What does blending mean? What differentiates an open mindset from a fixed one? What makes one progressive?
According to a survey done by bakemag.com, “...98 percent of Americans eat pizza, with 54 percent saying that they “love pizza.” It's a mealtime staple for many households, and 33 million Americans even go as far as to say that it would be their last meal on Earth if they had a choice.”
Pizza is a result of Italian culture and cuisine. That makes me wonder, “What made pizza so popular around the world?” “ If you look at music rather than food, you may ask yourself “How did rap style of music get popular all around the world even though it first originated in African-American communities in the New York city?”(Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2020, June 18). rap. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/rap). The answer to these two questions would be cultural blending.
Cultural blending is the union of two or more diverse cultures, which makes people bond and allows individuals to better understand each other. Cultural blending exists in all places, but often goes unappreciated or sometimes, ignored completely. Let us look at some of the most obvious examples of cultural blending we witness in our daily lives.
- Learning: Learning has been a mixture of different learning techniques and styles from all around the world. Cultural blending in education plays an important role in making learners progressive while composing a system that has the best of both the worlds. Platforms like schoolhouse.world bring school learning together with technology. Schoolhouse.world also helps individuals to interact with and explore different cultures right from their bedroom. For example, in Community and Experimental sessions, learners can be exposed to other cultures and ideas.
- Sports: Sports like football are extremely popular all around the world. Football is actually a sport from Britain, but is appreciated and played globally. The list of sports following a similar pattern as football never really ends. This is because there are plenty of popular sports originating from different cultures and nations that are now played all over the world.
- Food: As mentioned before, there are a lot of popular foods and cuisines that originate from different cultures. Some are also a result of shortages (Ex. Nutella) in ingredients and others have a personal connection to an individual. Even though in some cases there are no more ingredient shortages, people still enjoy dishes like these because they carry centuries worth of tradition along or are maybe just embedded in the DNA.
Acceptance of different ideas, thoughts and cultures is what makes one progressive and open minded. These two values hold major significance as the world is developing at an incredible rate. With all this being said, sticking to your roots also holds its own unique value. Exploration and adventures must continue but one should always find the right balance between your roots and the adoption of different cultures.
Nevertheless, it all comes down to one’s personal view on the world and how they handle it.
Hope this blog helped you appreciate the little things around you more.
Until next time!