Why it's important to travel

In this video, Sophia talks about how much she loves travelling, and why it's important to meet new people and experience different cultures. 

Instructions

Watch the video and use the subtitles and the transcript to help you understand. 

Transcript

Hi guys!

My name’s Sophia and this video’s for the British Council’s LearnEnglish Teens website and their YouTube channel.

In today’s video I wanted to share my thoughts of why it’s important to travel. Travelling is a passion of mine. I love meeting new people and exploring new cultures. Travelling is a great way to interact with a culture which might be completely different to your own, and there are so many great ways to do this. You can do this through eating food … erm, exploring the arts, music, history, architecture or simply just walking through the streets.

When you travel you expose yourself to the possibility of meeting different people who have a completely different outlook on life – and it’s a great learning experience for both you and the other person because you can share and exchange your own ideas and opinions on a range of topics.

For example, on one of my travels I met an Iranian philosopher and we talked about the nature of magic. A lot of his ideas were shaped by his Iranian background and Iranian philosophy and also Sufism, which is a mystical form of Islam. It was a really interesting discussion.

The world we live in today is very global and international so I think it’s very important to learn to see things from other people’s perspective and also to challenge your own ideas.

Travelling might just convince you to move to another country. Before I moved to Sicily I had travelled around the whole of Italy, the south and the north, and I absolutely fell in love with the culture and the language so I was inspired to learn the language and also to move here. And here I am now, living in Sicily.

Travelling will make you a really good storyteller. When you get back home you’ll have lots and lots of stories to tell your friends and family. Even if things don’t go to plan, erm, on your travels, it will be funny to look back and laugh at those awkward or harsh moments.  

For example, I was travelling with a group of friends in Pisa and we took the wrong bus to get to the beach area, so we ended up being soaked in the rain and having to walk back. At the time it wasn’t very fun, but now when I look back I laugh because we had soggy pizza and we were just eating and walking at the same time.

Travelling is the realisation of home, and what that means is that when we travel we learn to appreciate our home more – and that’s because, being away from home, we realise how much we miss our friends and our family and how much we miss the small things that perhaps we take for granted. It’s all lovely travelling and it’s great to explore new and exciting places, but it’s also a lovely feeling to know that when you return home you’re going to be returning to your dear ones and the things that you love about your home. Since I’ve been away from London, I’ve come to appreciate the little things that I used to take for granted, like our amazing transport – everything runs on time, everything runs well – so sometimes it takes being away from home to realise how much you absolutely love it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this video. Please comment below and let me know if you like travelling – and if you do, where you’ve been and where you would like to go in the future. I’ll see you guys in my next one. Take care, bye-bye!

Discussion

Do you like travelling? What do you like most about it, where have you been and where would you like to go?  

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Comments

Submitted by Daidl on Thu, 04/20/2023 - 09:12

I agree with you that travelling is very important ,I was been in Paris and it was an exciting experience .

Submitted by Linaaa_ on Fri, 03/31/2023 - 16:42

I love travelling. Travelling is my therapy. Travelling is getting out from your comfort zone. It's getting to explore new places and discover new people. It's also a way of getting to know yourself and acknowledge your priorities. Travelling fixes all my problems. Sometimes in life, you forget who you are. When I travel I get to discover me once again. I haven't been to any country. However, I went to many cities in my homeland Morocco. Every time I travel I experience the main points that have been discussed in this video. This only shows that travelling is worldwide and it has the exact same effect on every and each one of us. I would like to visit London. I hear a lot about this metropolitan city and I can't wait to visit it.

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Submitted by Kostantinus on Wed, 03/31/2021 - 06:30

I like travelling very much. Trevelling gives us opportunity to explore the world and to get new wonderful impressions. I am from Ukraine. I have been to China, Italy, Germany, Netherland, Belgium, Russia, France, Thailand, Sweden, Romania, Kazakhstan and Luxembourg. All those places are very different. I just want to share with you my impressions of Thailand. I liked visiting Thailand because of sunny weather, loads of fruits, tasty Thai food, very friendly local people and amazing nature with its beaches and rainforests. I want to come back there on my summer holidays.

Submitted by honglam on Wed, 10/23/2019 - 00:56

Yeah you are right, I haven't traveled any country yet, but when I move to another city, I realize how much I miss my home. Then I could learn a lot of thing, I become more independent. In the future I will go to the Paris first.
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