Living someplace for an extended period of time(ideally at least a year) is the only way to "know" a country or a city. Traveling for a few weeks at a time, going to a few restaurants, hitting tourist traps, getting drunk at a few bars and visiting museums doesn't familiarize you with a place or its people. You don't experience it's true culture.

You don't really get a feel for a place unless you make it your primary residence, make long term friends, celebrate all the holidays, work a job and live through each season. That's the only way to see true culture.

People saying they're cultured because they backpacked through Europe for a few weeks is the equivalent of someone calling themselves a New Yorker because they went to the MOMA, statue of liberty, times Square and ate a few pieces of pizza.