Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

blog.properrussian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 235 posts

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#91

Post by Smirnoff »

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.…

I honestly don't understand why so many people disagree with you. While this article is not complete BS, many of the examples are just wrong.

>> Russians don't smile in business meetings.

What? Russians do smile in business meetings. In fact, it is considered rude to NOT look in the eye during conversation/handshake and not smile. In general, lots of deals are done by drinking together. And trust me, if you are drinking with me and you are not smiling, then there is something wrong and that deal will not go through.

I feel like the person who wrote this article has been watching too many gangster movies showing criminal Russia of the 90's.

Another reason why many Russians of the new generation don't smile is because of their crooked teeth. But this is changing since braces and other dental work are becoming an accepted practice.

It is true that many people don't smile in public places (airports, metro, etc.) in Moscow but that's Moscow. There are just too many factors for this unique place, which might as well be considered a separate country due its mores.

Try going to different places in Russia and you will see a more welcoming atmosphere with tons of smiles.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#92

Post by da02 »

mrjj wrote: post #75

Hi, i'm Russian sociologist of culture. The conclusion about different culture code and semantic is right. But there is more some interesting things. Russians have really poor toothcare, and this is joined with non-smiling bidirectionally. There is nothing abnormal for Russian to have couple of missing teeth. I've seen a really rich people (for example owner of Rolls Royce fleet) with just a couple of yellow teeth le…

Have you written more about this and other culture comparisons (i.e. blog, article, etc)? If not, do you recommend any sites for cultural comparisons by other sociologists?

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#94

Post by kutakbash »

BetterLateThan wrote: post #87
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 don't sound like a Russian. You don't think like a Russian. You don't know like a Russian. Russians don't smile because any person who smiles to a stranger either wants to sell something or is insane. Smiles are for friends, real friends - whopping 2 or 3 of them. "And if anything goes wrong you can be... No sense of community..." This part betrayed you. You don't know anything about Russia or Russians. If an Afr…

To be frank, he does sound like a Russian-American. They are often pretty dismissive of their heritage. Rightfully so, judging by your comment.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#95

Post by mephi5t0 »

Russians also don't have a Halloween. On the question "Why don't you have such a holiday?" we (Russian/Ukrainian/Other-Similar-Folks) answer - we don't celebrate a walking dead holiday, because we make sure our dead are really dead and stay dead insert a smile here if we met before

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#97

Post by nmeofthestate »

Gravityloss wrote: post #84
msl09 wrote: post #73

Are Russians klingons?

For some people who have not left their home country, other cultures might seem weird like that. They may themselves seem to be from some alien race as well, from someone others' viewpoint.

I love how HN etiquette rules make people more creative when trying to insult each other.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#98

Post by cLeEOGPw »

BetterLateThan wrote: post #87
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 don't sound like a Russian. You don't think like a Russian. You don't know like a Russian. Russians don't smile because any person who smiles to a stranger either wants to sell something or is insane. Smiles are for friends, real friends - whopping 2 or 3 of them. "And if anything goes wrong you can be... No sense of community..." This part betrayed you. You don't know anything about Russia or Russians. If an Afr…

Your example with african college and skinheads do not show a sense of community, it just shows widespread racism among russians. Because if a group skinheads attacked black or gay the whole subway would still help skinheads to beat that single person, or at best not interfere.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#99

Post by RivieraKid »

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.…

I'm from Prague and I was always baffled by this. How does the smiling thing work? In what situations do you smile? For example, if you're walking on street, do you eye-contact people going in the opposite direction and smile at them?

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#100

Post by kutakbash »

borispavlovic wrote: post #19
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.…

I believe the roots of this mistrust between people in Russia and the whole Eastern Block can be found well explained in "The Gulag Archipelago" by Solzhenitsyn ( http://www.amazon.com/Gulag-Archipelago-Aleksandr-Solzhenits... )

So somehow before 1930s people trusted one another better? I believe it seriously lacks evidence. What about people in Western Europe who don't smile all that much really?

Is this some knee-jerk reaction or something? Russia-gulag and all? For a foreigner it is permissible, not so much for a Russian. I think we need to overgrow this if nice things are to be had.

Post reply on HN