Russian fans ........ my two penn'orth

Russians and Ukrainians don't often smile in public which probably makes them seem more unfriendly than they actually are, but they do have a widespread reputation for being boorish on holiday, although we don't have the best rep either in that regard.

 

The Russian version of Little Britain has a hilarious sketch about provincial Russian chavs in Egypt roaming round in their cheap bling pissing off all and sundry. Package tours from here are dirt cheap to Egypt and Tunisia, so you can imagine the quality of people you get on them.

 

The Italians don't like them either to the extent that they've released an info video and leaflet for them to read on how to behave in civilised and cultured society. When we got on holiday last year a German fella (who thought we were German too until I told him we were English) came up and started telling us to watch our stuff round the pool as if the Russians wanted your sun bed they whip you stuff off it and just take it. I know they can't all be like this but they have a horrible reputation up to now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Re: Avoid Egypt then!

Bloody hell, I was just about to say "welcome back", then I noticed the date!

 

I go skiing every year to Austria, mostly to the same village called Sölden. It's slowly been filling up with Russians, many of whom behave in a ridiculous way as if they have priority over everyone else. They don't like queuing anywhere, and it gets particularly bad in bars where they offer the staff hugely inflated money for beer if they let them bypass the queue.

One particular bar I used to frequent got fed up of it a couple of years ago, and instructed their staff (mostly German and English speaking) to speak only German with customers. The Russians got fed up with not being able to communicate and eventually went elsewhere. Result!

To be fair I never saw any trouble, it was just the loudness, rudeness, pushing in and cash-flashing that annoyed everybody.

 

Rimini -Not that we go there as we have far better small resort nearby frequented by Italians - attracts lots of Russians and nearly all signage is in Italian & Russian (more so than Italian & English) We had a couple of nights stop there on the way back from a visit to the UK by car last year but didn't actually come across many Russians. One or two bar/restaurant staff we talked when Russians were mentioned made gestures (like Italians do) which expressed mixed feelings. They liked the money they brought in but not the attitude.

Lots of large properties have been bought up by Russians further north from us but so far the only ones we have encountered here have been fine. One goes to the Yoga class my wife attends and, apart from being 'mad as a box of frogs' my wife says she is nice and integrating into Italian life.

 

I would expect that most other countries would same the same about the significant number of Ingerland boors that follow the national team.

 

1. A smile in the Russian communication is not equal to politeness. Western smiles during greetings mean pure politeness. The more a person smiles, the more friendliness he or she wants to demonstrate to his partner. The constant polite smile are called by Russians as the - "duty smile" and is considered as a bad feature of a person, indicating his insincerity, secrecy, unwilingness to reveal his true emotions. The geniune Russian smile - is the sign of personal sympathy, but not politeness.

2. Russians do not smile to strangers. A smile in Russian communication is mainly adressed to acquintances. That is why the sales-assistances in Russia are not smiling to the customers - simply because they do not know them. If the customer is already known in the shop, the sales assistant will often smile.

3. It is not typical for Russians to smile back. If a Russian person sees someone he doesn't know smiling to him/her, he will, undoubtedly, try to guess a reason for this smile. He would probably think that it might be something in his clothes or haircut made that smiling fellow to have fun.

4. A Russian has to have a sufficient reason to smile, which will be obvious to the others. This gives a person the right to smile - from the point of view of the other people. Russian language contains an unique proverb, which is not presented in the other languages: "The laugh without reason - is the sign of stupidity" ("Smeh bez prichiny - priznak durachiny")

5. Unsmiliness of a Russian person (exact unsmiliness, but not gloominess - most Russians are cheerful, joyful and witty people) is supported by Russian folklore, where we find a mass of proverbs and sayings "against" laughter and jokes.

6. It is not common among Russians to smile during the execution of their professional duties or during the performance of any serious action whatsoever. For example the customs officials in the airports are never smiling as they are busy with serious business.

7. The true Russian smile exist only as a sincere smile, and is regarded as the sincere expression of the good mood or a favour to interlocutor.

 

I'm just glad everyone seems to like the Germans, they're not a bad bunch