Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#231

Post by petercooper » Wed, Nov 20, 2013, 10:18 AM UTC

kosoy wrote: post #225

petercooper wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You have to dig deeper. In general, impact of soviet period is way overstated by foreigners (I'm Russian myself). The trend you're describing might be true, but some researchers draw its origins as far as Mongolian reign over Russia (roughly XIII-XV century). If anything, Russian population always shows preference for a strong leadership (which is often appropriate to rephrase as "borderline or outright dictatorship"…

All definitely interesting, thanks! It seems this is a core part of what makes one culture different to another.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#232

Post by cageface » Wed, Nov 20, 2013, 7:07 PM UTC

kosoy wrote: post #227

cageface wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yeah, we hate them too (and I'm Russian). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ When we go on vacation, we try to choose a hotel with less Russians (fluent English helps, since not a lot of my countrymen are comfortable with it yet). Still, somehow EVERY time there's this irritating-lady-with-unbelievably-loud-whiny-child or that always-drunk-and-very-loud-about-it middle-aged man, they always turn out to be our countrymen. That's not EVERY Rus…

All the Viet business people I've talked to said that when they present these tourists with a menu or a shelf full of goods all they want to do is identify the most expensive option so they can choose it to show off their money. So they fit your description pretty well.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#233

Post by zerr » Fri, Nov 22, 2013, 9:59 AM UTC

kosoy wrote: post #228

zerr wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not Russian, but when somebody's smile is too artificial/fake - I call it American smile. I think it is quite a common term [in Europe] ;)

Hmm, I think you mixed it up a bit. "American smile" is just a smile done primarily with lip muscles that shows teeth prominently.

Actually, yes. There can be other types of fake smiles as well :)

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#234

Post by dennisgorelik » Sun, Nov 24, 2013, 9:49 PM UTC

xentronium wrote: post #117

romanovcode wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is some backstory to these pictures. At least there was on Reddit when it was first posted, can't prove that it's true or not. Anyway, his wife died and he is visiting all the places she/they went and making pictures to close himself of her.

http://lenta.ru/articles/2013/02/28/grumpy/ interview with the guy, if you can read Russian (he's from Belarus, by the way). Doesn't seem there is any real back story to it actually.

He's only 32 years old. He looks like he's pushing 40.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#235

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Nov 24, 2013, 9:49 PM UTC

xentronium wrote: post #117

romanovcode wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is some backstory to these pictures. At least there was on Reddit when it was first posted, can't prove that it's true or not. Anyway, his wife died and he is visiting all the places she/they went and making pictures to close himself of her.

http://lenta.ru/articles/2013/02/28/grumpy/ interview with the guy, if you can read Russian (he's from Belarus, by the way). Doesn't seem there is any real back story to it actually.

[deleted]