Growing up in a tiny country on mainland Europe, I have ever since been used to the idea of finding a wealth of different cultures in a relatively confined space. In a lot of places it is possible to get in your car and drive for 30 minutes over the border of the next country and find people who look slightly different, behave slightly differently and speak one or several different languages. Some places will even have a different currency to your own, even though the abolition of border controls and the introduction of the Euro have made travel within Europe a lot easier. We have all that and the EU on top of it, but still the idea prevails that we are all in some way or other radically different from each other. Italians are Italians; French are French, Hungarians are Hungarians, Germans are Germans and Austrians are not, neither are Swiss, even though we all speak the same language and make sausages. These little differences, as many of them are made-up as are real, are very important to many Europeans and define the way we see ourselves and our place in the world. After all, Europe is the birthplace of nationalism.
However, this view doesn't at all prevail on different continents. Here in Japan I get confronted with ideas about Europe as a continent, that I had never considered before. I don't only get this from Japanese people, but also Americans, Australians or Chinese, essentially everyone who isn't European, but lives on a different continent.
Of course most people don't just regard Europe as one big loaf of lasagna, but have different ideas about Britain, France, Romania and what not. However, in the background is always some idea that it is all part of this ancient, culturally rich, magical place, where bread-eating people walk around as in museums, afraid to touch anything for fear it might finally crumble down on them completely. I am exaggerating of course - everybody's ideas about Europe and its constituent nations may be very different, but the important point for me is that people obviously have them.
While this has annoyed me on several occasions (for all I know the same is true for North Americans and Africans whose various states just get thrown in one pot by careless Europeans more often than not), in a way I am finding it rather nice. It makes me reconsider my bonds with areas that are indeed very close to my home in more than just one way, but that I have still always been reminded to define myself against. The next village over will always be slightly different to your own, but declaring it as Italian or Slovenian puts a border between your town and theirs that makes thinking about your relations in a straightforward way just very, very difficult.
In relation to the EU, you always hear about the importance of the "European Thought" (Europäischer Gedanke). How we should open up the borders, unite our relations and economies and all just get along. You also hear a lot about how so few people in Europe have this European Thought in them. It turns out a lot of people on different continents have some idea about it though. I for one have never felt particularly European before I came to Japan. Now I think I do and interestingly I am finding it very liberating. Of course, being defined by the part of the world you come from is never ideal, as this can only ever be a small part of who you are, but in some ways I would rather be associated with a whole continent than with an island inside an island inside a continent - the broader the better, right? Being a citizen of a continent might be one step closer to being a citizen of the world ;)
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