3 ms·

Slavs don't smile?

• clock_tower 10y ago
  From what I've heard, social smiling is unknown in the Slavic world; you only smile when genuinely happy. I can't say I would object...
• smsm42 10y ago
  They certainly do, just on different occasions than Americans. Much less social "how do you do" smiling or smiling out of politeness. If you smile too much in situations that are not considered appropriate, some (especially people not exposed to American ways before) may consider you a light-weight and unserious person. You need to have a proper reason for smiling. A Russian proverb says "the laughter without a cause is a sign of a fool". Same goes with smiling, maybe less drastic. Of course, it's a huge generalization, as many cultural broad-stroke descriptions are, but that's roughly how it is.
  • GrinningFool 10y ago
    > You need to have a proper reason for smiling. I wish this were common here (US) as well.
    • smsm42 10y ago
      I think I prefer the US way. I know many people smile just to be polite, but I just like looking at smiling people I guess.
      • Swizec 10y ago
        I agree, it's definitely more pleasant. When my mum was visiting she commented that the pleasantness of customer service was really amazing. What impressed her most was that there are people whose sole job it is to welcome yoy into a store. But I have to admit that after the thousandth reflexive "How are you" without caring for a response, the novelty wears off. What if sometimes I'm not "Good, thanks, how are you?" ... but that would be impolite.