Comment by volemo
1 month 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.
1 month 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.
In contrast, see “Why Russians never smile”: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27317859
Unfortunately, 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...
Thank 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!
1 reply →
On 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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-segregation
[flagged]
27 replies →
Yeah, that's the point - you shouldn't really smile, it's about relaxing your mouth
I learned it on my own... always imagined it as "speaking without letting the heat out"
Are we trying to make psychopaths? That’s sounds very unsettling for conversation.
Americans are regularly ribbed for smiling way too much during conversations with strangers. Apparently we can be rather unsettling lol
Some Americans do grin all the time.
In the context of a foreigner clumsily trying to speak your language, the smile might be interpreted differently.