Having been deprived of the freedom to travel since the outbreak of the pandemic, you must thirst for a getaway from the boredom and numbness of the everyday routine. Forced to stay home, you can still spend quality time learning about different cultures without physically visiting those places.

Virtual Tour

This tops my recommendations because my i-Learner students love it the most! A virtual tour adopts multimedia elements such as videos, images, sound effects and narration to simulate a location. It is usually hard to get kids to sit still and do their work for a long time, but they’re fully absorbed in exploring new places in front of the screen – the Giza Pyramids, British Museum, Catacombs of Paris, to name a few. A 3D walkthrough is the most economical way for one to ‘visit’ a place and learn about things like customs, history and architectural style.

Here are two useful websites of free virtual tours:
https://www.cyark.org/
https://www.eso.org/public/products/virtualtours/

Watch a local movie or TV series

Movies and TV series expose you to daily life in a different culture so you get a preliminary idea of how people in that culture respond in various scenarios. With subtitles, it is possible to pick up useful phrases and slang in a foreign language.

Parents can wisely pick educational movies and dramas to educate children about the universal values upheld across cultures. One film that I recently learned a lot from on Netflix is Forrest Gump, which features lots of key events from American history.

Try out international recipes

Different from the previous ways where you passively take in new information, trying out recipes of different cuisines allows you to get hands-on experience cooking with distinctive ingredients as a family activity. A festive meal is a delightful addition. Here are some examples:

• Red bean paste porridge for winter solstice
• Swedish cream apple rings for Thanksgiving
• Turkey, mince pies and mulled wine for Christmas

There are always methods to learn about different cultures without leaving home. If you have an idle moment, consider one of these ways to have fun exploring!