What's Normal To Aliens

When it comes to culture, we tend to think of things as us and them. What we're used to is normal and everything else is weird. This leads to a classic culture clash story, where an alien of some sort (whether from another town or another planet) does what is normal to them, but comes off as strange to us. Of course the two people learn about each other and grow up into better people as a result.  It may be vanilla, but I still like it.

There is an interesting variant to the alien story - the alien who is also weird to fellow aliens. This makes the story not so vanilla, though it can still have that classic ending. Since the point is to understand that just because people may act different than we're used to, they are still people, then it doesn't matter what the rest of the alien culture thinks is normal, either.

Other variants, though, could include the outcast alien making us assume that all aliens are particularly unacceptable, but when the two cultures clash, it turns out that they are remarkably similar, so although the outcast is still a weirdo, the cultures can join in their commonality.

For another possible variant, you could also go the West Side Story route, having the two cultures absolutely at war with each other, but having the outcasts come together in secret. They remain strange to their respective homes, but they are perfect for each other.

The sense of otherness is a marvelous concept to play with. We sometimes feel it amongst our own people. We sometimes feel it about ourselves (like we aren't who we think we are at a given time). We especially feel it in markedly different cultures.  And when we are on the other side of the table, we don't realize how we can make outsiders feel even more unwelcome than they already are experiencing.

Still, there are so many ways that you can manipulate it, so many stories that can be made from it. Definitely it is a feeling to draw from for inspiration.