I think, too, that it is particularly easy to spot the peculiarities of a group of people who are very similar to your own group of people, yet not exactly the same.
Like Swedes and Danes.
As a Swede, I find it particularly interesting that Danes are so happy, or at least they claim to be. Danes regularly score top marks in international "happiness polls", and often they come through as the happiest people in the world.
Nevertheless, I can tell you this: there is a difference between Swedish and Danish TV news and weather reports. Really. For example, a few years ago, when stock exchanges everywhere began to have problems, Danish television would cheerfully concentrate on the few stocks that had done well that day, rather than wallowing in the poor performance of the stock exchange as a whole.
Goodness. Swedish television would never do that.
(Lately, news about finance and economy has been so negative that Danish television has stopped reporting about it every day. No need to get people down.)
And then there is the weather report.
Yes, but was it a real change in the weather or just a temporary reprieve?
There is something about snowmen that tugs at your heartstrings. You want to protect them. You want to take care of them. You want to shield them from danger.
You want to save them from melting!
So when the meteorologist showed us the snowman, I felt right away that I needed to protect the poor human-shaped pile of snow. And I realized how sad it was that the pile of snow would melt, now that the weather was finally getting warmer.
My own need to protect the snowman disappeared the moment I was told that the cold weather would be back. I felt extremely un-Danish as I realized that if I had been a Dane, I would have been expected to be happy about the news that the Arctic temperatures would return. Be happy! Be Danish! Think of the snowman!
Gaah! I would blow the snowman up if I could, or, to punish him, I might bring my hair drier out to him on a very long extension cord and blow hot air in his face until he disintegrated with shame over the fact that he was being used to make me welcome more cold weather!
But many Danes, I'll bet, are smiling. Or else they'll just say that they are the next time an international happiness poll is asking them.
Ann
P.S. Seriously... Danish meteorologists don't always bring good news. They can be very serious, for example when they talk about global warming.
But they sure drive me crazy when they smile at us and tell us how lucky we are that we will get icy cold weather and snow!