Travelling could enhance learning

Updated on: Monday, April 11, 2011

In what ways does traveling help youngsters? "Traveling is a part of education , part of learning . Youngsters must be aware of the infinite points of views, of the diversity of the world," said Fredric Tinguely, director , department of French literature and language, University of Geneva, who himself has traveled to more than 50 countries.

Traveling, which was earlier for a privileged few, has today become open for all. "Back in the olden days, travelling was not just physical movement from one place to another but it was dangerous as well. A lot of people embarked on various journeys but could never make it back alive," informed Tinguely.

He further explained that traveling back then was always co-related with time as it implied going away for months or years. "Whenever travelers traveled, communicating their experiences to people back home was always a challenging task. Thus they developed their own way of travel description," stated Tinguely.
By the 1950s, a major shift had taken place. Traveling had become easier.

The planes and trains were already in use by then, but the concept of travel itself had changed with the emergence of tourism as an industry. Tinguely observed, "When people travelled as tourists they would hardly interact with the locals. Thus they developed only a superficial understanding of a place."

Over the period of time, the concept of time and travel itself changed. People would read travelogues and accounts of travel writers and would travel to far off places without actually being physically present there.
Pointing out that the future of travel writing lies in the web, Tinguely said, "I feel that the best travel writing has been written by people from the location. New modes of communication have developed that are helping in developing a deeper understanding of travel writing.

People will continue to write about their travel experiences either in the form of blogs or diary entries. However, through the internet, one cannot just write about their experience but also post pictures and videos giving viewers a deeper experience of travel writing."

Times of India

Travelling could enhance learning

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