You will never find him trapped in one single worry because he can solve problems in N different ways. When you get close to him, it feels like everything around you, which used to seem dull, suddenly becomes colorful.
In fact, this is also the meaning of travel.
Going to different places, meeting different people, and adapting to various customs and cultures have profound significance in cultivating a child’s pluralistic worldview and values. Experiencing things firsthand and understanding them concretely allows one to truly realize how vast the world is and how different people can be.
Nuannuan learned in Thailand that not all pretty "aunties" in the world are actually aunts, in Japan that politeness between people can be so deeply ingrained, in Malé that there are many people who live their whole lives on small islands or even boats, and in Indonesia that Muslims don’t touch food with their left hand. Through traveling, Nuannuan realized that the world is not just the small park she walks in every day—it is so rich and interesting, and worth exploring endlessly.
Experiencing the unfamiliar together with your child, encountering difficulties together, and solving problems together—this is what it truly means to grow during a trip. Such growth is a valuable journey for both adults and children.
Of course, we may not always be able to be on the road traveling, but we must never stop our steps in getting to know the world.
When we start to understand the world, we will find that it is often bigger and more diverse than we imagine. Recognizing this diversity not only broadens our knowledge but, more importantly, helps build a pluralistic worldview.
Apart from traveling, another great way to understand the world is to learn a new language.
In my opinion, English is never just a language—it is also a completely different way of thinking.
China is an ancient civilization that holds deep reverence for ancestors and origins; Americans value freedom and independence and respect themselves more.
Chinese people are reserved and emphasize the process of development; Americans are direct and focus on results and efficiency.
Chinese people prefer using chopsticks, which involve inward force, while Westerners prefer knives and forks, which involve outward force. This is just like how the symbol of Chinese culture is the Bagua diagram, representing dialectics and introversion, whereas Western culture is represented by the cross, symbolizing outward expansion.
In American views on love, you only truly learn how to love again after having loved deeply—that is respect for love. But in Chinese poetry, it is said: “Having seen the boundless sea, no other waters can compare; other than the clouds of Mount Wu, no other clouds exist.” Once you’ve truly loved someone, your heart can no longer hold anyone else.
For our children, learning English is not about the language itself, but about adopting a completely different way of seeing the world—and subtly turning this perspective into instinct through a language.
There is no such thing as starting too early when it comes to the enlightenment and cultivation of ways of thinking. I started playing English songs for Nuannuan when she was still in her swaddling clothes, just learning to babble. Some say, isn’t it too cruel to make a child learn English so young? But I believe those who think early English learning is cruel simply haven’t realized that learning English can actually be a fun thing to do in itself.