| Author |
Message |
Fire_Goddess
Guest
|
 Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 9:05 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
| MrSpice wrote: |
Sorry, I think I confused him with your ex-boyfriend. |
No you confused him with yourself!  |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Fire_Goddess
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 9:09 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Generation P wrote: |
How hard is it to understand that I am not writing any comments about your precious life in States? I just share my experiences from Russia. And telling about those experiences has nothing to do with my own opinions. It makes no difference to me if your American Shop Ladies keep on smiling 48 hours a day. In Russia it is not friendly to smile to strange people at the street. If you do so you just create awkward situations. Nobody will think that you're happy and that you wanna share your great happiness with rest of us. If stranger would smile to me in a public place in Russia, I'd think: 1. He's after something, better stay away 2. so how much have you smoked/injected today? Oh, He is just so cat high... 3. He must be tourist from the west! Gee, it is so easy to spot them! |
There are alot of cultures around this world who do not think smiling in public to strangers is odd, infact most people do appreciate being smiled at. Perhaps Russians need to be more inviting/forgiving of other cultures and their need for courtesy. Frowning is great for a poker game, and thats about it. Criticizing those who smile, is not only pathetic but very sad, because there is a difference between a normal smile, and a psychotic smile.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Generation-P
WayToRussified
Joined: 22 May 2006
Posts: 316
Location: SHE WENT TO BARCELONA!
|
| Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 11:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| krasatulya wrote: | | Gen.P, how did you learn Russian? Did you live there? (sorry if I missed you mentioning this already). I'm always curious about other people's adventures with learning and becoming proficient in another language. |
How did I learn? At start in a school class
I had my first Russian lesson in school, at the 8th class when I was 14 years old. I continued my studies in Russian in school for the next year and then in high school for 2 years. And when I had finished high school and had finally got good grades in Russian, I decided to apply to study Russian language culture -studies at university. So I went to the entrance exams in Russian and linguistics, passed them and ended up studying Russian in university. At the moment I've spent 4 years at the university. On my second year in the University I was studying Russian in St. Petersburg at SPbGU for 3 and half months. Year ago I worked for 2 and half months in St.Pete during warm and beautiful summer. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Generation-P
WayToRussified
Joined: 22 May 2006
Posts: 316
Location: SHE WENT TO BARCELONA!
|
| Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 11:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Fire_Goddess wrote: |
There are alot of cultures around this world who do not think smiling in public to strangers is odd, infact most people do appreciate being smiled at. Perhaps Russians need to be more inviting/forgiving of other cultures and their need for courtesy. Frowning is great for a poker game, and thats about it. Criticizing those who smile, is not only pathetic but very sad, because there is a difference between a normal smile, and a psychotic smile. |
Why should Russians change? They have their right to be the way they are just as you and other Americans. Sometimes it creates culture clashes, but maybe we could tolerate little miss understandings too? To be honest, for people who are not used to the American culture have their difficulties trying to interprete your actions and sayings. Adapting to a different culture is of course never that plain easy and painful as we might think/hope.
In general, I have nothing against smiling, but in certain situations it is not appreciated and I am not trying to in those situations. Russian big cities are one of them. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
surfguy
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 6979
|
| Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 11:56 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Well I think plenty of russians smile...it's a known fact that oppressed people smile less frequently. Americans do in fact take everything at face value. A sad face is a sad person, and mean face is a mean person, and a happy face is a happy person. It starts from child hood and further back to birth. Perhaps yes people try to hide thier emotions because they don't want people to know about them...in other words they want to hide something. It's sad really...but also is what it is. Result though is that most will tend not to associate with these types of people...meaning they will miss out more so in life. And when a society is this way then well...they do not prosper...hence many problems and instabilities...we see this all the time throughout the world. No smiles...more problems...more sad people...less hope. Smiles reflect hope. People with out a smile are hopeless! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
krasatulya
VIP
Joined: 29 May 2005
Posts: 590
|
| Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 12:02 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Generation P wrote: | | krasatulya wrote: | | Gen.P, how did you learn Russian? Did you live there? (sorry if I missed you mentioning this already). I'm always curious about other people's adventures with learning and becoming proficient in another language. |
How did I learn? At start in a school class
I had my first Russian lesson in school, at the 8th class when I was 14 years old. I continued my studies in Russian in school for the next year and then in high school for 2 years. And when I had finished high school and had finally got good grades in Russian, I decided to apply to study Russian language culture -studies at university. So I went to the entrance exams in Russian and linguistics, passed them and ended up studying Russian in university. At the moment I've spent 4 years at the university. On my second year in the University I was studying Russian in St. Petersburg at SPbGU for 3 and half months. Year ago I worked for 2 and half months in St.Pete during warm and beautiful summer. |
That's very cool. I wish my school had offered a greater selection of foreign languages, but it was either French or Spanish. At one time I was fluent in Spanish, after taking it for 7 years, but alas, that talent has escaped me  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Fire_Goddess
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 12:07 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Generation P wrote: |
Why should Russians change? They have their right to be the way they are just as you and other Americans. Sometimes it creates culture clashes, but maybe we could tolerate little miss understandings too? To be honest, for people who are not used to the American culture have their difficulties trying to interprete your actions and sayings. Adapting to a different culture is of course never that plain easy and painful as we might think/hope.
In general, I have nothing against smiling, but in certain situations it is not appreciated and I am not trying to in those situations. Russian big cities are one of them. |
Perhaps Russians dont smile because of generations of oppression. Was life ever dandy in Russia for anyone who wasnt a member of the aristocracy? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
surfguy
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 6979
|
| Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 12:24 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Fire_Goddess wrote: | | Generation P wrote: |
Why should Russians change? They have their right to be the way they are just as you and other Americans. Sometimes it creates culture clashes, but maybe we could tolerate little miss understandings too? To be honest, for people who are not used to the American culture have their difficulties trying to interprete your actions and sayings. Adapting to a different culture is of course never that plain easy and painful as we might think/hope.
In general, I have nothing against smiling, but in certain situations it is not appreciated and I am not trying to in those situations. Russian big cities are one of them. |
Perhaps Russians dont smile because of generations of oppression. Was life ever dandy in Russia for anyone who wasnt a member of the aristocracy? |
my point exactly...in private they smile a lot...it's in public that I am at least talking about. My GF smiled all the time |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Generation-P
WayToRussified
Joined: 22 May 2006
Posts: 316
Location: SHE WENT TO BARCELONA!
|
| Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 1:05 am Post subject: |
|
|
| krasatulya wrote: |
That's very cool. I wish my school had offered a greater selection of foreign languages, but it was either French or Spanish. At one time I was fluent in Spanish, after taking it for 7 years, but alas, that talent has escaped me |
That's what happens with language, if you don't use it, it's gone. Thou quite many have told me that after once "losing" a language, when they started to study it again, the talent came back quite easily and rapidly.
On the contrary in my country Spanish isn't the most offered language in schools! Actually the number of pupils studying more than one foreign language at school is going down here. Schools don't get that much financial support as they used to, so as a result there's not enough money to pay for all possible language teachers. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Generation-P
WayToRussified
Joined: 22 May 2006
Posts: 316
Location: SHE WENT TO BARCELONA!
|
| Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 1:35 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Fire_Goddess wrote: |
Perhaps Russians dont smile because of generations of oppression. Was life ever dandy in Russia for anyone who wasnt a member of the aristocracy? |
Not smiling in public doesn't have anything to do with oppression. Neutral face is the way to be, because people aren't seeking to make noise of them selves. It is just modesty, not oppression. There's plenty of countries where people don't smile in public. Travel outside the states and you'll see. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
surfguy
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 6979
|
| Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 2:08 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I beg to differ Gen P...and I've been to 40 countries thus far. Not smiling is suppressing emotions. Being oppressed gives no reason to smile. Try refraining from smiling/laugh at something very funny...it takes effort not to...this is what oppression does. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mediashark
Moderator
Joined: 04 Nov 2004
Posts: 1599
|
| Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 1:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Russians do smile--when they are have something that they think is worth smiling about and they are truly happy. And it's great when they do. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
surfguy
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 6979
|
| Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 7:15 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| mediashark wrote: | | Russians do smile--when they are have something that they think is worth smiling about and they are truly happy. And it's great when they do. |
with out question they do...but why this stereotype then? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
darthvader
WayToRussified
Joined: 09 Dec 2005
Posts: 427
|
| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 3:20 pm Post subject: |
|
|
What about relative lack of big, toothy smiles when posing for photographs - even for friends/family? The lips are often sealed, albeit commonly with a friendly, closed-mouth smile.
Could this also (slightly) be an aesthetics/dental issue? Orthodontics and aesthetic dental work is too expensive for many. And, people do get self-concious if their teeth aren't perfect. Especially these days, with the TV media constantly bombarding Russians (and everyone else - elsewhere) with images of people with perfect teeth. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MrSpice
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 14 Jul 2003
Posts: 3431
|
| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 5:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Fire_Goddess wrote: |
Perhaps Russians dont smile because of generations of oppression. Was life ever dandy in Russia for anyone who wasnt a member of the aristocracy? |
Probably they did not have the wonderful life you're having. If they could only go to DeVry or work as a bails agent, they would be smiling all day long. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
