A Frenchman, an Englishman and a Russian exchange their opinions on the concept of happiness.
I feel happy, — says the Englishman, — when in winter I come back home after a successful hunt and sit comfortably in front of a fireplace with a glass of brandy.

For me happiness is when I’m sitting in a luxurious restaurant and drinking good wine in a company of a gorgeous woman. – Says the Frenchman.

You know nothing about happiness! – Says the Russian. – When after a long exhausting day at work I come back home to my tiny apartment where my wife, kids, mother-in-law and I live, and when in the middle of the night I hear someone knocking on my door, I open it and two men ask me dreadfully “Are you grazhdanin Ivanov?” and I tell them “No, he lives on the third floor!” – THIS is pure happiness!

I remember my mother telling me that the Americans were different (unfortunately, no memory of the context of conversation). I was quite little then and this assumption surprised me. “How?” I asked, and my mother told me that they lived differently and saw the world in a completely different way than we do. At that age I could not understand what my mother was talking about, but I remembered it later, when I was spending my time as an exchange student in the USA.

The behavior of people from another culture did differ – sometimes it amused me, sometimes it seemed disturbing and some things are still difficult to be understood. The aim of my scholarship was culture exchange and I must say that my American friends and family were also interested in the reason I enjoyed drinking tea in the evening and why I refused to be paid for helping out my host family with baby sitting. In early ages it became clear to me that understanding and being understood takes more than just speaking – it requires the knowledge of another person’s set of mind or mentality.

Cultures and people around the world tend to differ one from another – this fact can not be denied. Not only does the world’s history prove that, but it also forms certain stereotypes, which are partially truthful. It is a common belief that the Japanese are extremely hard working and practical, the Scandinavians are polite and tend to study, no matter how old they are, the Jewish are believed to be cunning and greedy, people in Latin America are hot-headed, energetic and jealous. But does the location really influence on the set of mind and what can be other reasons for people to be easily recognized and determined as a citizen of a certain region?

The first reason to be influencing on the mentality, I believe, is climate and natural resources. The Japanese live on a comparatively small island with no fertile soils and have always been lacking in space and welcoming weather. Are these factors not the reason they have developed as an extremely hard-working, practical, group-orientated, orderly and saving nation? It was impossible to survive without these skills in an environment where plants don’t grow, where you live cheek-to-cheek with a neighbor and where almost once a decade there is a tsunami or an earthquake.

There is even a word in Japanese language — Kar?shi (???), which can be translated as “death from overwork”. Ukrainians, on the other hand, have always been surrounded by pleasant weather and fertile soil and a big number of scientist believe our people to have developed laziness and lack of appreciation for what we have. People in Latin America don’t know much about winter and if we were asked to choose one adjective to describe this location and its people, we would most likely say “hot”. Their cuisine is hot and spicy because the meals are expected to kill germs which can be easily expanding in this climate; the weather is mostly warm and sunny and the people are energetic, loud and hot-headed.

The second reason has to be history – the age of culture and the relationship between nations surrounding certain people also has its own influence. Europeans moved to the American continent to build freedom and new world and this is the reason why most people associate the Americans and the USA with the word “freedom”. They have spent an enormous amount of time fighting for it, and this fight continues until now – of course, we are mostly talking about freedom of speech, thought and choice. That fact that they took over other’s people land and destroyed the culture and existence of Native Americans also has its consequences – the USA tends to take over more lands with war or economic control.

The third reason, also a strong one, is religion. The religion map of the world shows us a big number of different beliefs people have throughout the continents and if we compare it to other maps – political, climate, economic, — certain patterns can be discovered. There is no doubt that one of the reason the European Union exists is the history of being united and controlled by one church, Vatican and the Pope.

The Muslims don’t eat pork (they couldn’t, even if they were allowed to by the Koran because of the lands they live on not being suitable for cultivating pigs) and their religious ceremonies include ablution – it is necessary with the hot climate they live in and religion takes care of this aspect. Even if we travel from East to West of Ukraine – the difference in the mentality of people is obvious and one of the reasons we can observe it is religion – Orthodox, starting at the East and Catholic in the West of the country.

These are not the only reasons to separate regions and nations and there are definitely more aspects that form a regional mentality. There are also reasons that unite them and this question becomes timely especially now – in the era of modern technologies and globalization. Big chain stores and restaurants take over the world – McDonalds or IKEA can be spotted almost in every country; people listen to the same music, wear almost the same clothes and use the same words that come from English.

Sometimes, if you look at a picture of a street in, let’s say Berlin, you can easily be tricked to believe that it may as well be New York or Sydney. The opinions on whether this tendency is good or bad differ – some people believe that this will draw nations closer and stop wars, others are frightened by the fact that in hundreds of years the uniqueness will be ruined and all people will become a big grey mass.

Countries start to look the same, but does this mean that people at some point will also act similarly and their mentalities will admix? We can’t confidently answer this question now and the only choice we have is to wait and see, meanwhile, trying to keep our culture, language and beliefs.