Image by coloniera2

When I analyze interpersonal communication in Russia and in the States (where I am now studying), I think the biggest difference is the amount of involvement you are allowed and expected to have in other people’s lives. From what I’ve seen from living in the two countries, in Russia, being involved is a sign of caring, while in the US the emphasis is on personal space of the individual.

There are numerous examples of this difference. I’ve already talked about parents’ reaction to their child’s cold. Yes, there are parents and there are parents, but, in general, it seems like American parents are much less alarmed by their kid’s being sick. In Russia, as a rule, the sick person is expected to stay in bed (this includes college kids, too) and is exempt from their usual chores and activities. In my experience, while American families also care about their kids, the extent of their concern is more like, “Are you going to be OK? Take a Tylenol.”

Another example is the attitude to missing people. For instance, it seems that if you don’t know the whereabouts of your (young adult) child, family member, or roommate for, say, half a day, in the US, you expect them to be a responsible adult and respect their privacy by not trying to locate them. In Russia, your concern for the person’s well-being will, most likely, make you do the opposite.

As usually with all things cultural, there is no right or wrong attitude, as long as you are aware of the expectations and know their source. Otherwise, Russians may slip into accusing their American buddies of indifference, while Americans will feel smothered by the Russian intrusiveness.

One of the challenges of teaching Russian in college is the fact that before you can proceed to any vocabulary or communicative tasks, you need to teach your students a whole new writing system.
We set the two first weeks of the semester aside for learning the alphabet.

However, the Cyrillic alphabet is not as hard to master as it may seem. In case of Russian, it has 33 letters. Moreover, unlike English, the relationship between the letter and the sound is more or less constant in that identical combinations of letters in different words will usually correspond to identical sounds (cf. “ou” in English).

What is more difficult to master is not a new alphabet, but the fact that you need to write in cursive. Again, unlike in English, writing in cursive is not a (quickly obsolescent) option in Russian-speaking countries. If you can’t read and write in cursive, you are functionally illiterate as everything, from the notes you write to your friends to the notes you take in class is written in cursive. In fact, this summer I stayed with a Russian-speaking girl from Latvia, who has now been living in Switzerland for 10 years. It came as no surprise that the note she left for me when she left for work in the morning was in cursive!

While I’m aware of and try to foster pluralism in education and hate to impose anything upon my students, I believe it’s important to, at least, be aware of existing cultural conventions, if not follow them. Perhaps now that typing is taking over other forms of writing, Russian cursive will gradually lose its positions. However, in the meantime, it’s important to remember not all conventions used in US English are universal.

Last but not least, I’d like to share a video I made about attitudes to English cursive.

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

Image by ckforic

An important difference I’ve noticed between the parent-child relationships in Russia and the USA is the parent’s attitude to their kid’s physical well-being. Russian parents tend to be more aggressive in ensuring their child is dressed warmly and well-fed. This is true about older children, well into their twenties, too.

For, example, a parent (or grandparent) in Russia may tell their kid, who, in their opinion, is dressed to lightly, “Where are you going? Put on some warmer clothes first.” Similarly, the parents may insist their young-adult child should eat something, if they believe the child hasn’t eaten enough or for a long time.

Displays of involvement like that often shock foreign exchange students who stay with Russian families. Visitors take them to be a violation of their privacy; even more so, that such active involvement is not usual in the USA or Europe.

Conversely, Russian-raised teenagers and young adults, who are used to being looked after and ostensibly cared for, are often offended by the apparent indifference of their Western peers or host families to the visitor’s well-being. I had a similar experience when I was an exchange student in the United States. Sometime in the winter, I caught a cold and had a light fever for a couple of days. I was slightly disconcerted when my host family didn’t try to do anything to help me fight the cold, not even as much as offer me a DayQuil.

As with any generalization, not everyone falls into the described categories. There are always moderate cases, and they probably represent the most reasonable attitude to caring for your family members. However, I believe it is true that Russians are, in general, more used to actively looking after their family members and being looked after, to the extent where it may be considered a privacy violation.

Image by icekitty37

I’ve noticed that the attitude of visitors to the hosts in Russia is different from, say, that in the USA. Simply put, in Russia the relationship is more involved, and there is more responsibility on both ends.

The host needs to make sure every guest is feeling comfortable and has enough to eat. The guest, in their turn, are more articulate about thanking the host and acknowledging the effort they made to host the party.

During my time in the USA, I’ve discovered that the parties tend to be much less demanding in terms of emotional commitment. At some of the parties I’ve been to, the host didn’t leave the kitchen where they were cooking something to greet the guests, and the guests did not make a point to greet the host before they joined other guests.

This system is more relaxed than the Russian “caring” scheme because neither the host nor the guests expect special attention from each other. I imagine some misunderstandings may arise when people have different expectations of how a party should go.

Say, one of my English students asked me who you translated the Russian expression “X по профессии, но Y по призванию” (literally, X in my training, but Y in my calling”). At that point, I was at a loss. The best I could come up with was “I was trained as X but have always wanted to be Y.”

However, I’ve now been noticing certain things people say in Russian which, even (probably clumsily) translated, would make no sense to an English speaker. For instance, on this Russian tutoring services website, I came across the following cited as the parents’ motivation to find an English tutor for their child: “Привить любовь к языку” (“to develop love (an appreciation?) for the language”). Have you ever heard anyone in the US say that they want to develop love for a language?

What is your experience with other languages? Can you say that? Are there things in your language that sound weird in others?

As you might have noticed, this blog has been looking pretty abandoned. Anyway, I would like to announce that I am still alive. However, since I am now living outside Russia, I’ll be taking a hiatus from blogging about Russia.

Thank you for following, and I may be back with a blog on the Russian language for my students of Russian.

Photo by doragon (stock.xchng)

One of the things I’ve noticed on my current visit to the States is how big the portions in restaraunts are. (Didn’t know I was in the States? Have you been reading my personal blog lately?) A judicious person would be likely to accuse Americans of greed and gluttony, but not if they remembered their own nation’s ways of overeating. In case of Russia it would be… full buffets.

Surprisingly, restaurants buffets do not account for most of these. However, hotels in popular holiday destinations like Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia tend to be “all-inclusive”, meaning a full buffet and free snacks between the meals. This is where your Russian catches up with their Western counterparts.

I don’t want to generalize, but more often than not the unlimited access to assorted foods along with the notion of “it’s already been paid for” makes Russians quite extravagant in their meals. For instance, not only will your average Russian make multiple trips to the buffet to get that second (third, fourth…) helping, but they will also try items that are not normally combined in one meal, such as fish and meat, dairy and vegetables.

How does that compare to your culture? How big are the restaurant portions? Are full buffets popular? Do people leave any food on the dish? Is it frowned upon?

First of all, it’s worth mentioning that Russian graduation ceremonies are quite flexible in terms of the procedure. For example, graduates may or may not be wearing caps and gowns. Since Russian universities don’t usually have school colors, the color of the gowns is pretty much random and may vary from department to department within one college. Traditionally, there were no gowns, however, lately, some schools have adopted them for added “solemnity”.

The overall pattern of a university graduation is as follows: students and parents gather in an auditorium. School anthem is played, officials/professors deliver a speech. Guest speakers are optional and less common than at overseas “commencements”.

Students are then one by one called on stage, where a school official (usually the Dean or the Rector) gives them their “Diploma” (degree certificate).

How is that different from graduation ceremonies in your country?

Dictionary.com defines it as

1. an occupation or profession, esp. one requiring special training, followed as one’s lifework: He sought a career as a lawyer.

2. a person’s progress or general course of action through life or through a phase of life, as in some profession or undertaking: His career as a soldier ended with the armistice.

3. success in a profession, occupation, etc.

The Ushakov dictionary provides the following definition:

КАРЬЕ’РА, ы, ж. [фр. carrière].

1. Движение, путь кого-н. к внешним успехам, славе, выгодам, почету, сопровождающее деятельность на каком-н. общественном поприще. Стремиться к карьере. Блестящая к. Испортить свою карьеру. Пред ним открывалась прекрасная к.

2. Профессия, род занятия (разг.). Служебная к. Артистическая к. Выбрать карьеру ученого.

◊ Сделать карьеру (разг.) — добиться внешних успехов, высокого положения, выгод на избранном поприще.

[from French carrière

1. A person's advancement towards external success, fame, benefits, reverence, accompanying their work in the public sphere

2. Profession or occupation (colloquial). Artistic career;

IDIOM - to make a career - to have external success, a high rank and benefits in the chosen occupation]

First of all, we can see that meaning number 3 in English becomes the primary one in Russian. Secondly, the Russian word is denoted as a borrowing, which made me want to trace the cognates in the two languages.

The English word “career” is believed to have originated around 1525–35.

MF carriere  < OPr carriera  lit., road < LL carrāria  ( via ) vehicular (road), equiv. to L carr ( us ) wagon ( see car¹ ) + -āria,  fem. of -ārius -ary.”

- dictionary.com

The etymology of the Russian word shows that it is a much later borrowing:

КАРЬЕРА. Заимств. в первой половине XIX в. из франц. яз., где carrière «карьера» < «самый быстрый ход лошади» — из итал. carriera — тж. < «путь экипажа», суф. производного от carro «телега, повозка» (см. карета).

[CAREER. Borrowed from French in the early 19th century, from carrière "career" < "the fastest horse trot" — from Italian carriera —also < "path of the carriage", derivative suffix from carro "cart, carriage" (cf. carriage)].

Consequently, illogical as it may sound, “making a career” (“делать карьеру”) is more often than not perceived as a derogatory locution in Russian. The same goes for “карьерист” (lit. “careerist”, place hunter). HR departments and the corporate environment in general have been trying to use “career” in the positive sense, but it still often sounds like “workaholism” to the detriment of personal life and human interests.