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Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

blog.properrussian.com

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Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#181

Post by ivan78 »

cageface wrote: post #158
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.…

For the last three years I've been living in a very pretty seaside resort town in Vietnam called Nha Trang. In just the last year it's seen a massive influx of Russian tourists and it's completely changed the vibe of the place. They're everywhere now, usually with a scowl on their face and usually dealing with people in a manner that would be considered very brusque and impolite anywhere in the West. Nobody seems to…

You should not judge about all Russians by those tourists. Unfortunately, during last 20 years in Russia, being such scoundrel and scumbag, you have pretty high chance to earn good money. Even in Russia nobody likes these (very small number of) people and wants to travel to the resort where there are no "damned Russian tourists". :-)

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#182

Post by pyre »

pandaman wrote: post #124
pyre wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Do you think that the life, as envisioned by children, who want to eat only ice cream when they grow up, includes scurvy, diabetes and other effects of such a diet?

My point is that if you try to create a socialist country, but end up with a dictatorship, then you have a dictatorship, not a socialist government. Let's call things by their real names instead of trying to associate secret police and paranoia with the terms "Socialism" and "Communism."

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#183

Post by oddx »

geoka9 wrote: post #29
grecy wrote: post #7

Living in far Northern Canada I can relate to this. Up here, if someone wants to smile and say "Have a nice day", they will do so while making eye contact and you can tell they genuinely mean it. They are usually prompting you for further friendly chit-chat and happiness. Even when there are other customers waiting in line - those customers will be made to wait while two people have a friendly chat. When they don't w…

> I genuinely wonder if the climate has something to do with this. Extreme cold and very dark days tend to bring people together, and tends to make people more genuine and humble, in my experience. I don't think it's the climate, at least it's not the sole reason. After all, Russia is a huge country and Russians live all over it - from Siberia to the Russian Black Sea coast with its subtropical climate. I suspect it…

> Also, this is probably the last thing that comes to mind about Russians in general. For the most part, they are notoriously individualistic.

You understand "individualistic" in some specific (probably american) way. Russians may look individualistic if you don't know them well, but actually in Russia close friends and family means much more then in US.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#184

Post by pandaman »

pyre wrote: post #182
pandaman wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think that the life, as envisioned by children, who want to eat only ice cream when they grow up, includes scurvy, diabetes and other effects of such a diet?

My point is that if you try to create a socialist country, but end up with a dictatorship, then you have a dictatorship, not a socialist government. Let's call things by their real names instead of trying to associate secret police and paranoia with the terms "Socialism" and "Communism."

Dictatorship is a form of government[1]. Socialism is an economic system[2]. One does not exclude another. The history shows, though, they come together alarmingly often.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship

[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#185

Post by philwelch »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #128
legohead wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American who married a Russian and lived in Russia for a while, I find this article to be quite accurate. When visiting for the first time, I asked my (then-acquaintance) why women never smile at me. She said "if they smile at you, that means they are easy." Basically, they are saying they like me and I should introduce myself. Or, like the article mentioned, maybe I look funny. You are right in that it is cult…

Russians are racist? Care to explain further. That's like saying Italians are racist. What caused you to reach that conclusion?

One barometer is how often they make monkey chants at soccer matches.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#187

Post by PeterisP »

kutakbash wrote: post #100
borispavlovic wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What changed in the 1930s? In Russia if you wanted to keep your head, you kept your head down in 1917, you kept your head down in 1905, and you kept your head down in 1800's and earlier - deportation to Siberia for being unpleasant to ruling class was a thing for centuries before Russia became Soviet.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#188

Post by coldtea »

jlgreco wrote: post #61
astine wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey now, that's cherry picking data if I've ever seen it. Of course Nevada has a high suicide rate. Try comparing Alaska to sunny states where people don't throw their life savings away.

You are misunderstanding me, I am asserting that the data doesn't match the "smiling people live in nice places" theory. Alaskans smile, despite having a high suicide rate and living in a miserable climate. Nevadans aren't know for being particularly pleasant or cold (there isn't a stereotype about the attitudes of Nevadans one way or the other, as far as I can tell) live in a sunny climate and have a huge suicide ra…

>Alaska, with a miserable climate, high suicide rate, and very outwardly pleasant people

Were did you get the last one from?

>Nobody is trying to explain that platonic friends in California don't hold hands because Californians don't make close friends like Saudi Arabians do. Anyone trying to say that would be laughed at.

That's because holding hands, is not a core human facial expression, unlike smiling.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#189

Post by jpatokal »

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.…

Not buying the Prague vs Budapest thing -- if anything, Hungary was long notorious for having the highest suicide rate in Europe. (Since eclipsed by Lithuania and Slovenia, it seems.) The Czechs are at #30, only a few notches ahead of the US at 33.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_ra...

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#190

Post by coldtea »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #128
legohead wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American who married a Russian and lived in Russia for a while, I find this article to be quite accurate. When visiting for the first time, I asked my (then-acquaintance) why women never smile at me. She said "if they smile at you, that means they are easy." Basically, they are saying they like me and I should introduce myself. Or, like the article mentioned, maybe I look funny. You are right in that it is cult…

Russians are racist? Care to explain further. That's like saying Italians are racist. What caused you to reach that conclusion?

>What caused you to reach that conclusion?

Perhaps he experienced the world with the eyes, and/or followed the news, and thus made a comparative judgement between different countries.

Which, could include stuff like:

"The director of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, Alexander Brod, stated that surveys show xenophobia and other racist expressions are prevalent in 50 percent of Russians."

And:

"In 2006, Amnesty International reported that racism in Russia was “out of control” and estimated the number of Russian neo-Nazis at around 85,000 in 2008."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Russia

Of course a lot of those statements could be the usual NGO BS, that they output because they have to output (keeps the funds coming in, etc), or because they act as agents of foreign interests trying to paint a bad picture etc. This happens more often than not.

But in general, it IS possible to say that a nation is more or less racist than another -- it's not an inherently moot proposition like some people here imply.

There IS after all something like an external reality. I'd, for example, would call a country with 100 racist attacks for every 1000 citizens more racist than one with 30 racist attacks for every 1000 citizens...

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