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Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

blog.properrussian.com

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Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#51

Post by badger288 »

Demiurge wrote: post #37
blah32497 wrote: post #13

As a Russian-American this comes off as complete BS. I've seen this written before and it's always in the form of "It's not us that smile too little, it's you Americans that are fake and smile too much!". For one, Americans don't just smile to be polite. For the most part it's genuinely conveying positive emotions. Now I know this is going to be unpopular, but I think the real reason Russians don't smile is cultural.…

You might have your opinion, but this article is a re-iteration of something that has been pretty much established by people who study verbal and non-verbal communication (professionally). You might say this has cultural origins in 'Russian misery', but the article outlines present day meanings of smiling and not smiling in Russia and in USA.

how/where would someone be able to study that? sounds like an interesting subject. right now i'm studying for public health related field, and something like that could come very handy.

please tell! :-)

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#52

Post by pyre »

javert wrote: post #24
blah32497 wrote: post #13

As a Russian-American this comes off as complete BS. I've seen this written before and it's always in the form of "It's not us that smile too little, it's you Americans that are fake and smile too much!". For one, Americans don't just smile to be polite. For the most part it's genuinely conveying positive emotions. Now I know this is going to be unpopular, but I think the real reason Russians don't smile is cultural.…

Socialism makes every other person a potential enemy and a potential victim. Resources are scarce. People come to hate one another. Capitalism makes every other person at worst a neutral non-threat and at best a potential trading partner. Resources are plentiful. People feel benevolent towards one another. This is not an apology for America; America is only semi-capitalist. You can see Americans getting meaner over t…

> Socialism makes every other person a potential enemy and a potential victim. Resources are scarce. People come to hate one another.

You're taking a look at countries that have implemented 'socialism' and ended up with what amounts to dictatorships. Do you really think that Communism as envisioned by Karl Marx included someone like Stalin, or the corrupt officials that inhabited governments in the Eastern Bloc?

For all of the rhetoric that the far-right sling around in the US about the evils of Socialism, even they have Socialist policies. The government regulates, picks winners, keeps companies afloat that are 'too big to fail,' Social Security and other welfare programs, etc.

Don't confuse situations where neighbors reports other neighbors who then 'disappear' as having anything to do with Communism or Socialism (or than that they have historically resided together).

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#54

Post by Aloisius »

When you see people smiling at you in the USA or Germany, it doesn't mean anything other than an overall neutral attitude toward you. A smile is a “level zero” in communication

I don't know about Germany, but in the US if someone is smiling at you, their overall attitude is friendly, not neutral. And yes, that includes store keepers and waiters of which there are plenty that keep a neutral expression just like much of Europe.

There are certainly people in the US who fake smiles. They are not nearly as common as you might think. Heck, research over the last 40 years has shown that faking smiles can genuinely cause happiness.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#56

Post by gyepi »

wil421 wrote: post #49

I have seen someone get fired at a restaurant I worked at because they were always too overwhelmed to smile consistently. Perhaps Americans are forced to smile at times but why would someone foreign take offense to that? By the way he got directly fired because he wasnt smiling when he was walking around. Dont you just love being employed in a Work at Will state.

I was fired from a restaurant job (many years ago, in Alaska) becuase I "did not smile enough". At the time, it seemed ironic because I was actually quite efficient and smiling had not seemed to be a requirement for actually getting things done.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#57

Post by weinzierl »

I have been in Russia when the Kursk submarine sank. This event was on the news for days and whenever an official spoke about it on TV I had the impression that they were admitting guilt. This was not the case I've been told. The difference in body language is considerable.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#58

Post by weinzierl »

I have been in Russia when the Kursk submarine sank. This event was on the news for days and whenever an official spoke about it on TV I had the impression that they were admitting guilt. This was not the case I've been told. The difference in body language is considerable.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#59

Post by bowlofpetunias »

ryanackley wrote: post #41
bowlofpetunias wrote: post #35

It's interesting how an article like this provokes multiple reactions that come down to "the American way is the right way". Also, unlike the article suggests, I think Russians are closer to (fellow!) Europeans than Americans in this respect. The way the Russians described in this article perceive Americans is not that different from the way most Europeans do.

I'm not really picking that up from the comments. Most of the discussion I see is debating the root causes and/or the validity of sweeping generalizations of different societies.

I read several comments in support of smiling as a universal form of politeness, which in itself is a sweeping generalisation that doesn't acknowledge cultural differences.

BTW, I'm not pissing on Americans, in my experience Americans are generally considerably more polite, friendly and open than most other Westerners. But the way that is expressed is not a universal language, which tends to lead to misunderstandings.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#60

Post by petercooper »

blah32497 wrote: post #13

As a Russian-American this comes off as complete BS. I've seen this written before and it's always in the form of "It's not us that smile too little, it's you Americans that are fake and smile too much!". For one, Americans don't just smile to be polite. For the most part it's genuinely conveying positive emotions. Now I know this is going to be unpopular, but I think the real reason Russians don't smile is cultural.…

As someone with only naive, cosmetic knowledge in this area, humor me.. but could a lot of it be down to inherited attitudes? Somehow I made it through Anne Applebaum's 28 hour audiobook of Gulag and something that struck me was how the Russian population became trained to keep their heads down and not stand out for fear of being incriminated by others or randomly selected to be thrown into a gulag. And if you learn that demeanor, your kids will too, right? And so on and so forth, down the generations.
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