6 - Comparing Cultures

Summary

In this chapter we compare posts from the two countries which most posters identified as residing in. Within the forum, 38.84% of posts were made by people from the UK, 33.94% were made by those from the USA, 17.41% were made by people who did not specify a country and 9.81% consisted of all other countries. While the main language in the UK and USA is English, an analysis of keyword differences indicates numerous differences which point not only to spelling (favorite) and lexical choices (vacation) but also to ways that anxiety is understood. In addition, we consider the extent to which posters are influenced by external cultures; for example, is there evidence that British posters are adopting language and discourses used by American posters, or vice versa? As with the previous chapter, the analysis concludes by considering the role of culture on understandings of anxiety.