I Want to Be Immersed In Various Cultures

I want to be able to learn about the languages and cultures of different countries from inside the countries. I do not want to do this as an outsider learning about something "other" in the manner of an anthropologist or a tourist, but to be able to be immersed in the languages and cultures. Like a piece of cloth immersed in dye I want to be transformed by what I learned. I want the languages and cultures to become part of what I am. Perhaps they are already part of who I am and just need to be brought to the surface. Sometimes I find that the way of doing things in other places seems more natural to me than the way I grew up doing them. For instance the gesture used in counting with one's fingers differs in various countries. In the U.S. and some other countries one starts with the index finger, but in some other countries one starts with the thumb. I grew up doing the former, but the latter is more comfortable and feels more natural to me. It is not a question of one being superior to the other. It is simply what feels more natural to me. Sometimes when speaking in English I have to think about whether or not the syntax I am about to use is the correct English way of saying things. I know that I do not yet know much about Slavic languages, but there are things about the syntax of those languages that seems to me more natural to me than English syntax. I do not know why this is the case. I only know that it is the way that it is. Sometimes in English I have to stop and think about whether or not I need to use a definite or indefinite article. Learning other languages is not about learning something and having it remain apart from who I am. In learning different languages they become part of who I am, or perhaps they were inside me waiting to be brought to the surface. In the way that when an archaeologist digs something up. It was there before being revealed. I want to learn about other countries not from a feeling of being better or less than them but from a feeling of having a hole in me that needs to be filled.