There’s no question that our geography defines how we experience a good portion of our lives. From the places you live and have lived, to the culture that surrounds you, and to how societies work with one another in order to reach common goals. These have profound implications on our lives through small personal changes accumulating into compound effects, or whether a nation-state decides to sign a peace treaty with your country of residence. National Geographic understands the power of places, and that’s why they launched National Geography Awareness Week more than 25 years ago. This year, we’d like to discuss how learning about different cultures around the world can be beneficial to you in your everyday life, especially around this annual geography awareness week.
Learning about different cultures is global and local
One way that you can learn about different cultures and thereby learn about geography is a tool that National Geographic built called What the World Eats. This fascinating accounting of the global cultures’ diets brings a visual tool that also teaches. I had no idea Australians and Spaniards ate so much in the “Sugar and Fat” category, comparative to the global Daily Diet. And, you can see how certain countries have changed their meat-eating habits over the last 50 years. China has had a whopping 1,442% increase in meat consumption over the past half-decade; if you’re curious, you can investigate how China became the world’s large producers of pork.
Bringing your geography skills locally, do you know where your foods are sourced? Does it come from abroad? Is it locally sourced? Enter SeedMap.org, “a collaborative online portal on seeds, biodiversity and food. Practitioners, activists, researchers, teachers, students and citizens can explore over 400 case studies looking at where our food comes from, the challenges facing agriculture today, and strategies to overcome them.” You can explore the case studies done both here and globally to explain how geography and food are interconnected.
As well, one great benefit of living in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area is the availability of embassies and cultural centers available to us. You can visit this Embassy Guide and choose to visit one or two of them for National Geography Awareness Week, and you can take it up a notch by committing to visiting one per month over the next year. Think about all that you’ll learn and experience about different cultures in just one year from now?
Learning about different cultures brings our global connection to own awareness and mindfulness practices
We all know by now, especially if you’ve been reading this blog, that meditation is a powerful tool in your toolbox for creating a stronger, healthier mind, body and spirit. Well, it contains also the capacity to expand our learning about different cultures. By expanding your focus to the world outside your immediate network of friends, family, and coworkers, you can turn your attention to different cultures that you learned about above.
If you need some inspiration, Global Meditation Network provides education and resources for you to learn how to meditate along with a global community of meditators.
Learn about different cultures through the flags of the world
In what may be one of the most different (and only) TED talks about vexillology, or the study of flags, Roman Mars presents a delightful romp through some of the world’s city’s worst flag designs, and the five basic principles they are breaking. Mars, being a radio show host, produces the TED Talk in the style of a radio program, which makes it even more unique and interesting—interviews with vexillologists and all.
If you want to learn more than you ever wanted to about flags, Flags of the World, is right up your alley! With over 65,000 pages and more than 129,000 flags in their database, you’ll find history and background on flags of countries, cities, organizations and more.
Check out this world flag game of identifying the 20 flags to their respective countries, which will not only be challenging but will also teach you a few more world flags and broaden your perspectives.
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No matter how you decide to learn about different cultures, we can all agree that finding commonalities among our fellow humans is powerful. It reduces conflicts, broadens horizons, and generally makes us more connected to one another. What ideas do you have for learning about different cultures around the globe this National Geography Awareness Week?