Spaces and exchanges: journeys

Spaces and Exchanges

I’m going to talk about the notion of Spaces and Exchanges. Exchanging is giving and receiving something else in return. For example, we exchange in trade and through communication. A space refers to an area, a place or a location limited by borders. There are places like the Eiffel Tower which is a touristic place. To illustrate this notion, I will talk about the aims of the travel because nowadays traveling has become essential for more and more people all over the world. Thus we can wonder what do we travel for. First I will talk about the touristic and commercial aspect of the trip and then about the open mind aspect it brings us.[pic 1]

First of all, people go on a trip to relax and discover the world. In an advert made by Thomson, a travel company, we can witness a teddy bear is mistreated, but when he’s taken on holidays with his family everything changes: he’s very happy because it looks like paradise for him. This ad shows us traveling or going on holiday allows us to relax and escape our boring daily life and our troubles.

Moreover, we can travel to start a new life. Indeed, in the 12 chapter of “The Grapes of Wrath” written by John Steinbeck in 1939, the characters are driving on the road 66 in US and are heading to California. They left their homeland to escape their issues and want to go “where the oranges grow” to lead a better life.

On top of that, we watched a video about the planned trip of Walter Chang. His challenge was to discover 60 countries in 3 years. For people like him traveling allows to discover new landscapes, new horizons and to make encounters. The video is a succession of photos and videos of Walter’s trip and this reveals people travel to make new memories.

Furthermore, in the James Cook’s journal, we learned that the explorer traveled to create a link with the “Natives”, which refer to the habitants of Tahiti, and also to trade provision with the inhabitants. Accordingly, traveling has an economic aim too.[pic 2]

Discover new countries, new cultures can be very enriching for us. Indeed, visiting new places raises awareness. For instance, a web article shows that countries are trying to hide poverty in their big cities. The author takes Manila in example. In this city the metropolitan Manila chief actually hid the slum by building a wall from the airport to downtown. His reason is to keep his city attractive for tourists but that is not normal to hide a part of the population that is in need. So traveling allows to see the world’s reality with our own eyes.

Finally, travels develop human values. In his video Walter Chang thanks all the people he met and who helped him when he was robbed. Therefore, we can say that during his trip he learned values like generosity, humanity and mutual assistance. As well, James  Cook defined rules in his journal: the crew had to respect the Natives and treat them with all imaginable humanity. He wanted to establish good relations marked by tolerance and the respect for others. [pic 3]

To conclude, traveling has a lot of aims: it can be a way to relax or start a new life but it also contributes to morally and spiritually enriching ourselves. The aim of traveling depends on people because we’re all different. However, we may wonder whether we are forced to travel to open our minds.

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