Comments on: The Elusive Russian Smile

By: Kandarpa Das

Kandarpa Das — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:09:32 +0000

Sorry, I really could not agree ….

By: Kandarpa Das

Kandarpa Das — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:08:06 +0000

I really could agree that Russians do not smile. My 27 years associations with Russian people (from Soviet Union to Russian Federation)and ten years experience and encounter with Russians while I lived with them tell me to differ with you.

By: Diana

Diana — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:57:27 +0000

I am russian and I like to smile And I smile when I’m talking to people. But I think that americans smile too much and russians could smile more than now.

By: Nastya

Nastya — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:57:58 +0000

Hello! I’m from Russia, but I agree with you – the Russian people a little smile and often consider it a sign of stupidity. I do not quite understand their position. I talked to many, that smile – a sign of politeness, but they do not want to listen to me. Everyone thinks that I am hypocritical, because I smile a lot. It is very sad. I hope someday Russian learn to smile.

By: Minority

Minority — Fri, 07 May 2010 06:33:58 +0000

>>“The last laugh is better than the first (because laughing is now over)
Sasha is right, the correct russian version of this proverb is “Хорошо смеется тот, кто смеется последним.”. In english it would be something like: “the last one who laugh do it better”.
We mean by this proverb that if you’re laughing about your competitor’s failure – be sure that you won last stage of your competition (beware – he can gain a revenge).
And I never heard about “ideal russian woman is unsmiling woman”.

Don’t be so tedious about “unhappy, unhealthy russian nation” =) We really love smiling. But we do not smile to show “I feel normal, look, I’m ok as usual”. We smile when we excited or heard something really fun or met a good friend! Of course it seems that nobody’s smiling when you’re walking through the center of our cities: people’re going with their buisness and they don’t know anybody in the street to smile at. If we’re walking in company, we hardly can do not smile or laugh.

And when you live for a long time in some neighbourhood, you know almost every person you’ve met, and they’re smiling at you and greet you. =)) I think it’s great, ’cause it shows their real attitude to yourself.

PS. Did you ever tried to smile for a long time when it’s -30 C in the street? It causes bad feelings about teeth and lips.) We have such weather for months sometimes! =)