When you travel a lot, you might come across the fact, that experiences are starting to repeat: You go to another museum, you stroll through another old town, or you try another restaurant, which had been recommended to you. This is clearly always nice, but the thrill of learning something really new by exploring another place is not the same any more. There is something, which keeps your wonderful experiences up: People from the target place.
It’s the people, which you meet in person, who can really tell you about their home. With whatever you hear / read on the media, you can never be sure. They report anything, which is sold the best way and therefore it is definitely only the people who can refresh your mind and connect you to the place with their authentic experiences. Experiences are probably not exactly what you are looking for, or is a nice by-product, if you are on a business trip, or just work in a foreign country. In this case, you might want to understand the people better, as it is much easier to do business with people, you can connect better with. If you simply stay in a country, while you work online, connecting with people takes away some loneliness, which comes up after having worked by yourself for several days, without having any conversation.
It all starts with daily situations. It surely is so awesome to see these smiling people, giving you a great feeling and making your day so much better.
One of these experiences happened to me in Turkey. I had learned how to greet in Turkish and used it straight away. The answer I received, was positive. After that I thanked in Turkish and wished the person a good day. She started talking to me right away and from that moment on, the conversation went on. I found out about hidden and interesting places, where tourists don’t go and secret bars, where you find interesting locals. I was constantly treated well and I felt like being at home.
This great feeling came back, after having gone back to my home town: I exchanged some Turkish words and phrases with Turkish taxi drivers and was offered a better price besides a much better service. The same happened, when ordering Kebab. The tea after that lunch came for free and I always had nice conversations. These little moments were excursions to a great country to the south-east of Europe.
Later during my travels, I have come across wonderful relationships with Arabs, Italians, Greec, Serbians, Coratians, Czech, Polish, ... .
Just imagine yourself on a different continent, or simply a country, in which another language is spoken: How quickly do we talk to people we come across, speaking the same language as we do. We feel at home, understood and taken seriously. The same happens to all of the people we meet around the world. And yes: In that respect, we all seem to be the same. We like to connect to others and we like our own kind. If we offer this good feeling to others, we create trust and connection. It seems so difficult, but it is a fairly easy thing to do. Just get a dictionary (mainly for free online) and get yourself familiar with the basics of the target language. To have an even greater effect, also familiarise yourself with the pronunciation. Some well used body language, adapted to the target culture and a smile complete the ingredients of a recipe, which enlightens your freshly made relationships.
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