We are completely different, but ya'll are the same.

I took this from my first study abroad trip. The students there created this Welcome sign from petals of flowers.

You do say ya'll, right?

Popular media has told me that if you are Irish, you are typically red headed, live on a rural mountainside, wear green bulky sweaters, and have seen at least one leprechaun in your life.

That is the issue with popular media. People more often than not subject entire heterogeneous groups of people into a homogenous stereotype. I find that we, as Americans, have difficulty with seeing anything past ourselves. If it doesn't affect us, we tend to just ignore it. We like to group an entire country into one type of culture. It seems legit because those countries are so foreign to us and we usually only have a limited amount of background to judge it by. But, let's look at it from another perspective.

Agree or disagree-- All Americans drink sweet tea. All Americans say "ya'll." All Americans drive two door pickup trucks.

I'm sure you are shaking your head right now, thinking, "No. All Americans do not do such things. We are different."

Even in our little state of Arkansas we share different regions that have their own cultures. There are even five very distinct regions of Arkansas: southwest, southeast, northwest, northeast, and central. So, if Arkansas can host five very different cultures, don''t you think Ireland or anywhere else for that matter could have that many or more?

As described in the Curiosity Group's article, the majority of Americans are in the Parochial stage where they think "my way is the only way." It goes along with the saying, "Ignorance is bliss." Sure, ignorance can be bliss until you lose your company thousands of dollars because you have greatly offended your client because of a cultural faux-paus.

Or, as described in the Interculturalism Matters article, we only know the tip of the cultural iceberg. We can list what language that country uses, the food they eat, and any major festivals they celebrate. But what does they really tell you? Knowing those facts alone, could you survive in any country of the world? It is critical to know more. You need to know what they believe in, how they live out their day to day lives, and what pushes them to act the way they act.