Posts tagged “cultural differences”

Americans genuinely, unironically yell "Woo!" and high-five each other, which baffles Europeans. This unselfconscious enthusiasm is core to American identity: the unshakeable belief that they live in the world's greatest nation drives real achievement, even if it occasionally produces cheerleaders, frat boys, and ill-advised invasions.

The US barely notices treason accusations while the UK nearly topples a government over accidentally lost CDs. Surely there's a middle ground somewhere between these two extremes of scandal reaction.

After five years in the UK, I thought I'd blended in well enough. Then I asked a colleague to use a "common letter" instead of a capital, and discovered that apparently only Trinidad still uses that term for lowercase letters. Makes me wonder what other oddities I've been casually deploying for years.