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Oh that's funny, I didn't even notice that... "Guess who's the goofy American in this photo!" Passport photos aside (which really do require a neutral face, ev
by gk1 8y ago
Oh that's funny, I didn't even notice that... "Guess who's the goofy American in this photo!"
Passport photos aside (which really do require a neutral face, even in the US), Russians do not smile in public or to strangers the way we do in the US. Smiling in public is seen as a sign of foolishness or low intelligence. When Americans come to Russia they interpret the lack of smiles as hostility, which isn't true.
- paulsutter 8y agoThanks for explaining, I've wondered that. By the way, smiling is OK on US passports[1]. I've taken a lot of visa and passport photos, and I have seen a requirement not to show teeth. But I've only once had a photo returned. And I really wasn't grinning in the photo. Incidentally, that slighty-more-serious mood in Russia feels comfortable for me. Maybe because I tend to smile less than I "should" in the US. [1] From https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/requirements/photos.html https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/require... "You must have a neutral facial expression or a natural smile, with both eyes open"