A lot of people coming to Russia
notice that
Russian people don’t smile very much.
The linguists I.A. Sternin and
Y.E. Prokhorov found
out during their research that:
A Russian smile is different.
It’s a smile with the lips only. In rare occasions,
you can see the top teeth a little. The Russians don’t do “a
Hollywood smile”
when one shows off all his teeth.
In
Russian culture, such smile is regarded as
vulgar and impolite. A big smile like that has even its special term in
Russian
– “a horse smile” (лошадиная
улыбка)
Smiling is not the same as “being
polite”.
A smile for the Russians isn't a sign of politeness
like for instance in European or Eastern culture.
A polite smile for customers is called in Russian
“a duty smile” (дежурная улыбка) and it is considered to
be insincere.
No smiling at strangers!
The Russians don’t smile at strangers. One smiles
only at someone he knows.
That’s why shop assistants don’t smile to the
customers; they don’t know them, do they?
A smile might be regarded as an invitation to start
a conversation. In the case of an accidental eye contact (which is a
“no-no”
!!!), a Russian person would avoid it and look away while an American,
for
example, would smile.
When we work we don’t smile!
The Russians don’t smile when at work.
Russian service industry has been struggling to
adapt a welcoming smile for the last 30 years, but unfortunately
smiling
is not easy. Russian people read a
“professional“ smile as an artificial grin,
a mask hiding indifference.
Russian smile is sincere and for
a
reason.
When somebody smiles too much we find it
suspicious. We might think that a person who smiles
a lot for no obvious reason
is a fool.
There is even a proverb in the Russian language:
“Laughter with no reason is a sign of foolishness” (Смех без причины –
признак
дурачины)
Some scientists think that the Russian
Orthodox
Church has a lot to answer for, that it had it
influence
on the Russian mentality
by forming an unfavourable attitude to laughing, being jolly, smiling.
Laughter
and joyfulness come from the devil. In the Middle ages, the Church
pursued and prosecuted street performers, musicians and buffoons
(скоморохи)
Nikolay Berdyaev,
a Russian religious and political
philosopher, believed that the Russians were
suppressed by the vast expanses of
the country and by the harsh
climate and that was why Russian people didn't
smile too much.
But nevertheless, I hope you will
find or already
have that not all the Russians are glum and miserable, and most of them
are
very friendly and good-humoured.
E. Ivanova
(Based on
the article “The Russians don’t smile?”
www.moya-planeta.ru)
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