Originally published on Global Voices

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When you first encounter people who come from countries or who speak languages that aren't your own, you might think that your differences are greater than your similarities. But spend a little time together, and you'll start to see that you have more in common than you first thought.

These global connections are important because they challenge our beliefs, they broaden our perspective, and they remind us that it might just be a small world after all.

In this edition of Into the Deep, the Global Voices podcast where we take a closer look at one topic that isn’t getting the media coverage it deserves, we are digging deep into global connections.

We speak with five Global Voices contributors who recall a moment in which they felt connected to someone across borders and across language. Veroniki Krikoni talks about the similarities between Greek and Turkish; Tori Egherman explains how a hiking trip cemented her affection for Iranian culture; Violeta Camarasa remembers how a love of music overcame a lack of a shared language while traveling in rural China; Adriana Macias speaks about her time working with people from around the world in London; and Joey Ayoub looks back on his experience living in a small village in Madagascar.

A special shout-out to Kat Batuigas, who helped us produce this episode.

In this episode, we featured Creative Commons licensed music from the Free Music Archive, including Bir Demet Yasemen by Turku, Nomads of the Silk Road (CC BY 4.0); the songs Ray Gun – FasterFasterBrighter (CC BY-NC 4.0) and Discovery Harbor by Blue Dot Sessions (CC BY-NC 4.0); Rite of Passage by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 3.0); Make a Life (Instrumental) by Nick Jaina (CC BY-NC 3.0); Terminal Two by Cory Gray (CC BY-NC 3.0); and Pieces of the Present by Scott Gratton (CC BY-NC 4.0).

The SoundCloud thumbnail image is by Flickr user Jonas Bengtsson, CC BY 2.0.

Written by L. Finch, Sahar Habib Ghazi