I live in a hugely multicultural city. My class is a United Nations of students. Most are from East or South-East Asia. There's increasing numbers from Central and South America and usually a few Eastern Europeans. I teach communication. There's no place in the curriculum for topics such as body language, and its subtopic personal space, but I think I'll give them this in their readings.

This thoughtful, entertaining article claims that there are different cultural practices related to personal space.

If there was room to adjust, move my bottom back or forward, or sideways, I made space for another person. In such close quarters, I had to learn to love the human touch in order not to hate it.

Perhaps one difference between east and west is that we have never learned to love it. We, too, are squeezed into streetcars and subways, especially during rush hours. There are long line-ups in post offices and cinema washrooms -- but not all the time. We don't make a virtue of necessity.

Also, it seems we're so self-protective, it often comes across as thoughtless and unkind. While the author voluntarily makes space for others on a crowded train, I've noticed that in Canada, we often have to ask someone to move their knapsack or parcels off of a seat. The item is moved unwillingly as the passenger hopes you'll find some other seat rather than ask for the parcel to be moved. Hubski - have you noticed this in your city?

I find Americans very friendly, but the unsaid rule of personal space never lets you get close to people, even when they are your friends. There is an invisible circle around a person, which seems impenetrable.

I imagine people will disagree with this statement. I imagine, too, there is a double meaning in his use of the word "close." I wonder, when it comes to friends, if there is a correlation between physical and emotional closeness. I suspect that there probably is.