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Why Russians do not smile (2002)

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Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#341

Post by solipsism »

psysharp wrote: post #297
solipsism wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The specific examples given are bullshit.

Dude you have no information, I can't sincerely understand how you think you can have such detailed understanding of the situation.

Why would I need more information?

A guy was putting his hand on his co-workers' knees! Often enough that people scurried from him! It's clear the implication is made that this is just a "Hindu" thing.

That's wrong. It's not a Hindu thing. It's offensive to say it is. And the idea that my comments saying so are being flagged is also offensive.

Comments like Eh... Can't we just bomb them as usual? ;-) are the ones that violate HN guidelines and should be flagged.

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#342

Post by comprev »

to1y wrote: post #284
Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL wrote: post #223

Quite a lot of US culture can come off as phony to (Eastern) Europeans. Friend of mine went to the US for a business schooling event and said people were completely incapable of honest criticism. They would sugar coat criticism under 10 layers of phony praise. He was the only one who actually said something was bad outright, if someone gave a bad presentation. He attributed it to cultural difference. Guess it is rela…

Americans are pessimists masquerading as optimists, Russians are optimists masquerading as pessimists.

A pessimist is a realistic optimist.

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#343

Post by foldr »

cperciva wrote: post #232
bradrn wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a rule in linguistics, that the more often a word is used, the shorter it will be I’m really interested in linguistics, but I’ve never heard of such a rule. Could you give a source please? I’d be curious to know if this is true. (A striking counterexample I ran into just yesterday: the Urim word for ‘head’ is tukŋunakŋ , and ‘we (incl.)’ is mentepm- . I don’t think this is because Urim people avoid talking…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brevity_law

This is just a statistical tendency. It doesn’t license the inference that any given long word is rarely used.

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#344

Post by MaxBarraclough »

Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #325
Merem wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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, de…

This is exactly how "How are you?" is meant in American culture. It's not fake; greetings are culturally determined and especially the most common greeting phrases in any culture should not be treated literally but instead as part of a ritual exchange. "How are you?" "I'm well, and you?" "Great, thanks." It's just a ritualistic exchange.

See also the English upper-class ritual introductory exchange:

How do you do?

To which the correct response is:

How do you do?

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#345

Post by ganomi »

cosmodisk wrote: post #116

Plenty 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…

I once had a similar situation with the question "Is everything OK?", which is slightly different from "How are you?".

I am a German living in Germany and i once caused a car crash that made another car spin into the ditch on the side of the road. That car was driven by a family of Russian heritage.

After getting out of the car i spoke to the other parties wife first and I asked "Is everything OK?" with what i ment: "Is there something very wrong beyond the things that are obviously wrong. Like, is your child bleeding to death or is it only the car damage."

But the woman did not understand it this way at all and was a little bit furious because to her obviously nothing was OK.

Of course she had every reason to be upset, but the likelihood of a German interpreting my question in a rude way would have been way lower.

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#346

Post by lmarcos »

daxfohl wrote: post #178

Another 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 do this sometimes (the silence). I'm not Russian. When people do it to me and I'm really expecting interaction, I explicitly ask "What do you think?"

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#347

Post by Taniwha »

helmholtz wrote: post #282
Taniwha wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember taking a doing-biz-international course - one thing that was stressed was that personal space is different for different cultures, you can back someone into a wall if your normal speaking distance is larger than someone else's. FYI for Americans a good rule of thumb is that Americans are comfortable at roughly an arm's length - reach out and touch someone's shoulder with your knuckles - after taking that c…

I find a lot of comfort in knowing that these kinds of things are becoming more "official". Training seminars being organised, issues being discussed online, people growing up and spending more time being aware of these things before it's too late. It seems to me to be a sure sign of social progress.

I took that course in 1985 ....

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#348

Post by treeman79 »

ganzuul wrote: post #260
treeman79 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Had to explain to a doc once that when you've been in extreme pain for long enough your mind starts to regress to survival circuits. This was apparently not obvious. Doctors are fallible.

It’s hard to judge pain. Some people go to the hysterical quickly. Others walk in with an arrow in the head, calm.

Even with my own kids. It can initially be difficult to judge how serious an injury a fall of bump is. 99% of time I’m right, but the missed stick with you and the kid.

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#349

Post by 0_____0 »

sampo wrote: post #286
Taniwha wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember taking a doing-biz-international course - one thing that was stressed was that personal space is different for different cultures, you can back someone into a wall if your normal speaking distance is larger than someone else's. FYI for Americans a good rule of thumb is that Americans are comfortable at roughly an arm's length - reach out and touch someone's shoulder with your knuckles - after taking that c…

> reach out and touch someone's shoulder with your knuckles - after taking that course this became a company greeting .... This greeting might not be perceived too well in Germany.

Just don't do it with fingers outstretched

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#350

Post by asymmetric »

solipsism wrote: post #341
psysharp wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude you have no information, I can't sincerely understand how you think you can have such detailed understanding of the situation.

Why would I need more information? A guy was putting his hand on his co-workers' knees! Often enough that people scurried from him! It's clear the implication is made that this is just a "Hindu" thing. That's wrong. It's not a Hindu thing. It's offensive to say it is. And the idea that my comments saying so are being flagged is also offensive. Comments like Eh... Can't we just bomb them as usual? ;-) are the ones tha…

> A guy was putting his hand on his co-workers' knees!

Oh my god!

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