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A couple of weeks in the past, a Pitzer Faculty buddy of mine visited me in Paris from Scotland. We mentioned the examine overseas semester wrapping up and the way a lot we’ve realized whereas overseas.
Finally, we each got here to the identical conclusion: Anybody who decides towards learning overseas is an fool.
Earlier than the juniors who determined to remain on campus get all up in arms, I need to make clear that we’re JOKING. Please settle down.
There are various causes one would possibly or won’t select to review overseas. Some are worldwide college students who’re already overseas by advantage of learning in america. Different college students really feel they’re sufficiently worldly due to previous journey experiences. Some simply don’t really feel prefer it. I get it.
However with examine overseas, the world opened as much as me. The expertise (and privilege) of going from nation to nation with nothing however a carry-on, sitting for 2 hours on a flight and all of a sudden discovering your self in a brand new place with a very completely different local weather, language, tradition and historical past is a pleasure like nothing else I’ve skilled.
And so, for my last examine overseas column, I come to you with my final conclusion about all this chaos. How has my notion of the world modified?
This previous semester, I’ve visited the city antiquity of Athens, the windy highlands of Edinburgh and the tropics of Sevilla. 4 international locations — counting France — in as many months. I’ve additionally met individuals from Sweden, Australia, Turkey, Brazil and lots of different international locations by my educational program.
Having been uncovered to individuals from world wide, I can’t assist however reminisce on the query I posed in my very first article about how completely different disparate international locations can actually be within the age of the web and globalization.
Of their e book “World Governance,” David Held, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt and Jonathan Perraton suggest that by radio, movie, tv and the web, “individuals all over the place are uncovered to the values of different cultures” at a fee like by no means earlier than.
“And so, for my last examine overseas column, I come to you with my final conclusion about all this chaos. How has my notion of the world modified?”
“Nothing, not even the truth that all of us converse completely different languages, can cease the stream of concepts and cultures,” they stated.
In a globalized world, powers just like the web and media transcend nation-states as their affect stretches the world over — due to TikTok, Instagram and different social media, in addition to movie and well-liked tradition, a world tradition has arisen.
This isn’t to say we’ve got entered an period of world monoculture: The world is evidently wrought with instability and stratification. However I suggest that we exist in a time the place globalization and international stratification are going down concurrently. All of it looks as if a really sick joke.
I’ve encountered this international tradition in my very own travels.
Talking to a random stranger in Sevilla, I discussed that I used to be American.
“I really like your nation,” he stated. “The NFL, NBA, NASCAR, Main League Baseball. You guys rock.”
An Iranian-Swedish buddy in Paris instructed me how a lot he loves the Lakers and American movies. “Warmth,” “Goodfellas,” “The Matrix,” he might go on and on.
“Does it shock you that I’m a Swedish man who loves American tradition?” he stated. “I’m midway internationally.”
I instructed him “no,” as a result of the identical factor occurred to me in Iran.
The world is a far cry from being really globalized: We’re war-ravaged and cultural disputes abound in each nation.
However we converse a common language.
I used to be considerably cognizant of this phenomenon by advantage of my upbringing in Iran. I do know firsthand how far America’s comfortable energy can attain. However to actually see it in apply in all of those completely different contexts, I spotted that although the common language exists, we take the music, the movies and TikToks and interpret them in accordance with our personal tradition.
We superimpose these cultural symbols into our personal environment. And though globalization is going down, we’re nonetheless splendidly completely different.
Maybe our common language doesn’t homogenize us however somewhat supplies us with the instruments to grasp one another.
After learning overseas, my perspective on the world, although not so radically completely different, has modified. I’m in awe of how related and completely different we will be and I’m utterly stupefied as to why one wouldn’t select to see it for oneself.
As I retrace the place our ancestors have tread for 1000’s of years, seeing the cultures, languages and monuments that testify to our fantastically historic existence, I really feel I’ve lived a thousand lives.
Though we frequently lament our final finish, each human life is, certainly, a small infinity. To see the world is to witness the infinite lives we’ve got collectively lived and to grasp how far we’re able to going.
Columnist Tania Azhang PZ ’25 is at present learning overseas in Paris. She usually wonders if Sartre was proper about hell and different individuals.