While I’ve been traveling to many countries, I’ve noticed a few things related to their cultures and how they’re unique/vastly different from each other. In today’s world, there are many religions or beliefs that people follow in their day-to-day lives which can greatly impact the country’s culture. It can also change the person’s personality as well. Also, food and the country’s location are a few other things that can make a particular culture unique. Here, I’ve written just a few of the many reasons cultures can differ from one another.
Religion
One of the main reasons cultures are so different from one another is because of their religions/beliefs, which can affect how people think and act. In Bali for example, everyone there is exceptionally friendly and honest mostly because they believe in karma. As Bali is a Hindu country, many people strongly believe in taking good actions, especially when many houses are open-plan living. At first, when we came to Bali, I was always conscious of locking the door when I left the house or not leaving anything outside, but once we got used to living there, I saw no signs of thievery. In Thailand, where the common religion is Buddhism, many people believe that bad things can be balanced out by prayer and good merit, similar to karma. A lot of the people there are also especially calm and relaxed as if they meditated just moments before.
Food
Another reason why some cultures are so different is because of the food. Every country has its own kind of food and uniqueness to it depending on the staple food or even the produced foods. For example, in Portugal, a fair amount of restaurants sell potatoes, meat, sardines, and/or wine. They have so much wine in fact, although they have their own wine and make tons of it, The main reason most people never heard of it before is because they drink so much and have nothing left to export! Also, you can tell Portugal likes their sardines just by looking at some of the souvenir shops – most of them sell sardine-shaped objects in one way or another. In Malaysia for example, because they have so many cultures merged into one (e.g. Chinese, Indian, Thai, Malay, etc.), the foods there are extraordinarily unique. You can get the richness from duck, sweetness from coconut, and spiciness from curry. Having a high lack of tolerance for spicy foods, I especially found Malaysian foods scorching hot. It felt as if my tongue was on fire with hot coals burning in my mouth. If you visit Penang, especially the old town which has a large amount of Chinese influence, I would definitely recommend the duck rice/soup. It’s not too spicy (unless you add the fire water as I call it) and is full of flavor.
Country’s Location
Lastly, many cultures can differ due to their country’s location. For instance, in Spain, because the temperature can become intensely hot during the lunch hours, many people take a break from their work or school, eat a massive set-course meal for lunch, and sleep for another 2 hours or so; otherwise known as a siesta. Because of their 3-hour lunch break, the locals would usually come back home quite late at night and so you’d often see people strolling around with their kids at 11 pm. We even got into the Spanish timezone somehow! Another thing I noticed was the cities in Spain (other countries as well!). Instead of individual houses as you’d see in America, most people who live in an urban area would typically live in an apartment or a condo. This makes the cities here way more walkable and healthier as you don’t need a car to get around. In Iceland, an island nation where food is scarce, one of the main food staples is cod. There even is such a thing as a cod war between Iceland and England, where Iceland extended their ocean barriers to fish for more cod at England’s expense! Even being there for just over 2 weeks I became sick and tired of only eating cod whether it was fried, dried, or seared. And even if there was a different dish available, there was no way I’d eat fermented shark meat or even a sheep’s head.
These were just a few of the many different examples there are for culturally unique countries in the world. Because I worldschool, I sometimes find particularly interesting places and want to come back in the future. Often I have no idea about a country until I get there, so I sometimes listen to locals and go to museums to understand the cultures of that country. Everywhere in the world has its own kind of uniqueness to it and I definitely recommend you to find them on your next adventure or travel.
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