Travelling broadens the mind ?

“ Travelling broadens the mind” – The more you travel the more open-minded you become ?

Nowadays, travelling is fashionable. You travel to see new cultures, other types of architecture, new people. As Mark Twain said : “ Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts “. You can wonder to what extent travel helps mind-opening. In the one hand, you will see that travelling help people to become open-minded. Nevertheless, you will see that you can travel and keep being narrow-minded.

In the one hand, it is clear that travelling help people to become open-minded. Firstly, I think that the world knowledge makes you more tolerant and comprehensive with the others. In every situation, you will think about the worst thing you saw or you knew about it. For example, when you will see a homeless person, you will be able to remember your trip in India, the slums, the poverty ; and you will give him some money. Furthermore, travelling will remove your prejudices about some people, and it will make you appreciate the essential similarities that everyone in the world shares. For instance, you were afraid of going to Africa because of the diseases and precarious living conditions. Now you have been, you can witness that the Africans are nice. You have lived there for 1 month ; you have eaten typical food, you have spoken with the elderly of the village, you have slept directly on the floor. Now, no more thing fears you.

However, you can travel and keep being narrow-minded. To start, I think that there are “ travel ” and “ travel ”. One of it is for instance, like going abroad, stay in your hotel, drinking cocktails and roasting in the sun : the “ sun&beach ” travel. The other is the real life. If you follow the first travel, you will stay narrow-minded all your life long. You won’t cross cultures, meet people from all walks of life and you will keep being selfish. Moreover, you have to get over your shyness. If you don’t do it you won’t meet anyone, you will stay alone or you will meet narrow-minded people ; because open-minded people won’t see you.

To conclude, you can remind that even if you travel, even if you go to the farthest country ; you have to go to the others, to make a step, to get over your shyness, and to go out of your hotel. If you don’t do it, you will probably stay narrow-minded.

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