(Comments by students in Austria)
There is a saying that makes it clear: “If you want to look better, you have to compare yourself to someone who looks even worse.” In my opinion, this sentence has validity for every person, country and state.
I do not think there is a big difference [between American] and European values. On the outside/in public everybody is trying to make a good impression, to ‘play by the rules’, to be an immaculate citizen – in general to have a good reputation and to be accepted in society. However, when people feel private (e.g. at home) they do not care about societal conventions. They behave like they want to – good or bad and they do not care about how others expect them to be.
While American family structure is more geared towards individualism, Europeans seem to be more attached to community support and less inclined to violence.
Concerning the style of the characters we in Europe say that everything the American’s have comes sooner or later to Europe. It’s mostly about new entertainment tools and clothes. I think the European people try to imitate some kind of style from the States. We see all the American movies, advertising and TV shows and take it as a model to get new ideas.
While considering we may get a feeling of being a member of the same huge commuity with many similarities, apart from differences. All those similarities help us to communicate and to find a common symbolic language between the nations. It doesn’t matter whether we live in US, Poland or on the North Pole, we share the same values, beliefs and we practice the same or at least similar traditions and that is of the greatest importance.