What are some of the difficulties in trying to understand someone from a different culture?

Not understanding language, ethic/manners, symbolism, political stands and worldly view points, Holidays/important times and dates, and many things!

Prior to the creation of the us constitution, the general view of representative government is that it only worked in very small-scale environments- essentially a city-state or smaller. otherwise, the actual reflection of popular will declined in the representatives (ie, the difference between 1 representative per 100 citizens and 1 representative per 10,000 citizens), and generally the whole process became inefficient and self-destructive.james madison, however, was like 'no beezy'. he remarked that small republics were prone to faction and thus collapsed quickly. a large republic, he said, had so many interests and factions that none could rule, and thus they had to moderate and compromise.