# Why Russians do not smile - Host: [chicagomaroon.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/chicagomaroon.com/) - Saved: June 3, 2021 (2021-06-03T11:39:02Z) - Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e41465aa8eb4/ - JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e41465aa8eb4.json ## What Jamie wrote I've made over a dozen trips to Ukraine and this smiling thing is true there as well. > In Russian culture the smile is identified with laughter. Russians do not smile unless something funny happens and provides a reason for laughter. This fundamental difference in perception produces many unfortunate misunderstandings. Reading this reminded me of a conversation I had with [Yuri](https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurizhidun/), the Director of our office in Ukraine. I had finished walking to the office from the hotel. It is a simple route and there are a lot of people making their way to their jobs in the morning. I asked him "Do you think people know that I’m not from here when I’m just walking to the office?" and he immediately replied that "Yes, they for sure know.". I wondered how this could be, I was just one of many people walking along the street. I asked him how they would know I wasn't a local and he replied immediately "Because you are smiling." 😊 ## Facts - Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/) ## Appears in - [WT189: Weekly Thing #189 / TiddlyWiki, JsonLogic, Smiling](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/189/), Notable ## Saved the same week - [Grok TiddlyWiki — Build a deep, lasting understanding of TiddlyWiki](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/d1aa8eeeae6e/) (groktiddlywiki.com, June 3, 2021) - [Surviving an In-Flight Anomaly: What Happened on Ingenuity’s Sixth Flight - NASA Mars](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/435d2dc1adaf/) (mars.nasa.gov, June 3, 2021) - [Big Mail - Upgrade your inbox](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/6ebbd4d143ca/) (getbigmail.com, June 3, 2021) - [QUIC is now RFC 9000 | Fastly](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/54ba2c5e9796/) (fastly.com, June 3, 2021) - [The Unix Game](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/375fbace7e55/) (unixgame.io, June 3, 2021) ## Elsewhere - Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.chicagomaroon.com/2002/04/12/why-russians-do-not-smile/