And one thing said before that is actually wrong- and that is that smiling all the time is not "normal".

What your "normal" is, may not be normal for your culture, nor your location. Yet it is still normal for you. And there is almost nothing that could be characterized as "normal" facial expression for all homo sapiens. There are cultures that never smile, and there are cultures that smile very slightly, even when in extreme pain. And Americans especially can be of many origins. You could spend a lifetime explaining "normal" in facial expression.

I had a tremendous Psych. professor and mentor who would not use that term "normal". We would get about 25 other words or semantics to chart deviation from medium and he still would not commit any one criteria as the "normal" one.

For me I work with the public all day and I think that I have just been programmmed to smile and be friendly. I am often seeing my customers outside of work and I will smile and sometimes they do not smile back because they do not realize it is me. I never could understand why when you smile at people there are just some that do not smile back. I was raised with that courtesy I guess. I notice that there are just times people do not smile and times they do, in every place I have been. I am trying to break my habit of always smiling when I am out of work, but it is hard, because I actually had to work at making myself look pleasant and happy. Especially when I am busy or really thinking, people will look at me and ask what my problem is. So I have now programmed myself and I find it is hard to turn off after a 10 day of smiling at people.

Neurotic colonists on prozac? ;-)

Platt makes a living off cultural differences so it's no surprise she exaggerates things a little. believe it or not, the french know a little bit about american culture and understand that they smile under different circumstances, dress differently, eat differently, etc.

for its size, europe has a vast number of different cultures, we do not automatically think different behaviour is rude.

NYCFood...
thanks for your rules on how to "survive" in the big city but i think most of us can get by without your kenny rogers style "know when to hold 'em" advice. and your cliche anecdote about the naive southerner eaten alive by the cold hearted big city folk...oh please.

i'm sure your persistent agenda to preach about life in the big city to the weak hearted bumkins belies a past life in your own "omaha".

walkinaround, thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment on my posts.