[dnautics]

I think america is diverse, and shockingly homogenous given its diversity. For example, chinatown in NYC does not seem particularly different from chinatown in SF.

Yes, the midwest calmer and the south is friendlier, the east is more uptight and the west is more chillaxed, and the cuisine is different in different parts of the country, but these are pretty much details at the edges. Everyone speaks english, the low-end labor speaks spanish, african-americans are discriminated against, etc.

[t0mas88]

To me (an outsider from Europe) the US doesn't feel homogenous at all. Compare New York to Taxas or California to South Carolina and they feel as much as different as for example Germany and Spain. With the only difference being that all US states share the English language and Europe has different languages, but even that difference is slowly reducing. For example the French, famous for not speaking English 20 years ago now actually do it very well if they're under 40 or 50 or so. And similar for Germany.

[ulfw]

None of what you write makes any sense.

Spain and Germany have hugely different history, completely different food, different weather, they speak two non-compatible languages sets (Romantic vs Germanic), they have different laws, different stores, different banks, anything.

Texas and California speak the same language, have similar makeup of people, are similarly wealthy, they have the exact same stores, your bank account is the same, everything.

Now I am not argueing there aren't differences between CA and TX. But those are similar to differences between Hamburg and Bavaria or between Catalonia and Madrid. German<>Spain is a whole different ballgame.

[visarga]

Don't want to interrupt this nice discussion but the head topic was about Africa for once, and here we are talking about Europe and US again. Funny we can't switch even for a moment. I bet Africa sees a lot of this.

[em500]

Probably the vast majority of HN readers/posters hail from the US and Europe, most probably haven't even been in any African country, so that hardly remarkable or unexpected.

[anthk]

And even in Spain itself you have three romances plus some alien language: Galician (closer to Portuguese), Catalan (French-Occitan family), Spanish (and Andalusia has it's own subdialect), plus Basque.

A Basque playing the txalaparta would look like a guy who came from a UFO for an Andalusian guy playing Flamenco with a guitar.

Ditto with a Galician with an Atlantic culture (and Celtic customs) plus a obvious bind to Portugal because 500 years ago they were the same language against a Valencian living in the sunny Mediterranean towns.

[dnautics]

> Catalonia and Madrid

I believe those are what are literally called "fighting words"

[kcb]

I think you may be comparing "apples to oranges" within the US. When you say New York that includes a lot more than New York City. I'm from New York City but have never really felt out of place in Austin, San Francisco, LA, Denver, etc. But far upstate New York would be a different story.

[monocasa]

Eh, the difference between those all will have more to do with population density than their location. Rural New York feels more like rural South Carolina than it does NYC.

[anthk]

>eel as much as different as for example Germany and Spain

Then you don't know Spain.

[djmips]

Western chillaxation is put-on.