So, you have visited other countries and think you know the world?
If you visit other countries as a tourist, do you go to the tourist traps or do you go to where the locals at and interact with them?
If you can speak a foreign language, is your fluency high or is it only enough to order foods at restaurants?
If it is high, are you fluent only in the standard dialect which you can learn entirely in classes? Or are you also fluent in at least one vernacular speech which you can only learn from the streets?
If you live in other countries, do you live among your fellow immigrants or do you live among the locals?
If you live among the locals, are they fluent in foreign languages and very comfortable with anything foreign? Or are they those who can barely speak one and unfamiliar with anything foreign?
What are you trying to gain by interacting with foreigners? Do you want your validation for your beliefs? Or do you actually want to learn?
If you want to gain new knowledge, how do you gain it? Do you interact only with specific groups of a country’s population? Or do you interact with as many citizens as possible?
If you have gained it, how is the quality? Is it very black-and-white and easily digestible? Or is it too nuanced and intricate to be explained simplistically?
Yes, there are such thing wrong answers.
If you cannot speak the people’s everyday languages…
If you don’t go to where the locals at…
If you live only among the fellow immigrants or locals who are familiar with anything foreign…
If you interact only with a small number of locals instead of interacting with as many as possible….
If your interactions with them give you black-and-white and/or belief-affirming “knowledge”…
Then, I can definitely say you still know little about the world beyond your country’s borders. It is apparent you still haven’t fully left the bubbles you grew up in.
Not everyone will fall for your international relations “credentials”.
.
.
.
.
.
Donate to this deadbeat, preachy blogger on Patreon.
