Learning in Other Cultures

Everybody learns. Our education begins on the day we're born. You may have heard the phrase, "you learn something new every day." No matter where you live on the planet, if you're aware of the world around you, you usually do learn something every day.

Every culture has some sort of formal learning system, or school. But different cultures have different views of learning. They go about teaching in many ways. In our Learning in Other Cultures feature you'll find highlights about learning and education for several different parts of the world.

How other cultures learn

Discover how the Chinese place very high value on age and wisdom, and the Chinese term for teacher literally translates to "old master". Or how India has introduced yoga and meditation to the rest of the world. Did you know that many Japanese students pay to attend special "cram" schools? Or that "kindergarten" orginated in Germany?

How do you learn?

As you explore these different aspects of education from other cultures, think about your own ways of learning:

Think about your own cultural background: if your parents or grandparents migrated from another country to the place you live now, did they have different ways of teaching you than your friend's parents? Did they have stricter expectations about your formal education than other parents? Where did those beliefs come from?

Do all people learn the same way?

Definitely not. Some people learn best from hands-on experience, while others learn from books. Some people learn from being told, others learn from observing.

How does the rest of the world learn? »

"We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright,
some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box."
-- Anonymous