The world has reached a stage that issues of culture are taking the central stage in every sphere of life. Before a multi-national company establishes a branch in any given part of the world, it must consider the dominant culture of the people living within that region. Part of the reason why this is so is because the culture of the people can directly or indirectly work against the progress of the set goals /objectives of the company. For example, a pharmaceutical company that its sole aim is to produce contraceptives would find it difficult to achieve the set goals if it is established in region or place that the dominant culture or the people preaches against the use of contraceptives of any kind. On the other hand, a tourist, stranger, or diplomat who finds him/herself in foreign faces difficulties in number of ways in relating with people (stranger) or carrying out his or her assignment efficiently (in the case of a diplomat).
This has placed culture as one of the top most priorities in achieving diplomatic assignments. This is because, most (if not all) embassies or foreign missions go through the cultures of the respective nations where they are located to initiate dialogue on the ground of socio-political and economic relations with the government of such countries. When people come to know that their culture is understand, they feel more at home with other party and her initiatives. In this way, they offer their support in making sure that an initiative or project presented by the foreign mission. But when this is not done, there is great suspicion on the part of the indigenous peoples, particularly due to the misunderstanding nature of the polarize culture of the people involved.
Before now many peoples around the world, strive to keep the knowledge about their cultures hidden from the outside world. But now, nations feel to educate strangers or foreigners on their culture. For example, China and Japan in the recent do organize special cultural events for foreigner and sponsor people from different parts of the world, to attend. Most embassies in Nigerian have carried out cultural collaborative ventures with indigenous cultural organizations help them understand as well as relate well with people in that country using culture as medium.
Apart from that foreign cultural centres like Alliance Francaise, British Council Korean Cultural Centre and Goethe-Institut have remained strong intermediaries for cultural exchange as well as education between their nation and other cultures around the world. With these bodies, it is easy for an African national to speak and understand foreign languages like German, French, Korea etc, with utmost fluency.
All fifty percent of the countries in world have the resource to engage in aggressive cultural education like Britain, German and the likes are doing, the world would experience a new phase of positive interrelationship between its inhabitant and promote more peace on the globe. Cultural education is indeed, a project nations should invest in for peace, unity and development.
