Cambria Smith

9/27/2016
Cultural Learning Experience
For my cultural learning experience, I went and visited a Buddhist temple. While
visiting, I noticed my religious beliefs and race were a minority there. I felt a little out of
place. I felt that people looked at me as if I was in the wrong place almost. I could not
understand what anyone around me was saying because they all spoke in Chinese.
However, the architecture and landscaping was absolutely beautiful. The buildings were
gorgeous and there were so many beautiful garden areas with statues. I felt very peaceful
and sense of relaxation as I explored the temple. I saw some people praying in certain
areas. It reminded me of my religion, Christianity. Although the two religions are
different, they are similar. Any religion gives people something to believe in and put their
hope in. It provides a sense of reassurance that this is not it and that there is more to this
life we live.
People value being different because our differences create the complex society
we live in. Growing up, we are told to be different and stand out. We are told we are
special. By believing these things, we in turn believe we can make a difference in the
world. We place significance on our differences because our differences are what make us
stand out. They make us feel like we are contributing to the world we live in. When we
have the knowledge that no one else has on a certain subject, we are different and feel
useful because we then use our differences to help better society.
Throughout history there have always been majorities and minorities, and the
majority has always found a way to exclude the minority through prejudice and
exclusion. One group of people begins to feel they are superior and begins to impose their
ideology, their culture, and their way of living onto other groups of people. They tell

Cambria Smith
9/27/2016
these minorities to assimilate to their society. However, we should take pride in our
differences. We should not try to blend everyone together in a great, big mixing pot
That blends everyone together into the majority and we lose our differences. I once heard
that we should really be more of a tossed salad and I really like that analogy. We all come
together and function as one, but our differences do not get lost. We build off of these
differences and create a complex society.
Diversity is a key factor for communities to thrive because economically, we need
to all be different because we have so many different jobs and trades in our society. If we
all possessed the same skills and interests, we would not be able to create any product in
our society. Even a single product requires so many different people from different
backgrounds with different skills, working together to build and transport items. We need
a complex society to have a flourishing society. Our differences allow us to learn from
one another and gain new knowledge. If we did not have our differences, we would not
progress at the rate we do today. We would not have as many advances in science and
medicine and technology. Our society would become stagnant because we would not be
learning and growing. Even by visiting this Buddhist temple, I see new things and learn
about a whole different belief I never understood before. If everyone believed what I
believe, it would be a boring society.