Warm Culture
I met with a couple of friends at a cafe last week, and we had some good conversations as the sun went down. One of my friends told me about how students from this country can go to the States for a summer and work and learn English and all, but they're warned about the different culture over there.
One thing they're told is not to act too friendly to babies in the States. People love kids over here, and it shows. I've walked around with other foreigners and their babies before when the local people came up, made a big fuss about the baby, then yanked the baby out of the mother's hands and walked around for 10 minutes showing the baby to everybody. Then they returned the baby to the mother. If they did that in the States they'd be arrested.
Actually, if the local people did a lot of what they do here in the States, they'd be arrested. This is a warm culture, which means people show their emotions a lot more. They're much more affectionate toward babies, relatives, anybody really. Even the standard greeting around here is to kiss the other guy's cheeks.
They also show their anger a lot more. It's not uncommon to see 2 guys on the side of the street yelling at the top of their lungs at each other. I haven't seen any fist fights here, but I usually see a good yelling match or two every week. It's just part of their culture.
It's a lot different from American culture, where everyone tries to hide their emotions for the most part. Neither culture is completely right or wrong, but it's fun seeing these people that are really different from Americans.
