more open-minded we become as we begin to see beyond our own little bubbles.
Further opportunities for cultural exchanges come with the chance to study abroad for a longer period. In Europe the ERASMUS program allows students from one university to go abroad and spend a year studying there as part of their course – like I did when I first went to Barcelona. I was studying languages, but there are opportunities for all sorts of subjects to take a year abroad, and the programme is now open to a wider range of people too.
Adult Cultural Exchanges
As an adult, there may be professional cultural exchanges that you can do, for example taking a sabbatical or working in another country for a set period of time. This works particularly well if you are learning a trade, for example a chef may live and work in France to learn to be a pastry chef.
However, one of the best ways I’ve found to do a cultural exchange is through exchange websites like Worldpackers and Workaway.
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Anyone can sign up, and the idea is that you volunteer your time and skills in exchange for accommodation, food and other benefits, usually living with the people you are there to help. Volunteering or doing a work exchange like this has immeasurable benefits, but the chance to live in another country and learn about the culture is certainly one of the biggest advantages.
Examples of cultural exchanges available on Worldpackers include:
- Teaching English in a School in Hirakata City, Japan
- Contribute at a permaculture farm near Medellin, Colombia
- Help in a guest house in Ballinrobe, Ireland
- Working for a Homestay in Gaillac, France
- Helping at a jungle homestay by a lake in South Thailand
- Teaching English to Locals in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
- Helping grow organic food in Arusha, Tanzania
Other benefits to these kinds of cultural exchanges include the chance to learn a new language or improve your existing language skills, experiencing a new location in a unique way with local people and getting work experience that you can use for your CV or resume. They also provide peace of mind for solo travellers who prefer to have a contact in the place where they’re going – backed up by reviews from previous exchangers.
And, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get an experience like this, so anyone can do it!
Registering on an work and cultural exchange website like Worldpackers costs just $49 a year (save $10 with this discount code), which is an absolute bargain. Once you are a member, you can contact potential hosts from all over the world and arrange placements to do exchanges in private homes, in local businesses or for NGOs, among others.
I’ve used Worldpackers and other exchange sites like Workaway to immerse myself in the community in places like Peru, Mexico, Belize and the UK, and am looking forward to getting back on the road again to do more in the next few years. You can read about my experience using Worldpackers in the UK here and more information about exchange programs here.
I often refer to these as work exchanges as you get free accommodation in exchange for your time and skills, and budget travellers can save lots of money by doing this – and even make money through the Worldpackers programs – but they aren’t just for backpackers, the cultural side is just as important as working and saving money, so anyone looking for an adventure and to learn can do a cultural exchange.
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Other Cultural Activities in Schools & at Home
In situations where it isn’t possible to physically travel to new places to learn about other cultures, there are lots of ways to bring cultural exchanges into the classroom or your home. It’s never to early or too late to bring aspects of other cultures into your life!
Some ideas for cultural exchanges without international travel could be:
- Visiting a museum about the culture you want to learn about
- Finding out if there is a local community in your area that you can talk to about an exchange
- Doing a language exchange in cities where people want to learn English so you can get to know new people from other countries and cultures
- Reaching out to schools or organisations in other countries to arrange an exchange of penpals or zoom calls to get to know each other
- Watching TV or Films about the destination and including actors, writers and directors from that culture
- Reading books or magazines written by people in that culture
- Following social media influencers from that culture
- Listening to music made by musicians and singers from the culture
- Cooking new dishes from different recipes and sharing the food together
Tips to Prepare for Cultural Exchanges (and Avoid Culture Shock!)
Have an Open Mind
The biggest thing you can do when encountering anything new is to have an open mind, and cultural exchanges are no different. Even if you have your own (strict) beliefs about something, accept that other people may not share those beliefs. That doesn’t make them right or wrong, just different.
Life would be very boring if we all looked the same, liked the same things and behaved exactly the same, so embrace the differences and listen and learn what they have to say without judgement. One of my friends loves the phrase “great for them, not for me”, and I think that applies in many cases to different cultural experiences you may find shocking.
Prepare in Advance
Before you travel somewhere new, do some research into the culture before you arrive so you have an idea of what to expect. Reading books and magazines or watching films or TV shows from the place you are visiting can help give you a headstart on some aspects of the culture you will be experiencing.
When you are travelling you should be respectful of the cultural norms where you are, for example knowing what kind of clothing is appropriate, whether you should tip your waiter and how to greet people politely are just some of things to prepare for so you can avoid any cultural faux pas!
Ask Advice
Don’t be afraid to ask questions or to ask for advice. I prefer to look foolish asking a silly question than to be rude and do something considered disrespectful in another culture. You could ask in Facebook groups about travelling to the area, ask a friend or colleague who has spent time in that country or quietly ask someone you have just met to help you.
I hope this has helped you to understand a bit more about cultural exchanges and inspired you to do one yourself – or at the very least to travel more intentionally! If you have done a cultural exchange already, I’d love to hear about it, so please leave a comment below with your experiences of exchanging cultures.
Cultural Exchange FAQ
What is the importance of culture exchange?
Learning about other cultures different to your own is important because it shows you that there are different ways of doing things, other ways of living and experiencing things and opens you up to a world of new experiences.
Not only will cultural exchange benefit you on a personal level, but being exposed to different cultures can be incredibly inspiring, as you are influenced by new food, art, music, writing and every aspect of life.
Cultural exchanges can lead to a wonderful fusion of styles, in particular for creative people, but for everyone!
What happens in a cultural exchange?
Cultural exchanges happen when people learn from each other, sharing some aspect of their cultures - that could be as simple as sharing something they do in their everyday lives such as the clothes they wear or language they speak, or the food they cook, the music they listen to or art they create.
How to do cultural exchange?
Cultural exchanges can occur organically as you meet new people from other cultures, or you can seek out cultural exchange programs to travel to new places or take part in social events with different people.
Even something as simple as watching TV from another country or visiting a museum about another culture can help you to learn about another culture, but ideally it will be a mutual exchange so you can also share your own culture with someone else in return.
What is a cultural exchange visitor?
A cultural exchange visitor is someone who has travelled to a different place to actively take part in a cultural exchange, and to learn about the culture and the people there. Cultural exchange visitors are also great sources of information about their own culture and will be happy to share that with you for a mutual cultural exchange.
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