Do you feel that people are more or less the same all over the world?

Seattle

Seattle

Valued Senior Member
Do you tend to feel that people from Australia, New Zealand and the UK are not very different from those of us in the U.S. (insert your own country)? Does it sometimes seem that those from other countries just don't think as we think or that they must have a different moral framework or just don't "get it"?

Do you think that those countries that you tend to identify with just happen to speak the same language that you do and you are therefore able to better communicate with them than with those in other countries?

We know that people the world over should all be, more or less, the same. Governments are different and cultures are different but people are people. Yet that doesn't always bear out in conversations, especially online.

Do you think those who seem to not make sense in their online postings are just somehow different or do you think that it's most likely due to communication difficulties due to language?

What are your thoughts and experiences?
 
Generally I think people are hung up on being right.
I may be slack, well I am, but I think folk all over hate being called out to be wrong.
I know I can be wrong it does not worry me.
Alex
 
There are regions of honor culture in the US, and people native to them often harbor some serious differences from my folks.

They usually don't matter, but they can startle a person who isn't expecting them. I imagine even larger differences exist, and many of them invisible to casual acquaintanceship.

I've noticed some countries produce immigrants who can drive cars well, in general, on an American road - and other countries really don't.
 
People can't be very different. If you look at the distribution of human DNA, you'll find that everyone is of indeterminate race. If you look at the structure of languages and the level of native ability to quantify, and the images in art through the ages and on all continents, you can't help but see the similarity of experience, perception and information processing.

Then, if you look at the taboos and laws enacted by rulers, secular and religious, ancient and modern, you can't help but be struck by how many of those strictures are aimed at keeping the population from mixing with other populations. People are naturally curious: inclined to seek contact with others - especially the novel, the exotic and the different. If people were naturally xenophobic, miscegenation laws and crazy dietary laws, funny costumes and physical mutilations would never been needed to distinguish one tribe from another, to set them apart.
Rulers, however, are best served by keeping their subjects isolated, contained and monochrome. To this end, they invent stories, bogies, concepts of purity and beauty, fictions of chosenness, greatness, specialness, in order to make their subjects suspicious of and hostile toward others.
And it still doesn't work.
In spite of religion, race, nationality and culture, people keep mixing.
 
Seattle said:
Do you tend to feel that people from Australia, New Zealand and the UK are not very different from those of us in the U.S. (insert your own country)? Does it sometimes seem that those from other countries just don't think as we think or that they must have a different moral framework or just don't "get it"?

Do you think that those countries that you tend to identify with just happen to speak the same language that you do and you are therefore able to better communicate with them than with those in other countries?

We know that people the world over should all be, more or less, the same. Governments are different and cultures are different but people are people. Yet that doesn't always bear out in conversations, especially online.

Do you think those who seem to not make sense in their online postings are just somehow different or do you think that it's most likely due to communication difficulties due to language?

What are your thoughts and experiences?
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There is a saying we often here in Australia, and it goes like this..."Only In America" Mostly though that feeling is exhibited when the world hears stories about more mass shootings and such, and the crazy gun laws, and of course the sometimes weird carrying's on with the characters that Hollywood produces.
Then I hear about the equally crazy health care system that you have in the USA and how sometimes when people are unfortunate enough to fall ill, it can mean the selling of their homes etc, when the solution is obvious as implemented in other countries like Australia and the UK.

Personally I find Americans crazy for other reasons. They insist on driving on the wrong side of the road,which is the right side;).....They play a brand of football, that spends more time in huddles etc, then playing the game that people pay to watch, while covering them selves in armour that King Arthur and the Knights of the round table would be proud to wear;)...they play another game called baseball, while we indulge in another game called Cricket, which is like comparing playing drafts [baseball] against the game of chess[cricket];) They refuse to change their prime measuring system to that which the rest of the world adheres to and prefers to stick to miles instead of kilometers, and Fahrenheit instead of Centigrade, even when it means losing space craft....Then they go and vote for some guy to be President with a weird haircut, that makes them the laughing stock of the world.

But then again sometimes people from other countries also think Aussies are weird....We wear hats that have corks hanging on them
cork_hat-480x444.jpg

or because we have a funny accent....or because we have swimming pools at cricket stadiums
nintchdbpict000289092618-e1481798458528.jpg

or because we eat Vegemite.....
579987391_o.jpg

;););):D:D:D
 
KRAFT - of Chicago - Vegemite... and you think Americans are silly? Looks like they colonized at least one of your national oddities right after WWI.
 
Seattle said:
Do you tend to feel that people from Australia, New Zealand and the UK are not very different from those of us in the U.S. (insert your own country)? Does it sometimes seem that those from other countries just don't think as we think or that they must have a different moral framework or just don't "get it"?

Do you think that those countries that you tend to identify with just happen to speak the same language that you do and you are therefore able to better communicate with them than with those in other countries?

We know that people the world over should all be, more or less, the same. Governments are different and cultures are different but people are people. Yet that doesn't always bear out in conversations, especially online.

Do you think those who seem to not make sense in their online postings are just somehow different or do you think that it's most likely due to communication difficulties due to language?

What are your thoughts and experiences?
Click to expand...
I think the role of culture and history is underrated. As a Brit, I find myself usually closer to Germans and Dutch than to Americans, language notwithstanding.
 
Gah! Even with improved flavour and texture, they can't sell it to anyone else. Like marmite, its appeal is limited to home-sick immigrants.

But, anywa, both the Australians and the Americans seized an opportunity to profit from something that was going to waste.... and ought to.
So they're really the same.
 
Seattle said:
Yes, I can get sick of those Americans sometimes as well! :)
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I don't get sick of them as you put it.
I doubt if you have what folk may call an average American just as there is no average Australian.
I like the fact any one can become president.
My impression of the medical system makes me wonder however.
What I find strange is the impression I get from TV shows like 'American Pickers" or some of the pawn shop shows.
I find it strange how folk pay good money for stuff I would throw out.
Some of the collections I can't see the point.
If similar exists here I have yet to notice.
Another thing...the police seem very heavy handed. I saw this J walker treated so badly I could not believe.
Again how can you tell from TV shows.
It seems folk are very religious I have seen folk huddling in prayer a few times ... again its hard to know from a few clips.
I had a client (real estate) from California and I really liked him.
He would call me in to tell him what his house was worth once a year and I would stay for hours talking with him. He liked that I would drink whiskey.
I have met a lot of people because of real estate and most folk seem OK.
They are concerned with their job their family and their hobby in many cases.
I always ask about someone's hobby you find out many interesting things.
Alex
 
While there appears to be differences in cultures from nation to nation, people worldwide are basically the same. It can be easy to criticize and poke fun of people in other countries or other cultures, but if the tables were turned most would do exactly the same thing they are poking fun of because we are all the same.
 
exchemist said:
I think the role of culture and history is underrated. As a Brit, I find myself usually closer to Germans and Dutch than to Americans, language notwithstanding.
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Considering that the colonies were originally populated by British people who wanted to leave Britain, it's no surprise that the population they established has major differences from British culture. Add to that the strong influence of the early Dutch, Scottish and Irish immigrants.

As for language, I don't know whether it was a Brit or a Yank who said, "The U.K. and the USA are two countries separated by a common language."
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
Considering that the colonies were originally populated by British people who wanted to leave Britain, it's no surprise that the population they established has major differences from British culture. Add to that the strong influence of the early Dutch, Scottish and Irish immigrants.

As for language, I don't know whether it was a Brit or a Yank who said, "The U.K. and the USA are two countries separated by a common language."
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True. However, having lived in the US and in continental Europe, my impression is that there is also something to do with New World vs. Old World thinking. Europeans live in a world permeated by a long history and it seems to me our ideas and outlook are subliminally influenced by it. New World people have very few reminders of history around them and for them anything is possible, in ways inconceivable to Old World people. I find myself very much admiring the enterprise and optimism this leads to - while deploring the naivety and carelessness that seems to go along with it.
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
"The U.K. and the USA are two countries separated by a common language."
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George Bernard Shaw,apparently

http://english.stackexchange.com/qu...rase-two-nations-divided-by-a-common-language

"And you can quote him on that, because he also has been credited with saying, “I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.”

To the OP , I guess it must be 90%culture- if not higher. Have there been any studies that actually show DNA caused predictable character /behavioural differences ?
 
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I find it odd that we are so similar in the basics yet vastly different at the same time. So different, in fact, you might as well be speaking a different language, be a different species or alien. So different we dont mind killing eachother.

It is odd when you look at another human being and their basic anatomy is like yours but that is as far as the similarity goes. Ha.
 
geordief said:
Have there been any studies that actually show DNA caused predictable character /behavioural differences ?
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That would be difficult, and in fact probably futile. Humans tend not to build communities that stay in one place forever. Just going back to the dawn of the Iron Age, people were already wandering about and interbreeding with each other. Since the invention of industrial technology, we've continued to do it, only more widely.

You can analyze a person's DNA and get a pretty good idea of where his family came from, but you're also going to spot little bits of DNA from other communities, some of which are on the other side of the planet.
 
geordief said:
Have there been any studies that actually show DNA caused predictable character /behavioural differences ?
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Yes, but within populations, not between them.

There's a school of thinking that notes the frequency of certain behaviorally associated alleles can vary between populations - that, for example, certain alleles associated with risk taking are more common in recently pioneered or colonized regions such as the US, with the explanation that those are the people most likely to be pioneers. But this is a frequency matter only - all populations have some risk takers, some homebodies, genetically.
 
iceaura said:
Yes, but within populations, not between them.

There's a school of thinking that notes the frequency of certain behaviorally associated alleles can vary between populations - that, for example, certain alleles associated with risk taking are more common in recently pioneered or colonized regions such as the US, with the explanation that those are the people most likely to be pioneers. But this is a frequency matter only - all populations have some risk takers, some homebodies, genetically.
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Interesting.I wonder if populations in harsh physical conditions also develop a more co-operative set of behaviours.

...........that can be shown in their genetic make up ,of course.
 
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