In Spain, when you talk to people you know, the standard way to ask questions is bluntly, without "please" and "thank you". Even with people whom you don't know, it's still the normal usage in many situations, e.g. practically no one would say "please" when ordering at a restaurant, bar, shop, etc. You typically only say it when you are asking someone a favor outside their normal duties (e.g. asking a stranger in the…
Well, I think there are a few nuances that make the comparison a little tenuous. First, though this may be stating the obvious, standards in culture are an important part of language; what is normal in one language is definitely not normal in another. Russian, for example, has words for "this", "that", etc, but you wouldn't commonly use it unless you were being really specific; a few of my Russian colleagues when coa…
I haven't heard of this and asked my wife (native Russian) about it, she couldn't understand what it meant either. Can you give examples? Typically we just use "то" and "это" for everything.