Russian author trying to explain American culture to russians

[bldysabba]

Read this interesting NYTimes article about a new , apparently popular, Russian book trying to explain american culture/life to Russians. Wasn’t sure where to discuss it, but thought I’d put it in Cafe Society, since that’s where we discuss books.

But of course much in everyday American life sounds bizarre to Russians, as Mr. Zlobin documents meticulously in his 400-page book, “America — What a Life!”

These things are usually chock full of generalisations. I just wanted to know how good or bad it was. Any chance one of our Russian dopers have read it? Which gives me pause. Do we even have any Russian dopers?

p.s : I’m not American.

[Terr]

The guy exaggerates some American idiosyncrasies, obviously, but yes, there are a LOT of differences between Russian and American lifestyles. I find the United States’ culture’s concept of “personal space”, a relative lack of drunkards, the relative politeness (yes, EVEN in NYC), relative lack of corruption, relative adherence to laws etc. etc. much more comfortable. Some Russians don’t. Those that don’t should stay in Russia, I guess.

[BigT]

Terr, are you just commenting in general, or do you read Russian and have gotten your hands on the book?

[Gyrate]

Reminds me of George Mikes’ book How To Be An Alien which attempts to explain the British to Continental Europeans and which, although tongue-in-cheek, had a lot of truth to it.

Mikes also wrote a book about America called *How to Scrape Skies *which is a tad dated (it’s about 50 years old) but still funny.

[Chronos]

This sounds like it could be quite interesting. One of the recurring tropes in science fiction that I’m fond of is where the narrator, taking an alien viewpoint, explains something from our society that we consider perfectly mundane.

[madmonk28]

I haven’t read the book, but I used to live in Russia and was the administrator of a series of academic exchanges between Russia and the US. Here are a couple of things that often struck Russians as odd about the US:

1. People were given more personal space and it was common for a US host to say “make yourself at home,” instead of waiting on guests. To many Russians this seems very rude;
2. Life in the US can seem isolating and uncaring, many Russian youth are used to relatives and close friends being very familiar in the details of each others’ lives, in the US, many Russians reported feeling on their own;
3. The overt religiousity of the US. A lot of Russians were the target of overt attempts to convert them to some form of evangelical Christianity. Not surprisingly, many of them were offended by these attempts;
4. How igorant Americans often are about the outside world, this would vary depending on where the student was sent, but many, many participants were asked very ignorant (and often insulting) questions about Russia.

[Gyrate]

@Chronos

This sounds like it could be quite interesting. One of the recurring tropes in science fiction that I’m fond of is where the narrator, taking an alien viewpoint, explains something from our society that we consider perfectly mundane.

Like this?

[Robot_Arm]

“In Russia, secret police watch you. In America, you watch secret police!”

Hilarity ensues.

[Terr]

@BigT

Terr, are you just commenting in general, or do you read Russian and have gotten your hands on the book?

I read Russian, and I don’t have the book - I just read the article in the OP.

[Icarus]

@Terr

The guy exaggerates some American idiosyncrasies, obviously, but yes, there are a LOT of differences between Russian and American lifestyles. I find the United States’ culture’s concept of “personal space”, a relative lack of drunkards, the relative politeness (yes, EVEN in NYC), relative lack of corruption, relative adherence to laws etc. etc. much more comfortable. Some Russians don’t. Those that don’t should stay in Russia, I guess.

I have worked with a number of people from Russia who came to the US as adults. These are some of the same things they noted, particularly the Russians comfort with corruption in getting anything done, and fuzzy respect for law. Also, mostly commented on by the men, that Russians have a more “traditional” view of male/female relationships and roles.

[Irishman]

@madmonk28

3. The overt religiousity of the US. A lot of Russians were the target of overt attempts to convert them to some form of evangelical Christianity. Not surprisingly, many of them were offended by these attempts;

To be fair, most Americans are the target of overt attempts to convert them to some form of evangelical Christianity, and most of them - even many Christians - are offended by these attempts.