Band 5+: It is often said, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Do you think people should adapt to and accept the culture of the country they visit? Do you think it is possible to learn a culture without learning the language?

A common saying “when is Rome, do as the Romans do”, indicate the importance of merging within a foreign community when in a foreign land. I firmly believe that when individuals are travelling they have to respect the traditions and laws of native people to broaden their horizons, even though they are incapable of communicating in their language because advancements in technology field can interpret the dialogues easily.

In the contemporary world, tourism sphere is growing at an unprecedented level in order to introduce themselves to travelers. Hotels strive to cater the best services to its customers so that they could have the best moments of their life and leave the country with satisfactory reviews. In this case, tourists representing their own culture or defying immersing the local environment might seem disrespectful and bring about tense relationships between two countries. Additionally, when individuals engage in other people culture they broaden their horizons. To illustrate, travelers can learn from indigenous ways of preparing luscious meals as well as traditional skills like embroidery and sculpturing which might come in handy when they are in adverse situations.

On the other hand, advents in technology has laid a foundation for travelers to interact with natives and learn from them without the necessity of knowing the language. Take, for example, Google translate, which allows its users to interpret real time communications. Having downloaded this app on their device, individuals save a huge amount of money from interpretation services and use it for further travelling. Apart from that, living with native people has more advantages as it will help tourists to acquire the real life of locals. For example, sometimes people might be hesitant to ask from a guide but when they have a friend, they can learn a lot while having a peasant conversation, and since locals already know and celebrate national holidays annually in a true way not as media often shows, they can share their experience of doing certain rituals.

In conclusion, I am a proponent of tourists accepting foreign traditions when they are there on the grounds that it will show their respect towards natives and widen their perspectives, and modern technology and natives who host tourists have paved the way for tourists to travel without having a knowledge on foreign language.