But culture isn't in your genes Robert. I have lived in North Dakota, where a large portion of the population are of Norwegian descent. Met many people with Norwegian ancestors.

There is nothing left of Norwegian mindset or language. These guys and girls are all American through and through.

America is a melting pot as you surely know yourself. Whether I meet Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Norwegian-Americans or Polish-Americans they tend to be far close to each other culturally and mindset than to any of the cultures of their ancestors.

My wife has Chinese and Japanese-American descent. And much like Norwegian-Americans the only thing really left from the old country tends to be quite superficial. Certain celebrations or particular kinds of foods eaten.

I have many distant relatives in Utah. They have really wanted to connect with their Norwegian roots. What most focus on is things like Christmas tradtions and particular kinds of foods or handicrafts.

But things like culture, mindset and language is completely gone. There is no trace of Norwegian mentality left. And to them Norway itself is quite alien. It is not a culture they readily understand.

I guess the reason why we Europeans talk about Americans singularly is while differences between different areas of the US may seem large to Americans they are not very large relative to what we are used to in Europe.

Sure we know there are difference within the US. But that applies to within European countries as well. These differences can be quit large even when the countries are small.

Keep in mind that the US was settled within a relative short time and with mass communications which helped unify the country. Many European countries have had different regions which has developed independently sometimes for over a thousand years.