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Although standards of beauty vary throughout the world, all societies seem to value symmetry regarding facial features as an important component concerning their particular collective ideal of beauty. Also valued are clear, smooth, glowing skin, healthy, shining hair and a physically toned body. Even though fashions change drastically from culture to culture, there are a few underlying beauty standards that remain largely the same in all parts of the world. This is probably because the physical beauty of human beings is derived from components that indicate fertility and the ability to produce healthy offspring. [...]

What can we learn from different cultures?

Knowing and understanding cultural differences can make or break a business transaction. For example, Asian Indians insist on socializing before discussing any business. They want to know how your family is, and they will ask how you are doing. Asian Indians get very upset if you do not follow this particular cultural protocol.

If you do business with a Chinese person and he hands you his business card, do not write on it. Writing on someone’s business card is considered insulting as is accepting or handing someone a business card with one [...]

The most important step in learning about other cultures is to step back from your own. The norms and taboos of people’s native culture are so ingrained that it can make fairly viewing another culture impossible. If you see something that seems strange to you, such as a direct manner of speaking, a weird style of dress, or obscure gestures, rather than judging them, learn to question them: Why do they do this? What function does it serve? How [...]

Although America has a history of boasting about how wonderful of a country it is and how those who live in America are “#1″, the outside world from America has a seemingly different view and take on how Americans live and breathe each day in this world.

How Other Locations View America

Depending on the country and culture, America is often viewed as a greedy company filled with corporations and a society which thrives on consumerism rather than on morals, ethics, and even religion ( [...]

America. Land of the free and home of the brave. Americans know the value of a dollar and understand the benefits of working hard to get what you want. Not everyone has that same mentality of Americans however. Outside these fifty states are countries that may not exactly understand the day to day workings of being an American.

Cinema holds the biggest example of how a culture perceives life. Many of American’s films are big,long and filled with action and explosions. Because of our fascination with all [...]

Because of the size of the United States, many Americans are not as well traveled as other people. This is understandable as it is very difficult and time consuming to visit other countries as an American.

Usually Americans have a very naive idea about other cultures. This is because of old ideas, or what is seen in movies or television shows. If most Americans were to conjure up an image of a French person, they would probably be smoking. Or if they think of a person from Switzerland, they would be [...]

American media is sort of odd when they portray other cultures. There are some times when they get it right. Most of time, however, American movies and television shows butcher the images of other cultures. There are so many stereotypes floating around. It becomes very hard to break from these bad stereotypical images.

In many cases this has become a bad thing. People that are in America will often use stereotypes to justify how they [...]