When I think about different culture groups that I am around, I have to admit that there is really not a wide variety of cultures that I am exposed to.  As a child, I was rarely around those of other cultures.  I live in a very rural town with all white residents.  It always has been that way.  Most of the families are pretty similar.  Of course we are all different, but there is not a wide array of diversity.  I work about 40 miles away and closer to the city.  Where I work, there are people of other languages, ethnicities, languages, etc., but still not anything like the diversity found within cities.  I was going to have a friend of mine (who is African American) watch my eight year old son, but I was very worried.  I figured that he would be like, "Oh, so that is how black people take out their trash"... or, "Wow!  Black people eat chips, too"... or many other things like this.  Not that he has been taught anything negative about other ethnicities, but he has never been exposed to those who are different than him.  It would be a wonderful learning experience for him, but I didn't want to put my friend through that!  My childhood was much like that.  I had no clue how people from other socioeconomic statuses, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, etc. lived because I was never able to build relationships with people from other cultures because my town is so rural, Christian, and white.
     I do talk to people from other cultures differently.  I talk to children in a louder tone and in a very sing song voice.  I constantly touch them, pat their backs, and rub their arms and backs as I talk to them.  I have some Christian friends that I don't cuss around and some fellow cursing friends that I cuss like the devil around!  I am open and honest with my husband, but not so with others.  I am a professional business woman at work and I use a lot of logic over emotion.  When I am with my family, I use more emotion than logic.  I have a loud, boisterous friend and I notice that I get loud and boisterous when I communicate with her.  I think that we start learning at a young age (from our experiences) the different ways that it is considered to be acceptable to communicate with others.  We also catch on to the ways that others wish for us to communicate with them and also we learn what seems to be effective.  This means adapting the way that we communicate, based on who we are communicating with.