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> You can, and should, speak Russian with a permanent broad smile Funnily enough, I was told the exact same thing about English when I was learning it as a Rus
by volemo 10mo ago
> You can, and should, speak Russian with a permanent broad smile
Funnily enough, I was told the exact same thing about English when I was learning it as a Russian native.
- lostlogin 10mo agoAre we trying to make psychopaths? That’s sounds very unsettling for conversation.
- Forgeties79 10mo agoAmericans are regularly ribbed for smiling way too much during conversations with strangers. Apparently we can be rather unsettling lol
- nephihaha 10mo agoSome Americans do grin all the time.
- bell-cot 10mo agoIn the context of a foreigner clumsily trying to speak your language, the smile might be interpreted differently.
- Cockbrand 10mo agoIn contrast, see “Why Russians never smile”: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27317859 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27317859
- anal_reactor 10mo agoOn a tangent - I've moved abroad to work in a multinational corporation, and I noticed that similar cultures cluster together. I spend most of my time with other Eastern Europeans.
- snthd 10mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-segregation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-segregation
- abc123abc123 10mo ago[flagged]
- nephihaha 10mo agoI believe part of the endgoal is to create a fairly homogenous global culture. If you listen to radio stations across the world, many play the same rotten manufactured pop songs... Hollywood and Google/Wikipedia complete the Coca Colonisation.
- Scarblac 10mo agoThere is no person with enough agency to have that kind of thing as an end goal. It's effect of a lot of other things, mostly US dominance and globalisation.
- potato3732842 10mo agoYou don't need a person. It's just a result of the systems we've set up and how they incentives everyone with any agency to act when they do get to use that agency.
- stickfigure 10mo agoSpecifically, it's Metcalfe's Law.
- nephihaha 10mo agoThere are plenty. Hollywood has massive dominance in the international film industry as does the American music industry. The USA has spent a lot of time and money promoting its culture. It is partly a consequence of the Cold War. But the endgoal is to produce a homogenised world culture. You can see this being pushed by groups such as FIFA and Global Citizen (the name isn't even subtle) in the last few weeks with the lead up to the World Cup, and the repeated use of platitudes like "we are one" and "unite for our future".
- oytis 10mo agoYeah, that's the point - you shouldn't really smile, it's about relaxing your mouth
- dnemmers 10mo agoUnfortunately, the URL referenced in the link does not point to the original article. Here is what I assume was referenced: https://chicagomaroon.com/5454/viewpoints/op-ed/why-russians-do-not-smile/ https://chicagomaroon.com/5454/viewpoints/op-ed/why-russians...
- Cockbrand 10mo agoThank you for that, I only dug out the HN discussion, having read the article back when it was on the front page. Weird that the link changed like that!
- dnemmers 10mo agoNot a problem! It took an embarrassing long time reading through the article, waiting for the pivot to ‘Russian Smiling’, only to realize by almost the very end, that clearly, I had been hoodwinked. Linking the proper article after this endeavor seemed appropriate to save others the same grief.
- ted_bunny 10mo agoI learned it on my own... always imagined it as "speaking without letting the heat out"