Global Q&A: ‘What do you think we can learn from living side-by-side with other cultures?’

Sofia, Bulgaria

Dora Cheresharova, 30, Logistics Expert

Dealing with other cultures teaches me tolerance, to live together with people who are different from us, to find a way to move toward each other. Each nation has its own culture, beliefs, and perspective of the world. The fact we are so different, makes our life colorful and interesting, although sometimes turns out a real challenge. Personally to me, no matter how different we can be, in our nature we’re all the same—all of us need to be loved and to love, to have freedom and human dignity, to be healthy, and to fulfill our dreams …

Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.A.

41, Paparazzi Photographer

That depends on the cultures, but in general, if we’re open-minded, we may get to understand a different perspective.

 Lima, Peru

Margarita Preciado, 56, Pharmacist

Living with people of other cultures helps us to know their customs, compare, and take advantage of the most positive features. Exchanging food and language has become very important worldwide. Each town and each individual has his own idiosyncrasies. Developed countries have achievements of modern technology.

Wellington, New Zealand

Debbie Burgoyne, Librarian

Tolerance and appreciation of other people’s points of view; an understanding of what motivates them. And where they’ve come from, and what their histories are, and then from that what their futures are. And the ability to have an appreciation of where we are all coming from so we can get along better together. [Newtown, Wellington is] hugely multicultural, and it’s one of the reasons we wanted Tess [daughter] to go to school here at Newtown because of that mix of cultures. And it’s just the way New Zealand is and you can’t avoid other cultures and things …

Madrid, Spain

Angeles Arjona, 38, Anthropology Teacher

Well, really we can learn everything: cultural behaviors, customs, different language models, and distinct ways of understanding life. We can learn to think outside of our box, and then our things become relative instead of absolute. We have to learn to see multiculturalism as a great opportunity.

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Daniela Aparecida Rocha Reis, 28, Teacher

I believe that it is very important to live with people of other races and cultures. But not everyone has the same opinion and respect for diversity. When your mind is open, you learn more with this coexistence.

Puerto Montt, Chile

Yovanny Silva, 31, Sales

We can learn a lot from living with people of different cultures, starting from their diversity to a wide range of things. Every group of people, each culture has very rich and different habits. If it is a community in the process of developing, we can learn of its traditional ancestral myths, legends, habits, folklore, and so on. If the culture is more developed, we can learn of their technology. In any case, in the aspect of learning, we will benefit from coexisting with people from other culture.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Ashwatha Mahesh, 18, University Student

We can learn more about others cultures; the way they dress, their daily lifestyle, and we can also learn about their beliefs. And what they think is wrong, and what they think is right and so on.

Ibague, Colombia

Luz Ayda Bernal, 25, Optical Shop Assistant

I think I can learn a lot of things, like language, customs, the way they dress, their vocabulary, their food; and also geographical knowledge such as special places and cities.

 Look for the Global Q&A column every week. Epoch Times correspondents interview people around the world to learn about their lives and perspectives on local and global realities. Next week’s global question: “Do you think in dealing with China, your government should treat trade and human rights together, or as separate issues?”