Free Sample Academic Papers

Intercultural understanding refers to the knowledge of way of life of different people and communities. It is a very important value especially to me. It also helps me to live in peace with other people from different communities and states. I value individual culture, language, belief and even other people’s cultures. I use the understanding to solve issues facing the social world at local, regional, national and even global level. Lack of this core value may lead to local and international conflict which in turn may lead to slow economic growth and development. One of the driving forces of intercultural understanding is critical thinking.

Critical thinking involves thinking deeply about something and coming with an intellectual solution about it. I started developing critical thinking skills from childhood. I been a critical thinker have the skills to apply, conceptualize, synthesize, analyze and evaluate data collected from observation, reasoning, reflection, communication, or experience. In intercultural understanding, critical thinking plays a very important role especially to children and students. It helps to analyze an argument and make reasonable conclusions which can help to solve problems such as local and international cultural differences among others.

As stated above, the concept of critical thinking started when I was very young. My parents used to give me a room to solve some of the problems which I faced and make my own judgment. The later helps them to strengthen their thinking ability. Some of these problems included: relationship problems, physical issues among others. Even when I was given an opportunity to solve a minor issue, it helped me to develop critical thinking skills. For instance, my parents could sometimes lock me inside our house and I started thinking on how to come out of it. The challenges enabled my mind to be active and think on how to solve problems. There are number of ways in which my critical thinking developed. These include provision of opportunities by parents to think on life issues, asking of questions and giving me chance to answer them exhaustively, leaving me to solve some of my problems, helping me in developing hypothesis and even encouraging me to think and see things in different perspectives.

I was been allowed to play games and helps me to judge my way of thinking. When I played hide and seek games with my age mates, I used to think that if I hide in a certain place nobody will be able to see me. Also when playing football, I used to reason on ways of scoring a goal. It me to develop some skills of solving issues in different perspectives. Although it seemed a minor issue, it was a crucial way of assessing the level of my thinking. Also when my parents used to allow me to think and solve problems and asking questions which are open, I developed an intellectual mind. All of my life problems were not solved by my parents and elder brothers and sisters. For this reason I used to solve them in the way I thought was right. This made my mind to be active. My parents used to assist me in developing hypotheses and thinking in different ways of solving problems. It greatly improved my level of critical thinking.

In conclusion, critical thinking helps me to understand different cultural practices of others and make the right judgment. It also helps me to solve both local and international issues such as cultural conflicts. In school, I use this to solve issues related to cultural misunderstanding and conflicts among students from different communities and states. This results to peace and good relationship among them. Children should be allowed to solve problems when they are young inorder to develop the skills of critical thinking which inturn will help them to solve many problems which they may come across in their life. The skill will also help them understand cultures of other people, respect them, make right judgment and live in peace with them.