  Excerpt from p. 2 of “ America the Superficial? Watching Desperate Housewives with the Europeans”
Explicit vs. Implicit Culture
In an early episode of Desperate Housewives Susan’s daughter Julie introduces herself to their new neighbor Mike. She’s on a mission to find out as much as she can about her mother’s potential love interest. And thanks to the explicit nature of American communication patterns, she has an easy time gathering good dirt. After her brief meeting with Mike, Julie reports back to her mom with more details than any European would ever be able to find out about a neighbor in five minutes: Mike’s wife died a year ago. He’d wanted to stay in L.A., but because of painful memories there, he’s renting a house on Wisteria Lane for tax purposes, but hopes to buy a place soon.
On watching this scene, my German husband remarked that it’s unrealistic and superficial of Mike to reveal so much about himself in so short a time. Mike barely knows Julie, so my German reasoned; only people who are good friends reveal so much about themselves up front. Not in my book, they don’t. As an American, I come from what cross-cultural theorists call an explicit, or low-context, culture, where not only is it polite to lay most of your cards on the table right away it’s necessary for the smooth functioning of society. With so many successive waves of immigration, frontier-culture Americans can’t assume that the new family on the block will share the same cultural values. The newcomer may worship a different god or no god at all, may speak a different language or hail from a region with an entirely different climate.
It follows that even if Americans never end up becoming bosom buddies with their new neighbors—and luckily for Desperate Housewives fans, Susan and Mike do become bosom buddies—both parties need to unpack their personal history right up front. This is the only way they can begin to find common ground. As a result, both old and new neighbors will have enough information to know whether or not to pursue the connection.
In other words, detailed American introductions like those found in Desperate Housewives are not superficial; they’re practical.
Unlike Americans, Europeans have an implicit, or high-context culture. Europeans are accustomed to sharing a set of assumptions with their compatriots, so all they have to do is to subtly refer to that common ground, rather than explicitly stating their personal history. Of course, their behavior is changing slightly as Europeans become more mobile and international within EU borders, but because they still tend to relocate less often than Americans, they continue to act according to implicit cultural norms.
In other words, it’s not that Europeans are cold or rude; they’re just being efficient.
A pity that some Europeans mistake Americans’ informative bent for hot air and superficial friendship. Consider this remark from a German Desperate Housewives fan I interviewed: “We Germans do welcome our neighbors too, but we don’t do it in such a formalized, presentational way like on Desperate Housewives, as if showing off. To me, the cliché of an American is the show off, someone who plays a role to get attention, but there’s not any real content behind all the presentation. . . . Germans don’t talk as much or as loudly. There’s less chatter and filler in our conversation.”
In other words, Germans are supposed to be deep, Americans shallow. So untrue! 
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