>Well, I guess that depends on which area you live in. Europe is a big place with a lot of differences in culture. One thing I've heard from americans frequently is that in europe people are less 'fake'. I'm not sure how to explain this, but maybe 'down to earth' is a better word.

The automatic smile. I've stopped noticing that, but now this reminded me. The Americans smile at you and say "excuse me" very frequently, that it's more a reflex than intended action. They're brought up that way. Somehow this automatic smile vanishes equally fast as it comes, and doesn't look natural at all.

I've got used to that; they're brought up this way. It's a nice gesture, anyway. Even if so many times it comes without a palpable reason, it still shows good will to be nice to other people. It's just manners. Sometimes, however, that smile comes across as fake (which it may well be - depends on who, when, why etc).

Europeans, as much as I remember, don't smile that easily, and not without a reason or intent (again, this is "mostly", "most probably", IMO, AFAIR etc).

The other reason may be the way of speaking - Americans mostly pick their speaking habits from the TV, where you have all sorts of phrases for every occasion, and the singing intonation. Sometimes you can just guess how will someone end the sentence. This, of course, happens everywhere where TV is popular, but not to such extent as here. That may also explain a bit - if I got it right at all.