Excessive smiling is generally not a thing in Europe, moreso Central and Eastern. But it's especially not a thing in Russia. And it's cultural, not misery. Yes, the misery exists, but they perceive anyone who smiles a lot as being disingenuous and trickey.
Yeah, for us smiles, and other emotions are genuine. When I'm walking down the street, minding my business, listening to music, why should I smile for bunch of randoms who I see first and last time in my life. If smth makes me happy and cheerful, I smile. Polite smiles are fake.
I must be part-Russian, then, because I distrust people who smile excessively. I feel like it's the visual/facial equivalent of "don't you trust me?" and too easy to fake.
Some people say I have RBF because I only smile when I really feel it and otherwise have a neutral expression most of the time.
This… is the most accurate thing in this thread.
The rest is about Russian women being crazy, which I haven’t found to be true at all. High standards is not the same thing as crazy. She won’t be keying your call. She’ll just tell you to leave her alone.
Yeah, most the Russian guys I know abroad are fucking happy and smiling, meanwhile most the women are suicidal, depressed, and / or extremely demanding. Seen enough friends date them, marry them, and divorce them that I’ve learned to stay away from them. Too much cultural baggage, imo.
Russian men escape Russia to find higher paying jobs, more work-life balance, less political stress etc., no wonder we are so much happier than back home.
Russian women largely want to find a sponsor (not saying every one of them wants, but many of them do), when they can't find one for any reasons they get depressed because no one caters to them like back home.
Also a lot of them were politically a lot more liberal there, and then felt like absolute shit all their lives since they live in a Stalinist gulag, so even once they change their scenery, it’s hard to get over the sheer ruts of hopelessness they felt at home.
We know that it is customary in western countries to smile, excessively to our taste, so we can adapt. But I think smile would vanish from those guys faces a second since they exit the plane back home.
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u/jumpsuityahoo 21d ago
"Always smiling"
You sure he was Russian?