[Jamie89]

I think there are definitely cultural differences. It doesn't really have anything to do with how popular or known a culture is, ie. you can understand a culture but still be from a background that is different to it. You're right that people are all essentially the same but behaviours and expressions etc will vary from one culture to the next. It's not an excuse as to why one person won't get along with someone else but it does mean that they may have to try harder to connect with that person. In my opinion, that in itself doesn't make someone a bad person, as long as they try.

I think a good example is when Farrah said that she didn't understand why Natasha sometimes says "love" when referring to someone in a negative way. It's not really that Farrah doesn't understand it, of course she does, it's more that she isn't used to it within her own culture, and rather than accept it for what it is, which is something that is simply part of Natasha's everyday vernacular because of where she grew up, she used it as something to attack her with during an argument. I find this very telling. It was also interesting that for the rest of the argument, Natasha didn't say "love". That might sound like a silly point to make because of course she doesn't say it all the time, but she could have said it again as a subtle way of asserting herself and antagonising Farrah further, but I think she didn't do this in order to keep the argument on track and resolve it. As much as I think Natasha does like to argue, I think she still tries to get to a resolution, this in contrast to Farrah who seems to use tactics to distract from the point of an argument in order to avoid a resolution. I'm getting off point a bit haha...

Basically my point is to say that it's not really important HOW different the USA is to the UK, it's just that if there ARE differences, however small, they will act as a barrier for some people. And when you hear people say things like "we're so different because of our cultures" etc, it's not a bad thing that they're saying that. It's actually a good thing that they recognise their differences because you have to do that first in order to deal with them and find a common ground. It's when people recognise their differences but don't make any attempt at resolving them, or when they fail to recognise their differences at all that I think there's a problem.