Crion87 wrote:
I find the culture I least get along with is the Australian "culture".
The quotes are entirely justified. There's no way that I could ever become the "typical Aussie male", and I've paid a heavy price for that over the years. And an increase of cultural diversity in the outer suburbs has only made the whitebread born-and-bred Australians more insular and aggressive. The only way to escape that is to bet a uni education, and move into the affluent, cosmopolitan inner areas of the largest cities, and unfortunately I failed to do that.
Indeed, there is a camouflaging effect when you have contact with a foreign culture - even if it's another English-speaking Western culture. Last year, I married an American, spending a few weeks in Seattle before having to come "home". It was refreshing to see people actually taking things seriously, and there was none of this "Sweet... No worries... It's all good" hot air that's pervasive here.