Why Russians do not smile (2002) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#391

Post by flurdy » Sat, May 29, 2021, 1:16 PM UTC

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…

Subtleties are also difficult. If an English person say what you did was great, it most likely wasn't. And if they say it was not bad, it may have been great...

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#392

Post by dahfizz » Sat, May 29, 2021, 1:23 PM UTC

brabel wrote: post #317

matheusmoreira wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once met a russian person online who had learned portuguese, my native language. I was extremely impressed. To this day I've never seen anyone else learn portuguese as a second language.

On my travels, I have met several people who, after living in Brazil for only a few months, learned to speak Portuguese fluently. This always impressed me hugely, because English speakers normally have a really hard time learning a language that has "gendered" nouns and inflected articles/adjectives/pronouns, for example... but many of them seem to do just fine! But I met enough of them to now think Portuguese must b…

I also think Americans have more of a passive awareness of Spanish than even Americans themselves realize (a whole generation watched Dora the Explorer, for example). A lot of that will translate well learning Portuguese

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#393

Post by julienfr112 » Sat, May 29, 2021, 1:24 PM UTC

jk7tarYZAQNpTQa wrote: post #314

scrollaway wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never seen such a lack of self-awareness in a comment. And I've been here quite a while! Americans having to adjust to other people's cultures. Imagine that.

What's next? Having to learn their languages ?

Using their money ?

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#394

Post by distances » Sat, May 29, 2021, 1:26 PM UTC

slt2021 wrote: post #205

hatchoo wrote: post #162

I'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? )

old IRC way of typing))))

Russian IRC specifically I guess? Never seen it before this thread!

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#395

Post by balfirevic » Sat, May 29, 2021, 1:32 PM UTC

tnolet wrote: post #382

xwolfi wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but european companies dont exist, we re all different. Im French for instance, and we certainly dont work like the german. For us it s all about the game, the gossips, the fightings. Everyone is the CEO and it s hard to remember we have a job to do end of the day. In Germany I ve heard things are more...rule following. I work in China now - it's way more result oriented. The corporate culture BS we have it ever…

This is so right. There is no European culture. Even neighboring countries with similar values (NL and DE) are wildly different with regard to workplace. I The Netherlands, work stops on Friday around 16:0-ish. In Germany, I had regular meetings at 18:00 on Friday. I honestly thought they were joking.

If we're talking IT, don't you have at least some amount of night owls? In most places I've worked there were people that preferred starting their work around 10h - 12h, so an office would be rarely be completely empty even in the evening.

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#396

Post by nottorp » Sat, May 29, 2021, 1:35 PM UTC

No offense, but the American Hollywood style smiles don't even look like smiles to me. More like a dog baring their teeth to warn you.

Not Russian, but close enough to the Russian space.

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#397

Post by gonational » Sat, May 29, 2021, 1:38 PM UTC

Something like 30 million Russians were killed by socialism in the last century... I imagine that has an effect on your culture.

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#398

Post by Arech » Sat, May 29, 2021, 1:39 PM UTC

glogla wrote: post #275

mgerullis wrote: post #132

It’s funny, I never noticed this. I grew up in Germany and had lived in the US for a year a while back. A few years after I met an American friend here who had been on a euro trip. She went to Prague (not exactly Russia, but culturally close enough I guess) and she said something like: "why are all people there so damn depressed?" I myself had great times in that same city, I never got that feeling. But I realized th…

> She went to Prague (not exactly Russia, but culturally close enough I guess FYI those are fighting words in Prague. My people generally hate everything having to do with Russia, after being controlled by the Soviets since 1948 and outright occupied between 1968 to 1989.

That's correct. But even if one to forget about this, it's still true - Czech culture is very much different from Russian. May be it's even more distinct from American, or even British, but still...

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#399

Post by Arech » Sat, May 29, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

glogla wrote: post #336

mgerullis wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I apologize, that was insensitive.

Don't worry, I am overstating it a bit. But even more don't say that in Poland.

I guess, today, one may safely assume that it's quite a...unwelcoming (to say the least) comparison anywhere out of Russia's boundaries.

Re: Why Russians do not smile (2002)

#400

Post by lovelyviking » Sat, May 29, 2021, 1:47 PM UTC

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 know russian and I can confirm this. I started to notice this after living for a few years in a different culture environment. And now after many many years I have feelings similar to yours . I experience a froustration when I get this 'silence' response or no response to be exact.

>Or is this not actually a Russian thing and just an anomaly?

I think it is a "Russian thing". One of them. They would not admit it though because they simply do not notice it or because they do not want to admit.

By the way another "Russian thing" is: Never admit the obvious truth even if it is clearly prestented to them with evidence or even when it does them no harm. It is hard sometimes to understand why they do that because you see no obvious reasons but if you dig deep enough you can find some fear or embarrasment behind it. Unfortunately they would not admit it too.