Family Night In — Cultural Immersion Style!

By Julie Senger

 

In our current economy, families are finding it increasingly difficult to find affordable entertainment options, and some are even forgoing annual family vacations due to higher gas and grocery prices and increased rent/mortgage costs. Planning a family cultural immersion night can be a fun, inexpensive way to “travel” to a new place without ever leaving your home. Here are some tips to help get you started.

 

Choose a Country

Perhaps select a place you’ve always wanted to visit, so you can learn as much as possible about it and decide if it’s still somewhere you want to go after spending an evening with your family “travelling” there. Or, if you’re a little more adventurous and prefer to leave things up to chance, spin a globe, close your eyes, and drop your finger down to see where it lands. If you land in the water (there’s a 71% chance you will), there’s no harm, no foul in repeating this process until you end up somewhere on solid ground.

 

Learn the Language

Your family likely won’t master a foreign language in one night, but it would be fun to learn a few key phrases to use throughout the evening. Many apps and websites can teach you the basics of another language. Deepl.com is a great free website in which you type what you want to say into a text box and then select from more than 20 different languages for a translation. Verstehen Sie das? (That’s German for “Do you understand?”).

If you choose a country where English is spoken, learn a few fun colloquialisms that the natives use that you’ve never heard before. For instance, check out Britain-Visitor.com/british-culture/british-slang for a list of British phrases and slang terms.

 

Enjoy a Traditional Meal

When travelling, most of us love to try out the local fare. Pinterest and other websites are excellent resources to find recipes for regional dishes and beverages alike, but make sure you also research other traditions and customs regarding eating a meal in the country of your choice.

Are forks or chopsticks used for eating? Or perhaps no utensils at all? Are there specific sauces or other condiments and spices that are always on the table at mealtimes? Is dinner served in courses, taking several hours to enjoy, or is it laid out like a smorgasbord and eaten buffet style? Is it rude to burp at the end of a meal, or is that seen as a thoughtful seal of approval? There are so many fun details to learn about how families in other countries enjoy a meal together.

 

View the Art

Due to the pandemic, many museums have made their collections available online by creating educational virtual tours. Check out TheCollector.com/free-online-museum-tours for a list of “18 Free Online Museum Tours To Enjoy Without Leaving Your Couch,” which includes portions of world famous options such as The Louvre and Musée d’Orsay in France, Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands, Uffizi Galleries in Italy, Reina Sofia in Spain, and the Acropolis Museum in Greece.

Your family could also watch a movie that is filmed or set in the country, about the country, or created by a filmmaker who is from the country of your choice.

 

Listen to the Music

While preparing dinner or touring an online art museum, be sure to turn on music by a local artist from the country you’re “visiting.” Though Canada’s Justin Bieber, South Korea’s BTS, and Columbia’s Shakira may be well-known musical exports from each of their respective countries, you may have to do a little research to discover popular artists in smaller countries. For example, Monaco is the world’s second smallest country (it’s just 0.77 square miles — only Vatican City is smaller). So, who are some of its famous musicians?

A quick Google search reveals that notable Monegasque artists include singer-songwriter Léo Ferré, who died in 1993, yet still has almost 205K monthly listeners on Spotify (which didn’t even exist when he was alive); pop singer-songwriter Josh Stanley (born in France and raised in Monaco) currently has almost 13K monthly listeners on Spotify; and for those with more refined tastes, “The Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1863 and has been conducted by Igor Markevitch, Lovro von Matačić, Paul Paray, Lawrence Foster, Gianluigi Gelmetti, and Louis Frémaux,” (En.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Monaco).

 

Explore the History and Famous Tourist Spots

No visit to another country is complete without learning a bit of its history and checking out some of its famous tourist spots and attractions.

Ancient-Origins.net is a website that touts itself as the “No. 1 ancient history website in the world” because it provides “all the latest news on finds, advancements, and research in archaeology and ancient history,” which can be searched by continent under its “Places” tab. Some of the information may be too graphic for children, so be sure to review the site in advance to find family friendly topics to share.

As with many of the world’s popular museums, famous tourist spots and attractions can also be explored online. Want to go on a live virtual African safari? Visit WildEarth.tv and you can do just that. The website also provides links to prerecorded safaris. Want an out-of-this-world path walking experience? Log on to TourismThailand.org for a free virtual tour of the Prasat Phimai Khmer ruins, where you can “walk” over the Naga Bridge, a cross-shaped terrace with holy snake-decorated railings, which represents the path from Earth to heaven.

Your family can explore countless places all over the world without packing a bag or booking a flight. So, what are you waiting for? The world is your oyster — even if you never even get off the couch.