Look at old photos - people never smiled, because you were considered to be stupid. Smiling all the time is pretty boring and I'd rather see real emotions than faked smiles. The hypothesis of positivity is crashing left and right anyway. Positive people live shorter lifespans, too - quite the opposite of what they tell you.
Why Russians do not smile (2002)
301–310 of 502 posts
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#302Lith here. One of the most embarrassing things that I've done in my life was first day of induction in my UK university. The lecture was about cultural differences. We were assigned into groups and asked to list couple of stereotypes that we know. I didn't realised we were supposed to say something like "Americans are hard working and Brits are punctual". Instead I've bombasted to 200-something students that Asian pe…
haha what?! I love me some good stereotyping humor but I’ve never even heard of that one! What do they smell like?
Basically, food.
Your nutrition changes your smell. You usually do not consciously notice except for very strong smells like from garlic or asparagus consumption. But a lot of food has this effect, and in sum the effect of the things one typically eats lead to a typical smell. Since nutrition is often culturally determined, different cultures smell differently. You just don't smell your own, because you get used to it.
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think so. Try it "not good, my aunt just died" and not every American but many would try to comfort you. Not saying it wouldn't be a bit awkward but that it's not 'just faked' and everyone tries to get out of any real emotion.
True! I have people tell me their bad news or downers pretty often when I greet them with “how are you?”, and my care or sympathy for the situation they’re in is not at all insincere. I’m half German, and my grandfather always found it absurd to visit the US and have everyone saying “thank you” and “sorry” and smiling all the time. His opinion was that this behavior devalued the true meaning of a “thank you” or a smi…
The phrase 'Ich entschuldige mich' is an abomination. The literal translation would be 'I excuse myself'.
Instead, you're supposed to say 'Ich bitte um Entschuldigung' (I beg your forgiveness) - thus you're asking the person who was wronged for forgiveness. It should not be the choice of the wrongdoer to decide whether to be forgiven or not. Though to be fair, commonly it's used just as you described.
If I remember correctly, Kraus has at least once written about this specific phrase.
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#304Another 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…
I don't think it's a Russian thing (I'm Russian).
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
No way, only if you look at cars and iPhones. If you include healthcare and education, the median Pole is miles ahead.
Poland is not miles ahead of the US on education at the median, that is not remotely close to being true. http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/education/ Nationally the US is near the OECD middle, and ahead of both Britain and New Zealand on education. Poland certainly scores well, not "miles ahead" well. About 1/3 of Americans are getting a four year degree these days. The university systems in the US are vastl…
>A third tier university in the US is as good as a first tier university in Poland.
Only according to international rankings which measure scientific output which has a ton of confounding factors like how well funded the university is, how well regarded is in the research community or how many guest researchers can it attract.
I wonder if people in the US who are involved in hiring, and hire from Eastern Europe use other metrics that allow for more direct, meritocratic comparison of individuals (Leetcode etc.)? If so, do they found that, for example first-tier Polish uni grads perform at the same level as third tier US ones?
I think that the bell curve works the same everywhere, and even most US schools (excepting the very top ones), don't have the opportunity to fill more than 20-30% of their student body with brilliant kids from abroad.
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
Russian here (to be precise Russian Canadian of Ukrainian descent :-) There is a saying in Russian: if a stranger, on your question "how are you?" (ru: как дела?), starts explaining in details what is happening with him/her - please know, you've met complete idiot. So I am classifying that 'how are you?' as never ending test of my life position :)
A bit confused. My mental model is - Ukraine is part of Soviet Union - currently the Russian speaking Ukraine part is well ... other than that I do not associate Ukrainian as Russian. They are separately in identity ?
Yes, they're quite different and similar at the same time. More than that, Russians are not all the same (Southern Russians are more like Ukranians, Siberian Russians are not very similar to Moscow Russians and so on). With Ukranians, you have at least two different cultures — east (relatively similar to Russians) and west (these guys were more influenced by Poland etc.). So, yeah, Russians and Ukranians are quite similar (they are two Slavic nations with common background), but there are a lot of differences too.
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#307Although the author attributes the lack of smiling to Russians, I would suggest this generalization should extend to continental Europe. For instance, there is a related saying describing differences between Brits and Germans - "Too polite to be honest and too honest to be polite". It captures the idea that in Anglo Saxonian culture, it is more important to be polite.
I'm living in Ireland, and this bit around non-honest smiling just drives me nuts sometimes. Otherwise, it is excellent when you're going for a walk because it creates a positive and inviting atmosphere. But adapting to a constantly cheerful and smiling surrounding was not without a challenge. Do I smile and say hi all the time to every person, or are there exceptions? There is a bit of a learning curve as after 50 smiles and hi's every day, I feel exhausted, LOL.
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm an American and I love smiling at strangers and receiving a genuine smile in return. It's the perfect minimal conversation: no words, just sharing a moment of mutual positivity and kinship. It's like you said the perfect thing, except you didn't have to think of anything clever. It sounds as though people in some countries interpret it as if the smiling person is on the inside of a joke and you're on the outside,…
I don't know how much of this is me being Finnish, but I personally don't even know how to smile at will; a smile is something that happens naturally and trying to deliberately smile at people when I'm not actually feeling it just makes me feel dishonest and usually results in a grimace instead. While I might really be enjoying a good walk in the sun for example, I can't really say that it makes me want to smile at e…
The curious thing to me is why all of the generalising people are doing in this comment section is any different from “perpetuating stereotypes”, which almost universally has negative connotations.
If you’re Finnish, I might say you don’t often smile but I bet you know how to neatly drift a rally car through a forest at considerable speed.
Why is some generalisation good? And others bad?
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#309I am Ukrainian. Came to the US when I was 14. I may never be cool like all the hard looking dudes in movies and whatnot but I smile all the time because either I find something funny in what I’m engaged in or if I don’t that I try to think of it as such. I have always been this way and I can’t imagine not doing it. Also, I have read a few comments in this discussion about how fake American smiles and “how are you?”s…
As a young Hungarian, I used to confuse the hell out of my American colleagues when I went to a "lengthy" (more than 10sec) explanation answering to "how are you?"s. It took my a while to realize why that was. Now it just entertains me how oblivious I was. OTOH I wouldn't call these "fake"; It's common, it's certainly different than how I socialized, possibly it's greatly misunderstood by many. Along the same train o…
"After all, how could I genuinely wish a random German stranger a "Guten Morgen"..."
By being a nice person, just like how one would hold open a door for someone else? Though, that aside, when you say "Guten Morgen", you aren't wishing anything. It's just being polite while at the same time, you are saying something about yourself. For example, you could simply say "Morgen" which would mean you are in a hurry, or, depending on how you said it, that the morning isn't good at all. There are a lot of applications for "Guten Morgen". It all depends on how you say it and in which situation you do it. Anyway, it's not comparable to the questions in your posts as "Guten Morgen" can never be fake. Something like "Wie geht's?" (how are you?) would be more fitting, although it's rarely used as a greeting and more often than not, it would be meant seriously.
Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)
#310It's a lot easier, Russian popular culture is formed by gulags, because a good third of adult men had gulag experience at some point and it was their main life-shaping experience (usually resulting in their rise in social hierarchy too). And in gulag, a smile is a sign of submission.