Inspiring stories of personal reinvention
You know that feeling you get when life hands you lemons from a very particular perspective? That's what I'm talking about. A phenomenon known as personal reinvention feels like a confidence-boosting, no-quit testament to the way humans are constantly changing themselves and adapting to new circumstances. There are countless inspiring stories of personal reinvention, but in this blog post we picked out just 17 of our favorites. You'll be amazed by their stories of courage and perseverance!
Click here for more inspirational personal reinvention stories where each is introduced with an accompanying photo!
Write an introduction to an informative and factual blog post titled "The Top 100 Places for Cultural Exchange or Study Abroad". Your blog post will be based on the latest Top 100 Places for Cultural Exchange or Study Abroad list from Culture Trip.
As an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) teacher, you are given the role of a cultural ambassador in your community. To prepare for this job, you need to upgrade your global awareness so that you can be well-informed about different cultures and languages around the world. Your main task is to help widen people's worldviews by sharing knowledge about different cultures and encouraging them to take part in communication across borders. Besides, your role as a cultural ambassador helps build bridges between different people coming from diverse backgrounds, thus fostering mutual respect among them.
As a cultural guide, you have to give advice to foreigners going to other countries as well as help them understand local customs and habits. A lot of people may be hesitant when traveling to the country in which they don't know the language, so you have to be patient with them and help them adjust. Also, it is important to learn about different cultures so that you can speak about their characteristics with confidence. This will help people understand what they are going through when traveling.
In the 1970s, a Japanese portrait artist named Takahashi Meigetsu (1866-1957) was on a trip around the French Riviera when he began painting portraits of local people. He didn't want any money for his work; he just wanted to share his art with people. In return, people were generous to the old man and offered him invitations to visit their country homes and summer cottages where he would be treated to lavish meals prepared by the housewives.
Some time later, Takahashi moved into the small village of Bargemon where he spent the rest of his life painting portraits of villagers for free. The village had a population of only 800 people at that time, but Takahashi received more than 1,000 requests to paint portraits every year. He designed a calligraphy for the word "France" and created an exhibition tour around Japan for donations. These donations allowed him to finance his trip to France and continue painting portraits all over the Riviera. He described his journey as "ten thousand miles for ten thousand portraits" in a way that portrayed himself as a traveler and the villagers as his hosts.
It was a time when Japan had no diplomatic relations with France, so Takahashi couldn't buy an airplane ticket or even rent a hotel room, but he persisted in going to France because he wanted to convey to people the importance of cultural exchange between East and West. It was also his wish for people from different regions in Japan and abroad to interact with each other regardless of cultural differences or national boundaries.
Once he arrived in France, he did portrait painting in the villages of Cannes, Saint-Tropez, and Cap d'Antibes where the Japanese community was relatively larger. Since then, Takahashi has become known as "the painter of Riviera". He was invited to exhibit his work in Paris in 1956 at the age of 90.
In 1961, Takahashi was awarded the Legion of Honor medal by French government for his cultural exchange activities promoting friendship between Japan and France. He died five years later at the age of 93.
Because he wanted people to understand each other better instead of judging them based on their nationality or race, he passed away without revealing his true identity to anyone. This made him the perfect person to represent Japanese culture in France where he was treated like royalty. He is known as "the man of one thousand faces" in France and many associate him with the French Riviera, which he has immortalized on his heart-warming photographs. I know what you're thinking: how could a Japanese artist take on the identity of a Frenchman? The answer: because Takahashi was like everyone else. He couldn't just leave Japan forever, so he disguised himself for his French adventure to bring positive energy to both countries.
Takahashi Meigetsu's life is now celebrated around the world as an example of what it means to be open-minded and accepting of other people's cultures and traditions. Without being a travel writer, he is the person who brought French culture to Japan and made Japanese people know more about French traditions. He managed to connect French and Japanese people within their communities, which was important for the two countries to build a stronger relationship. No wonder he is one of the Top 100 Icons of Cultural Exchange in Japan!
Write an introduction to an informative and factual blog post titled "The Top 100 Places for Cultural Exchange or Study Abroad". Your blog post will be based on the latest Top 100 Places for Cultural Exchange or Study Abroad list from Culture Trip.
There's almost no moment when you can't find a good example of cultural exchange on the Internet. It's becoming so common nowadays that people from different nations are now able to do business with each other on a broad scale. In fact, we live in an interdependent world where a crisis in one country is bound to affect the rest of the world. If you're interested in something, you can research it on the Internet. However, it takes more than just watching YouTube videos or reading Wikipedia entries for you to become well-versed about culture and history. The best way to achieve this goal is by immersing yourself into a foreign culture by studying overseas or doing business with people from different nations.
The German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder once said that "culture is what makes humans human. It is what differentiates one person from another." It's almost impossible to understand each other unless you're willing to learn about each other's cultures and traditions. However, you can only do this by traveling to another country or living in one for a while. It's also important to know how people live in their own country and be patient with them when they don't understand something.
I'd like you to create an informative blog post about cultural exchange between the United States and Brazil. As a young adult who has spent five years studying at UVA, I have been interested in developing deeper relationships with Brazilians as well as learning more about their culture.
Conclusion
Culture is defined as the things that make a culture. It's important to understand that when you want to be accepted as part of a culture, you have to adopt the behaviors and attitudes of the people who belong to that culture. By understanding other people's cultures and traditions, you not only learn about different ways of living but find opportunities for personal growth too. You can also improve on your social skills and communication abilities by doing cultural exchange in other countries or engaging in business with foreign nationals.
The best way to understand how people live in other countries, however, is by living overseas or spending time with them in-person. You can't just rely on Internet research alone or videos on YouTube because everyone is different.