I like how everyone in the west have a fake smile in pictures. I hated seeing myself like that so I stopped smiling for pictures at an early age (to great irritation of my relatives).
Why Russians do not smile (2002)
171–180 of 502 posts
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#172Plenty of contribution already,so I'll just add a personal anecdote. Some years ago I happened to have some beers with a Latvian Russian,who lived here, in London. He tells us that he doesn't get the Brits. He just doesn't understand the reasoning in some situations. I ask to elaborate. He says: last year, I had a pretty serious trauma and ended up in a hospital. It's so bad, pain, lots of tests,etc. And I'm pretty f…
Have been in a doctors office with near suicidal levels of pain a few times.
Past a certain point Humor doesn’t go over well. Particularly if you have been trying and failing to get help.
That said, doctors see a lot of misery, so anything to lighten the mood should be encouraged.
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#173I've noticed most Russians I work with also speak slowly. I'm curious whether it is difficulty with English pronunciation or whether speaking slowly is part of Russian culture. I'm guessing more the latter, as the the things they say are also frequently quite concise and to the point, no filler words, few adverbs, so no need to speak quickly. Do Russians speak more quickly when speaking Russian?
I lived in Russia for a year and yes, they speak much faster in Russian than English. In particular if they are between just Russians and know they don't need to speak slowly to be understood. But I think it's the same for every language, people speak faster in their mother tong.
Guessing they talk at 39 bits of info per second.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/09/human-speech-may-hav...
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#174I've noticed most Russians I work with also speak slowly. I'm curious whether it is difficulty with English pronunciation or whether speaking slowly is part of Russian culture. I'm guessing more the latter, as the the things they say are also frequently quite concise and to the point, no filler words, few adverbs, so no need to speak quickly. Do Russians speak more quickly when speaking Russian?
This reminds me of some research[0] that found speakers of less information-dense languages speak faster, and vice versa, with the effect that all of the studied languages had roughly the same information transmission rate.
[0] https://www.newscientist.com/article/2215202-all-languages-h...
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#175Austrian here, we are somewhat in between Russians and Americans, when it comes to smiling. But what I can tell you is that life is just so much better when people smile at you, even if it might not be a hundred percent genuine. My comparison stems from having worked with both Russians and Americans. Being around grumpy Russians all day long makes live really miserable.
I can't second this. Everytime I'm in the US I'm scared of all the friendly, smiling people, asking "How are you?" in such a friendly tone, it's delightful. Of course it's faked, anyone knows, and dare if you'd reply with "not good, my aunt just died". Awkward situation ensues, everybody tries to get out of the situation ("and what would you like to have for breakfast tomorrow?"). Now replay the same situation in ano…
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Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#176I've worked with several Russians and I noticed that they type the smile emoticon without the colon... So instead of :) it's just ). For laughing it's ))))))) What's up with that? )
It's a long standing tradition from older forms of chat software (IRC, ICQ and so on) and yes, it seems endemic to Russian speakers for some reason. I always explained it to myself that it saves time and also by the fact that to type ":)" in Russian kb layout you have to press Shift+6, Shift+0 compared to Shift+;, Shift+0 in US layout which seems a bit more cumbersome.
Anyway, this is going away as most of the younger generation just uses emoji instead.
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#177There's actually a regional difference. Growing up on the east coast in New York people rarely smiled at each other on the street. Someone you didn't know smiling at you could mean a crazy person, or some sort of con artist trying to suck you into interacting with them.
Living on the west coast for the last twenty years, the situation is totally different. On a bike trail, on the sidewalk, people often smile and nod at each other. At first it was very off-putting and I found it hard to reciprocate. Over the years I've forced myself to do it so as not to seem unfriendly, but it's been a bit of a chore. That natural paranoia I feel, suspicion about people's motives, is something I grew up with and I don't think I'll ever be able to put it down completely.
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#178Another thing I've noticed uniquely with some Russian colleagues, and I've never quite known the meaning of, but I assume is Russian cultural attribute, is silence. A few times I've e.g. been explaining something to a Russian colleague, I'll go on and on, and when I'm done ... nothing. This always gets me anxious. What does it mean? Does the person think it's the dumbest thing he's ever heard? Did the person not understand what I said? Does the person need more time to think about it? Does the person not realize I'm finished? What is expected of the speaker in this scenario? Do I just wait? Do I prod? Do I explain it again? Do I leave? Is there some microexpression I should be looking for to differentiate? Or is this not actually a Russian thing and just an anomaly?
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#179Another thing I've noticed uniquely with some Russian colleagues, and I've never quite known the meaning of, but I assume is Russian cultural attribute, is silence. A few times I've e.g. been explaining something to a Russian colleague, I'll go on and on, and when I'm done ... nothing. This always gets me anxious. What does it mean? Does the person think it's the dumbest thing he's ever heard? Did the person not unde…
What are you expecting them to do?
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#180I've worked with several Russians and I noticed that they type the smile emoticon without the colon... So instead of :) it's just ). For laughing it's ))))))) What's up with that? )
My pet theory is that it takes more effort with a Russian keyboards to type the smiley face.
With English, you do "SHIFT + ;" for the colon and then "SHIFT+0" for the bracket. When I type it, I hold down SHIFT with my right pinkie, and hit ";" with my middle finger. I then outstretch my pointer to hit 0. It's mostly a single fluid motion.
With Russian, you have to engage two hands instead of one. We have more letters in our alphabet so the ";" key is occupied by "ж" (a "zh" sound as G in Gerome), and the colon gets moved to "SHIFT+5". So now, to make the colon you have to first find "5" on the keyboard with your left hand, while holding down SHIFT with your right. Then you have to disengage your left hand, and reach for the 0 with your right to make the bracket. Rather than do all that, you can just place ")" and the context is enough to understand it's a smile.
It could also just be tradition. My earliest memories of the Russian internet are from the late 1990s, and the convention of "))))" was already in place.