Russian culture question

[tricours.livejournal.com]

One thing that I've remarked several times when reading the blogs of Scandinavians or other westeners who've spent some time in Russia, is that they comment on how Russians don't smile. I've read lots of "I went home for the holidays and once again I was met with a smile when I went to the store to shop" etc. etc. Also one girl commented that some railroad personnel at a station where trains come in from Finland greeted her with a smile because "that's what they know westerners expect as good service". Do clerks and shop personnel in Russia not smile? As a clerk in Sweden or Norway it's practically written in your contract that "YOU SHOULD ALWAYS SMILE AT CUSTOMERS" ;)

At the same time, I met this Russian travel agent who's lived in the Caribbeans for the last 10 years and who thought service in Norway was completely awful. But perhaps he was comparing it to that of the Caribbeans, and not to the Russian one?

Comments

[vakhitov.livejournal.com]

Sometimes you'd better wear a mask though.

[vakhitov.livejournal.com]

It may indeed feel wrong if you really care about the feelings of a random salesperson. I generally don't. Instead, I care about my personal feelings. And I get most pleasure from doing business with people that smile to me.

All I said above is valid for the people I don't know. But I get to know more people every day. And here I get a chance to get to the next level. Smile is a magical thing. If you smile to people in advance, you can get closer with some of them in the future, even if right now you don't mean anything to each other.

[gdy.livejournal.com]

So do you assume that smiling clerks don't mind to get closer to you on occasion? ;-)

[vakhitov.livejournal.com]

I don't assume anything. But some of them actually do - even the ones that do not smile ;-) Anyway, smiling makes getting closer a little bit easier.