Quote:
Originally Posted by Ilya  For example if an American, Canadian or European meets a distant acquaintance in the street, the usual reaction to say "Hi!" and to smile. As far as I remember they would do it every time they meet each other, even if it is several times a day.
Do you consider this smile as "real"? I'm asking because any Russian thinks that this smile is as fake as it gets. Untrained Russians smile only if they can't help but smile spontaneously - when meeting a lover on a first date, when meeting a good friend they haven't met for years and are really happy to see, or when they are about to start conversation with a joke.
In response Western people usually think that the Russians they are talking to are sad and hostile. |
I remember once I was walking on street with a friend and we saw some Russian people talking quite heatedly and to me it looked like they were angry on something. My friend is bilingual and talks both Estonian and Russian very well, so I asked her, what did they talk about. Turned out they were discussing something related to school exams and actually they weren't angry at all. Sometimes when I hear Russian people talking, then I really hear them - for some reason many of them seem very loud to me and as I noted earlier, angry too. Perhaps it's just that they are more temperament and more passionate about their things.
