Cultural perspectives

I've started reading Ethiopia: The Bradt Travel Guide. It's a bit outdated, but quite worthwhile. I've just read and re-read (and read again) the section called Cultural Perspectives, and I've been challenged. I have half a mind to type out all 9 paragraphs for you, but I think that the last will suffice.

"My expierience is that it is practically impossible to understand another culture. You can learn about Ethiopians, you can learn from Ethiopians, but this knowledge will all be assimilated within the framework of your own cultural background. In fact, what you really learn from immersing yourself in another culture is to place the parochial concerns of your own culture in perspective. It is for this reason that travel is so mentally liberating and refreshing. Cultural gaps are not an obstacle to individual communication or enjoyment, but they will taint your perceptions of a country... It is our most deeply seated cultural assumptions that we are most blind to and least able to overcome; that is why we should always be wary of making unconsidered judgements (The writer is South African, thus the spelling.) about... "foreign" situations" (p.110).

A big sigh and lots of thought.