A very interesting topic, ewein. I remember reading an article in Scientific American many years ago, that said one of the big problems in the incompatibility of Anglos and Hispanics is that Anglos are uncomfortable to have anyone closer than three feet, and Hispanics sense hostility in anyone uncomfortable less than three feet away.
I found many sites about it, but none worth citing here. Apparently it was discussed on one of Oprah's shows.

in your face + or - tres feet
One would have thought the Japanese, famously crowded on a narrow strand of land bordering Mount Fuji, would be the most comfortable of all peoples in close proximity to one another. Instead, they are, perhaps, the most respectful of all peoples of individual privacy (and preserving 'face'). Even the homeless will not intrude by begging.

Any theories why it would be Hispanics and not Japanese who are so comfortable at close quarters? Could it be their "hot blood"? Consuelo?

Re: Instead, they are, perhaps, the most respectful of all peoples of individual privacy

True, and yet not quite. My sister lives there.. the first months, all the old woman in the neighborhood, quitely, and politely, but repeated corrected her..

No, garbage cans are put out till noon, the trashmen come at 1 PM... , Why don't you ever have plastic bags of batteries on the first monday garbage pick up? You're not just putting them in the trash are you? You cut your hedge in the morning, but didn't rake till after lunch...

Slowly and methodically they trained her to local standards.. and they were not shy.

meanwhile, traveling to downtown tokyo, (she lives in outskirts) was a daily ordeal.. frequently she was touched and fondled.. we grew up in NY, and we know how to ride subways here, but in Japan she was constantly subjected to fondling. so the idea of respect of individual privacy, doesn't quite extend to woman in the subway.. eventually she met other ex-pats, and learn some behaviour tricks, and how to stop it. (verbelly say stop.)

i am no pin up gal, and when i went to japan, i too was fondled on the subway.. gai jin aren't real people to many japanese, and don't need to be accorded any respect.

>"dissemia"

If you use Google http://www.google.com as your search engine of choice you will find that it often suggests a better spelling - it is great for people like me who have a rough idea but don't always know the correct spelling. I've just tried it and it worked in this case.

The dictionary site http://www.onelook.com is also very good, you can try a few options pretty quickly and see what it can find. It is particularly good for words where there is a difference between US and Uk usage as the smaller dictionaries tend to skip words which are not common in the country that produced the dictionary.

Good luck, we've got a bit of a start on you.

But not to worry, ewein. dr. bill corrected it in the first response of this thread, so quietly and gently that none of us even noticed. Bill, kudos on being so very graceful.

There are quite a few sites about dyssemia, and also about paralanguage, and non-verbal communication.
Somewhere recently a saw an article about a person who had had cerebral vascular accident, with severe speech impairment, who was remarkably skillful in detecting when speakers whose words he could not understand were lying.