Tolerance

Tolerance

To me tolerance is about opening up to other people and other opinions or cultures in a fair respectable way.
Tolerance is a special and ambigious term - Trying to tolerate everything is impossible, because even though it's often put like the tolerant people tolerate everyone, they still don't allow to tolerate the intolerant groups.
Keeping that in mind tolerance and curiosity will enrichen your intercultural understanding and enrichen you as a person.

1. What tools can we use to stay tolerant and be empathetic and open-minded?

curiosity is a great way to stay open-minded if it's exposed in a positive way. My mother always pointed out when I was growing up that the one who listens alot, knows alot. Listening to other peoples opinions and ideas, evokes your open-mindedness as a person. When you put your own opinion aside for a just a period, you automatically open up to expand your opinions.
Patience is also a great tool to demonstrate tolerance. We learn through assimiliation how to stay open-minded and tolerant. It's impossible to avoid a culture shock, but being aware that you will face a culture shock will help you accomodate to the situation.

 

2. What kind of questions can you ask in order to reach understanding of a known - unknown situation?

People always seem to firstly ask "why" whenever they see something they don't understand - I rather see myself asking "how" in order to try to set myself in their position, so that I can try to figure out their perspective before I judge something that I don't understand. Questions like "how does it work" or "how do you feel when" is alot more positive minded, than "why do you do this" or "why is it not like that".
If you're not an out-going person, you could always try to research something on the internet before asking the questions, to make sure you don't step on people's toes.
It's my experience that a positive body language and intonation will help to avoid negative misunderstandings when asking questions regarding differences in cultures.

Used the right way tolerance can work as the cultural platform, bridging the gap between two different identities in a friendly, fair and understanding way - profitable for everyone.