African music sounds different from Finnish music. Middle Eastern food is different from Nordic food. Traditional Brazilian clothes don’t look like traditional Russian clothes. Why?
A lot of it has to do with resources and culture. The resources in Africa and Finland are different, and the people in each country use what they have to make musical instruments. Because their climates are so different, things that live and grow in the Middle East don’t usually live and grow in Norway and vice versa. So, people use what they can grow and catch to feed themselves. Brazil and Russia have different climates. People use the resources they have to make clothes that suit their environment. A person in Brazil has no need for a heavy coat most of the time, just as a person in Russia would be very sad in a lightweight Brazilian outfit during the cold Russian winters.
Just as resources shape the way people live, the ways groups of people live shape their beliefs and culture. For thousands of years, most people did not travel beyond the borders of their town, much less their native country. They lived in one place, and most of the people around them shared their way of life and customs.
Today, that is not the case. It is common for people to travel from country to country, bringing with them their cultural traditions, beliefs and values. In some ways, that can be scary. Meeting someone who looks different, speaks a language you don’t understand, wears clothes that you’ve never seen before and eats food that you don’t recognize can be intimidating. It’s scary being the person who doesn’t fit in, too.
But it can be a lot of fun learning about how people from other cultures live and sharing with them how you live. Exchanging food, music, ideas and traditions gives everyone involved a chance to learn something and better understand someone else’s perspective.
Differences aren’t always bad. In fact, they are often opportunities to make new friends.
