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East vs. West: Culture and Distributed Development
CowboyRobot writes "ACM's Queue has an article entitled, Culture Surprises in Remote Software Development Teams
that reviews differences in cultures and explores the impact they have on distributed software development teams. From the article: "In Western societies, decisions are made on the basis of input from those involved. In cultures with greater hierarchies, group members assume an authority will decide and they are only to enact the decision." Some stereotypes and some common sense, but I recognized myself in the descriptions of the 'typical American'."
It's amusing to see everyone assume 'American' when mentioning the West. Has Europe moved into another ideological sphere that separates them from the rest of the world, and if so what is it?
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
When I first started reading the article, I figured they were talking about New York versus California. I've worked on bi-coastal projects, and the cultural differences in how things get decided (and even coding styles) are palpable.
Isn't this article just a nice way of saying that those in "Eastern" cultures can't think for themselves? That they're predisposed to follow orders, and are unsuitable participants in even a quasi-democratic system?
I'd imagine that some east-Asian Slashdotters might take issue with this.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
The difference between east and west culture and the ramifications for the world have been in the news for a long time. For instance, the traditional religions in Asia have absolutely no problems with cloning or experimentation on embryos (which is basically verboten in western countries), so the majority of work in that field is in China or other countries which accept the future for what it is. The global marketplace is shrinking, and as we become more and more interconnected cultural differences will no doubt become more and more of an issue.
In cultures with greater hierarchies, group members assume an authority will decide and they are only to enact the decision." Some stereotypes and some common sense, but I recognized myself in the descriptions of the 'typical American'."
Agreed. This is consistent the projection that not-so mind/cognative-intensive software work will continue to go overseas while the R&D/high-cognative software related work stays here.
I personally don't feel much pity for the M$ visual basic ppl (ie, mega-corp software cogs) who whine about their job going overseas (let alone the gov't interfereing legistation to support that ideal).
G-Force music visualization
"...At the end of the videoconference, the Americans immediately disconnected the call. The French and Germans continued for another five minutes wishing a departing French teammate well in his retirement, and reminiscing about good times. The Europeans viewed the American behavior as rude and insensitive. The Americans viewed time as money, focusing on the cost of the videoconference. In other countries, entire meetings are devoted to establishing relationships, without conducting the core of the task at all."
Building relationships is a strong thing. Time is money but with a good repor you can get a lot more done easily. This is a time and money saver too. Just not as easily trackable of one. And not in the short term but over the long haul of a project. It especially great if the project is going to last severa years.
Evolution or ID?
These cultural differences aren't exactly minor, and I think they can have a real impact on how teams work together. I've worked in multicultural teams, and the way the team is built into a unit is by getting to know the individuals over time. This process happens much more easily when everyone is in the same team room working together.
Something that many companies don't seem to consider when they send jobs to other countries, or split the work between different teams in different countries is that without the face to face interaction it's much harder to get to know the other people. These cultural problems would show up in reduced productivity. Rather than being worked out and adjusted for, cultural differences would have a real chance of becoming a serious issue. It might look tempting to companies to send work out to cheaper countries, but the costs can be accrued in other ways than in just salaries.
This is America, damnit. Speak Spanish!
Hasn't the tragedy of Tupac and Biggie taught the world anything? Eastside vs. Westside accomplishes nothing, homies!
Peace out!
Word...
- c -
Who cares, the point is that the guy is American so he is talking about the country he is from. Why is it every time someone mentions 'the west' and America every European jumps up and say you see, American are so self centered thinking they are the west. Seems to me Europeans have a confidence problem. Also last time I checked you're on the same fricken land mass 'the east' is on.
Half of Europe has. It's called alternatively 'old Europe', 'France', or 'having a different opinion'.
We have taken over a software project for the UK gov from another company.
The previous company appeared to be lost in touch with the requirements of the client. Althoguh they had a lot of good coders, things were not implemented to the clients liking. The greatest problem was that only the project managers maintained contact with the client.
Our policy on the other hand has greater client interaction at all levels. And despite the development team being a tenth of the size of the previous company, everyone gets involved, are creative in their solutions, and less time is wasted coding and then correcting irrelevent features.
If there is any greater case for NOT outsourcing software projects to offshore, our case is a good example.
Have a nice day!
"East" and "West" are terrible descriptions. California is the most West, so it's kinda East. What about Hawaii? Australia? South Africa? The real difference is how old the society is. China has a very old society. So do Jews. Both societies are marked by lots of negotiation. Texas has a new society, as does Alaska, where individuals can get away with big moves. As societies gain collective experience, roles become established, forms have more persistence, communications are more complex and referential. While new societies take more risks, unencumbered by the lessons of past failures.
As "civilization" has generally moved West across Eurasia and the Americas, while largely surviving culturally in earlier establishments, the "East" (starting at the Asian Pacific coast) is older than the "West". Of course, major paradigm shifts and even genocides have distorted even that simple gradient. And the 20th Century's cataclysm migration and telecommunications means that the meme pool has a whirlpool, swirling the cultural codes around the globe. But actual mores are encoded deep. So there is a persistent ghost of the underlying gradient. Nowadays, individuals can choose how traditional or neo they want to be in their lives. And the lack of geographic rhyme and reason is making front lines of conflict everywhere, with new syntheses in every neighborhood. Let a thousand hydroponic flowers bloom!
--
make install -not war
It might mean people are reading the article before posting.
--- Ban humanity.
is when the pompous-ass American programmer 100K-er turns up to direct 20 outsourced indian programmer 7K-ers and discovers that they don't tell him what is going on.
I wonder why?
The correlation between culture (as defined in the article) and nationality is very, ver often exagerated. At least that is my experience, after having worked/studied in plenty of multinational environments and with people of multiple nationalities.
/.ers, for example, have a cultural outlook more similar to one another than to the average of his/her national peer. Same applies to many other online communities.
Stereotypes do apply, but anti-stereotypes are plenty, as well. You will find the organized Greek, the warm German, the shy Italian, the Brazilian who does not like soccer and the American who knows world geography.
I have experienced much more consistent cultural environments going from ony company (corporate culture) to another, than crossing national borders. I have seen corporate environments absorb various nationalities, even operating in different countries, and retaining its own (original) corporate culture. And I have seen, as well, plenty of cultural clashes and disagreement over world view within more than one country.
The internet makes the dissociation between nationality/geography and culture even starker.
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
When I first started reading the article, I figured they were talking about New York versus California.
Never a truer word spoken about cultural differences.
"The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."
When bell atlantic combined with GTE to become verizon, the powerrs-that-be decided to make bell atlantic the "management" and replaced all the west coast GTE exec positions with BA people. The stodgy east coast guys were infuriated by the laid-back california work style, so they installed GPS transponders on all trucks and instituted random monitoring. Now if you stop to take a crap, they'll page you and demand to know what you're doing at a [gas station/restaurant/whatever] for more than a couple minutes. It's insane.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
India and China are VERY big places with MUCH diversity. But, I have developed some personal stereotypes based on experiences that I encounter time and time again.
Indians don't question authority, and actually have problems operating without it. They not only welcome being strictly regulated, they get stressed out in the absense of strict inflexible rules. The idea that one should question authority or make a decision that runs counter to what one has been told, never enters the thought process.
Chinese are trained to listen, not talk. The entire educational system is based on a one-way transfer of knowledge. The ideas of critical thinking and academic inquiry have to be LEARNED explicitly, and it seems to be the single greatest challenge for Chinese students in Western Universities.
Culture Surprises in Remote Software Development Teams
ACM Queue vol. 1, no. 9 - December/January 2003-2004
by Judith S. Olson, University of Michigan; Gary M. Olson, University of Michigan and Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work
printer-friendly format
recommend to a colleague
sections in this article
1: You Can't Hide from Culture
2: Dimensions of Culture
3: Cultural Differences in Development Teams
4: Groupware and Cultural Differences
5: An Emerging Internet Culture
6: References
"When in Rome" doesn't help when your team crosses time zones--and your deadline doesn't.
You Can't Hide from Culture
Technology has made it possible for organizations to construct teams of people who are not in the same location, adopting what one company calls "virtual collocation."1 Worldwide groups of software developers, financial analysts, automobile designers, consultants, pricing analysts, and researchers are examples of teams that work together from disparate locations, using a variety of collaboration technologies that allow communication across space and time.
Although solving the problems of space and time is difficult, these are not the only issues. Work that takes place over long distances means that communication will often involve different cultures. Participants may be surprised by such interactions because they have not considered various cultural differences and how they impact the daily work of long-distance teams. Our own culture is invisible to us. "We don't see our own ways of doing things as conditioned in the cradle," writes Esther Wanning, author of Culture Shock! USA. "We see them as correct, and we conclude that people from other countries have grave failings."2
The goal of this article is to review various cultural differences likely to appear in the work setting and explore their implications for virtual collocation of software development teams. We begin with a definition of culture and various dimensions of cultural difference that have emerged. Then we examine two cases: (1) one in which the team members are collocated; and (2) one involving the team in virtual collocation. From this analysis we draw some practical implications.
CULTURE AND ITS DIMENSIONS
Larry Samovar and Richard Porter3 have defined culture as:
The deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.
Culture is acquired. It helps people categorize and predict their world by teaching them habits, rules, and expectations from the behavior of others. It helps people "read" the world's signals--the meaning of symbols of artifacts, gestures, and accoutrements of others.4 Culture also molds the way people think: what their motivations are, how they categorize things, what inference and decision procedures they use, and the basis on which they evaluate themselves.5 It sets the gestures, space, and timing of interactions.6
There are multiple kinds of culture: national, regional, occupational, organizational, avocational, and generational. Any of these might have important effects. Here we focus on national culture, assuming that knowing at least what a member of a culture shares with others is helpful in understanding how to interpret unusual behaviors. There are cultural explanations and new signals to read in understanding various interactions with people who are unlike oneself.
JUDITH S. OLSON is the Richard W. Pew professor of human computer interaction at the University of Michigan. She is a professor in the computer and information systems department of the business school and the school of information, as well as a professor of psychology. Her research focuses on how groups get their work done and how they feel about each other when they communicate over various digital media. S
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
Also found: the brave Frenchman, the Irish master chef, the lazy Japanese man, the Slashdotting mack daddy...
Comedy gold.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
Stereotypes do apply, but anti-stereotypes are plenty, as well. You will find the organized Greek, the warm German, the shy Italian, the Brazilian who does not like soccer and the American who knows world geography.
:-p
Although not in the Whitehouse
Table-ized A.I.
And similarly, there is a great difference between Northern and Southern, West Coast and East Coast cultures: In the South, "Yankees" are viewed as pushy, rude, and cold, while Northerners view Southerners as ignorant, slow, and too informal. This comes down to Southern preference of wanting to take time to get to know the person they are working with- his viewpoints, his family, his work habits, while Northerners want to get the job done quickly and in the most efficient manner with the least amount of wasted energy. I come from the South, and my drawl has elicited a ton of stereotypes about Southerners- the most prevalent is that I am not knowledgable. My 2 cents
Republican leadership = Idiocracy
I think this comes from decision making.
In my experience there are two ways.
Western (Canada/US), get an idea, get some information, quicikly make a decision. Hopefully if it is wrong, someone points out the mistake before it gets too big.
Eastern (Japan), get a lot of information, make a good well documented decision. Pointing out mistakes means you think that their work in making the decision is wrong, likely you haven't done the same investigation.
When everyone makes off the cuff decisions, there is value to second guessing.
When someone takes a lot of time and energy to make the right decision, it is insulting to be constantly second guessed.
In Western societies, decisions are made on the basis of input from those involved. In cultures with greater hierarchies, group members assume an authority will decide and they are only to enact the decision."
The "West" is a complex, stratified society with more hierarchies than Chinese society for example, and these tend to be much more arbtrary -- 'race' for example. Caste and such in India are misunderstood as being the result of oppression, not differentiation of the means of production in agrarian societies. That oppression exists in caste-based societies is a fact. That it is the result of the very caste structure itself not the means of its control and manisfestation is what you can't get through to people. Anyhow, creative thinking is not the exclusive domain of "Western" culture. And assuming that it occurs on an individual level ignores socialization as a culural force.
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
You don't need to compare East vs West to see this cultural divide. We have this all over the US too. Many have already mentioned the differences between West Coast and East Coast but also look at North vs South.
The rank / trust system was very common throughout this entire country before the 60's. It's still prevalent in the deep South today.
I wonder if this behavior is in any way related to family upbringing? Those in more rigid and structure households (where everyone has a role and is depended on to fill that role) are more likely to trust their superiors in a professional environment. This theory could be supported by recruiting statistics, by region, of the US Armed Forces.
On the flip side - those with a loose family structure, where each member is more independent, are more likely to distrust.
When I first started reading the article, I figured they were talking about New York versus California.
Once again, leaving out my native Chicago and the rest of the midwest. *sigh* We don't get no respect. There's more than cornfields between the Hudson and Vegas, folks!
--GrouchoMarx
Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?
Self-selected groups, like corporations and blogs, have more selfconsistent cultures than groups selected by criteria other than culture, like countries.
--
make install -not war
Yes. There are also silos where they put the corn.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
there's an old joke about the "perfect European" being a Belgian...
Or the old heaven/hell joke:
Heaven:
Mechanics - German
Chefs - French
Lovers - Italian
Police - English
and the Swiss organize everything
Hell
Mechanics - French
Chefs - English
Lovers - Swiss
Police - German
and the Italians organize everyting
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
cragen
Countries that emphasize the collective rather than the individual tend to value time for personal relations, family, and so forth, over material gain. For them the goal is to preserve social equilibrium, not to "rock the boat." And, for them the greatest punishment is ostracism.
In Geek Culture, ostracism is a REWARD! Punishment is being forced to work on a boring project.
Table-ized A.I.
It's simply stating the cultural differences that do exist. There are advantages and disadvantages to the approaches innate in each culture. It would seem that the American culture is better suited to innovation and creativity, but that other cultures are better suited to precision and perfection. Both are important in the development of technology.
This didn't say they cannot think for themselves, rather that they defer to authority, and in many situations, that's a good thing. Conversely it seems to suggest that Americans don't have much appreciation for structure, heirarchy and procedure, and that might explain why some software is as flaky as it is even if it is innovative.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
The difficulty of having Asian parents while growing up in an entirely American culture has been pretty evident... it's slightly different for every Asian-American, but from my experience and all my cousins (yes, all 15-20 of them) there's always been culture shock when it comes to girlfriends, spouses (don't get married 'til you're 28!), life decisions (you should be a doctor or a lawyer -- although at the time, software engineer was a respectable decision), and general parental control of your life. :-) Ask any Asian-American that grew up here about it, and chances are they've also been torn between the clear individualistic culture here and the clear group-oriented culture their parents came from and raised them to be.
And precious few books have been written about the subject, too... but that's starting to change. The Joy Luck Club was a start.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
I have worked with a few folks from India in my current position, and found that it is very important to draw them out and get their ideas. Initially, my suggestions were taken as direction and followed to the letter. While this is nice for my ego, it was not preferred. It is very rare that one person's idea is the best solution and is important to solicite other's opinions. On the other hand, it was nice to not have to argue about every little nit-picky thing too.
An interesting aspect that came out of this was the changes in the India nationals. The longer they were here, the more outspoken they become, and the better the teams began to operate. As it became apparent that their input was welcome, the suggestions stayed suggestions and when conflicting priorities came up, they were discussed and comprises were worked out. It became a much healthier environment, less re-work was done, and project items were done in better sequence.
I often wondered what difficulties arose when they finally went back to India. Did their new American-learned personality changes create problems, or were they quicly un-learned?
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
The article doesn't talk about people moving to countries with different cultures and adapting to the culture of that country. Indians working in the US may behave slightly differently than Indians in India.
The issue is more complex than this. You break down a broader philisophical notion of: When does life begin and how valuable is it? into an only religious context. For some discussions, this is fine since religion is one of the few feilds that societies seem comfortable in discussing morality. However, this issue goes further than this.
The West has a cultural memory of WWII. Part of this legacy is the idea of Eugenics, championed by Those Guys Who Lost. They did some of the original work on cloning, and selectivity in people. In fact, the believed that some sub-groups of humanity were intrinsically better than others. When we research cloning and embryo modification, these issues become important because it will ulimately allow people to make decisions on which traits propogate. Thinking about this before the genie is out of the bottle shows amazing restraint and forsight. Honestly, it is hard to beleive that anyone could be against contemplation and rational discussion before fundamental changing the human condition.
In the east, less prohibitions against eugenics exist. Again, this arises from many aspects of the cultures, and not mere religion. At a small level, this is evidenced by gender selection. Several asian countries have practiced eugenics, in that a gender was selected for, to such an extent that the male/female ratio is not 50/50. This is known to such an extent that even Newsweek had a recent article on this topic. Furthermore, taboos about favoring race tend to be less prevelent than western culture. This lack of social stigma to racial favortism and genetic selection allows this type of research to progress. This has little to do with seeing the future for what it is, or any greater mission of free flowing ideas.
Ultimately, will the world be a better place as stem cell research increases? Honestly, I don't know, but then again, neither does anyone else. Blaming any restraint on persuing this science is larger than the trite case of "religion bad, science good." Larger issues are at stake, and need to be taken in total context of where the human entity is as a people, and were we want to be.
my two cents,
-Iowa
"He who laughs last, didn't get the joke."-Cap
As an Indian who has worked in USA and Canada in addition to India, my experience about leadership is as follows.
0. The zeroth law. Anyone who has power will use it to protect his/her position. Principles, morals and ethics be damned. CYA is the best policy.
1. There is a streak of authoritarianism in almost every boss, however, there are subtle differences.
2. I couldn't access the article linked to above because of heavy traffic, but the line in the introduction that I didn't like was that in West this happens and in east that happens.
In my experience in India, the people who were involved were almost always consulted. I distinctly remember one obnoxious person who told me to code an entire system in 4 days. I am sure you (whether in East or West) can find similar examples.
Easterness and westernness is irrelevant to assholiness.
3. Indian and US bosses are more direct and more explicit. Canadians beat about the bush. To say "rake the leaves", Indians and Americans will say exactly so. The Canadians will say "The Fall has come a bit early this time."
This is stupid, needless, redundant and time-wasting sophistication.
4. We Indians criticize ourselves a lot. There are so many things wrong in our country (although in the recent past things have started to change). We are acutely conscious of this and know that each of us contributes to whatever's that's wrong and right.
So it is a sort of rule in Indian offices to criticize and make fun of the boss behind his/her back. The boss knows that too.
By contrast in Canada, I noticed two trends:
(a) The Canadians born and brought-up in Canada may criticize the boss vehemently amongst themselves, but when it comes to interacting with immigrants, they almost gang up and use very bland and inane language to describe a boss's shortcomings.
(b) No Canadian wants to be caught dead criticizing the top boss. We openly used to make fun of the CEO even. Infact, I'd even go so far as to say that Canadians almost want to be seen worshipping the top boss and singing paeans of him.
It is disgusting.
In my opinion, in general, there's more democracy in Indian and American workplaces than in Canadian.
I have an interesting kneejerk reaction for an American, I stick up for the French. Perhaps this is influenced by living not too many doors down from the Marquis de Lafayette's local residence during the Revolution combined with childhood heros including Georges Guynemer and Roland Garros; not to mention possible bias from being able to trace my father's family back to Louis X (Ok, such a bad king that encyclopedias go staight from Louis IX to Louis XI) and hence back to Hugh Capet ( a cutthroat, but hey, a successful one).
The French has always had a reputation for being among the bravest of the brave (ok, so sometimes they were bravest when following behind a teenage girl, but we'll overlook that). Nor have they had any traditional reputation as loosers ( and when they did lose you could count on the fact that the winner was going to pay dearly).
Google on Verdun. In WWI Germany decided they were going to win the war by "bleeding France white." And they did. What they didn't count on was that France could bleed white and remain standing.
Verdun did not fall.
What the French have, as a culture, is a sense of the gallant. The problem here is that the ultimate in gallantry is to go down fighting for a noble cause. The role model is Roland, dying while defending the pass (as it is for the Greeks if it comes to that. The battle at Thermopolyae is one of the most remarkable events in military history).
Alain Prost once noted the irony that he was vilified in France while he was winning in a French car, but became a national hero when he started coming in second in an Italian car.
The point being that the French car was superiour. Almost not winning in a superiour car is the inferiour performance from the point of view of the gallant. Almost, but not quite, winning in an inferiour car is glorious. A Pomeranian taking it to a German Shepard, and going down in defeat, but in the process leaving the Shepard so bloodied that it must retire from the field and seek the ICU.
It isn't even fair to say the French like losing. Jacques Anquitil is a French God. He was a winner, but he won with guts and spirit. Raymond Poulidor is also a French God although he was the perenial bridesmaid to a Belgian, but pushed the Belgian all the way, with guts and spirit even though the cause was laregley hopeless.
To the Frenchman it's the spirit that counts more than the end result.
Elan!
And in WWII there were an awful lot of dead Germans as the result of brave Frenchman refusing to give up the fight just because their government did.
KFG
Not surprisingly, military organization has probably changed less than almost any other over the last couple thousand years. I feel quite sure that a modern sargent could adjust fairly easily to leading a similarly-sized group of Roman legionaires.
OTOH, there are certain tasks that businesses need to undertake for which this type of organization is absolutely miserable -- think most forms of research. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, IBM was famous for the regimentation of its sales and support engineers. Everyone wore a blue suit and white shirt, and did things the "IBM way". But up at the Watson Research Center, the people creating the next generation of products came to work in shorts and sandals if they felt like it. IBM "got it" that they needed both types of individuals to be successful. Of course, they didn't mix the two very often.
I both agree and disagree with this. Americans who haven't traveled much have a hard time imagining what it would be like if every US state spoke a different primary language. And, yes, there are clear cultural differences between the French and Germans, the Brits and Italians, the Greeks and the Swedes.
But even so, that "diversity" is trivial in some respects compared to what I see in the US. When I'm in Europe, some friend will always point out in amazement at cafe how diverse our fellow diners are. "Look! Those guys are German, and at our table we have two Brits and a half French/half Yank, and over there, there's a Greek and and...who knows? Maybe Polish or Czech?" And I shake my head in wonder. In the US, those same guys -- just transport them all on a business trip to a cafe in NYC -- would be called "white guys" and people would wonder if there was something sinister about the cafe -- that maybe it didn't willingly serve a "diverse" clientele.
You want diversity? Think sub-saharan Africans. Think Lao hill tribes. Think Pacific Islanders. Think Chinese. Think Guatemalan Indians. Think Haitians. Think Koreans. Now imagine them, not in ones or twos as cute cultural tokens, completely swamped by the state majority culture and having to fit in, but in clusters of anywhere from tens of thousands to millions, with their own political agendas and no intention of just "fitting in".
Imagine 2/3rds of the population of Paris being African-Europeans. Imagine London being 60% ethnic Pakistani, with the Pakistanis accepting as a matter of course that the white Londoners (those Germans, Greeks, Brits, and the half-French/half-Yank I mentioned) all owed them reparations for British colonialism. Imagine all of Germany being Central American Indians pouring across the borders into every other country in Europe in such numbers that they created voting blocs that no politician dared offend.
In which European country are Europeans a minority and considered to be oppressing the majority? In the fifth largest economy in the world, California, the over one million resident Europeans are all considered just a part of the white minority. Yes, whites are a minority in California, as are all other groups, and the public schools now teach that white oppression is the primary reason the average income of non-whites is lower than that of whites. (The fact that the avg income of Chinese is higher than that of whites is not taught because it might "confuse" the message that the political coalitions have decided needs to be taught.)
There are different reasonable ways to measure diversity. You're right that Americans often can't see the diversity that locals can see in Europe. Having lots of groups speaking different, but similar, languages and having different, but similar cultures that are easily distinguished by the locals but seem about the same to someone from the other side of the world, is one type. Yes, Europe taken as a whole, is more fragmented and diverse than the US in that sense, especially linguistically. And several mountainous regions in Southeast Asia, with only a few hundred thousand people each, are more diverse than all of Europe, by that measure.
Then there is diversity of the sort that is easily recognized by someone from the other side of the world who isn't thinking of just language differences: very large groups from extremely different ethnic backgrounds, having very different cultural attitudes and proclivities and very different political agendas which they are large enough to be able to effectively pursue, living under one roof in the same society. Most Europeans can't even understand such diversity and its implications, accustomed as they are to thinking that Swedes and Italians are extreme examples of "completely different" cultures.
"Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded."
Not only is Canada the right answer here, but the model of Canada's diversity and multiculturalism (at least since Pierre Elliot Trudeau) is very different from what the USA diversity is.
...etc. is valued, and no "conformance" is required. The different small dots of varying color all come together to form a very nice coloful whole.
In the USA, it is the "melting pot" model. After a while the immigrant is expected to blend in and assimilate/integrate. (Much like the French view it with all the noise about religious symbols and such over there now).
In Canada, it is the "mosaic" model, where difference in culture, religion, customs,
"Being Canadian" does mean the same thing as "being American"
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