While it is a mistake to talk about any country as if there is an integrated, homogeneous culture, especially when societies are becom- ing so culturally diverse, important cross-national differences definitely exist. By understanding these differences we are able to get a much better appreciation of "foreign" practice. At the same time, we are able to gain a much better appreciation of our own. One of the interesting aspects of culture is that it creates a form of "blindness" and ethnocentricism. In pro viding taken-for-granted codes of action that we recognize as "normal," it leads us to see activities that do not conform with these codes as abnor- mal. A full awareness of the nature of cuiture, however, shows us that we are all equally abnormal in this regard. There is considerable value in adopting the standpoint of the cultural stranger because, in becoming aware of the stranger's point of view, we can see our own in a refreshingly new perspective.