Many in the West have the stereotype that Russians don’t smile in public. Russians may look serious, sad or even depressed, but they never smile! On the other hand, many Russians I’ve spoken to say they find western (especially American) smiles false and insincere and don’t see why people smile so often. In Russia, if you smile a lot at strangers in public they think you’re either insane or on drugs! In the West, people who fail to smile at the correct times and in the appropriate situations may be considered impolite or even aggressive.
In reality, we have a similar separation between public and private spheres in our societies and we behave differently in each. Smiling in the West often acts as a defence mechanism or a way of signalling to those around us that we mean them no harm. This doesn’t indicate that we want to be friends or engage in conversation, it is merely an acknowledgement and acceptance of the other person’s presence. Western smiles of this kind are not connected with feelings of happiness. They are instead extra linguistic signals which are not intended to convey emotion. This is why I would argue that they are neither false nor insincere – they simply serve a different purpose from smiles in Russian culture.
Where, in the West, we use smiles as a public mask to conceal our discomfort at being forced into the same space as other people, Russians often have neutral or blank facial expressions. If Russians look unhappy in public it’s probably because they are! No one wants to be crammed into a trolley-bus at 7am on a freezing Monday morning next to a talkative babushka and an alcoholic with a can of Baltika 9! Any Englishman in the same situation would look equally depressed. I’m quite sure that after 10 years in Russia I now wear the same scowl as many Russians – I’m just too afraid to look at my own reflection in the bus window.
When you meet Russians in public they are often very different than they are at home or in a private setting where they feel protected and at ease. In my experience, Russians are some of the most hospitable people I’ve ever met and often laugh, smile and make jokes. They just don’t see the need to smile much in public because there’s not that much to smile about! In Russian culture someone must have a reason to smile – i.e. they are happy or amused.
Another interesting feature I’ve noticed when comparing behaviour is that Russians are usually far better at public speaking than Brits. When I ask students to do presentations, read aloud in class or volunteer to answer questions, they are quite happy to do so and seem confident even if their English isn’t perfect. I think this is because Russians are forced to do public speaking from an early age at school – it’s unavoidable and everyone has to do it. As Russian teachers joke to their students: “5 minutes of shame and you’re free to go!”
There are many more situations in Russia which force people to speak in public, where in the West we would remain silent. When there’s a queue, you have to ask who is last in line or ask someone to save your place if you leave a queue. On shuttle buses (marshrutki) you have to shout for the driver to stop. In England, we don’t have to ask who is last in the queue because it’s just a straight line with a logical start and end – you simply stand at the back and there’s no place reservation if you leave. On buses we press a red button if we want the driver to let us off at the next bus-stop. In Russia, you only press the red button if you want to nuke Washington!
When I was in Kiev I noticed that people on larger shuttle buses don’t shout to the driver from the back of the bus, but instead send their “stopping request” to the front via the other passengers without raising their voice. I also noticed that my friends’ voices change when they have to shout to the driver on shuttle buses – their tone becomes harsher, deeper and more authoritative. So perhaps Russians also experience some discomfort when speaking publically in front of strangers but for the English it’s definitely more of a psychological complex. I’m still very English and hate shouting out on Russian shuttle buses so I wait until just before my stop in the hope that another passenger will shout first!
