Why is everything good for an American, and so-so for a Russian?
Once, while still in Ukraine, I decided to tweak my English somewhat. The courses I went to again told me again that when the British greet, they usually ask How do you do (how are you), and Americans, How are you? The young teacher further explained to the audience that depending on their real state, such questions need to be answered with something like good (good), bad (bad) or so-so (so-so). Then we started to train. They asked each other a welcome question and got an answer to it. Almost everyone responded with so-so.
Arriving in America, I again went to the courses. Led them a real American. When she asked me: “How are you?”, I proudly answered: “So-so.” And it is proud, because in reality I was very bad then, many people knew about it, and my rather “optimistic” answer, I thought, would raise my status in the eyes of others. However, the teacher looked at me with undisguised surprise.
The reason for this surprise came to me a little later, when I realized that an absolute American cannot answer a similar question otherwise than excellent (excellent), great (excellent), very well (very well), good or at worst not bad ( not bad). Let some trouble in the life of this American lately: he lost his job, his wife left him, for some reason his back is constantly aching. Anyway GOOD. Otherwise, it will not be American, otherwise it will not shine anything in this society.
Recently, I came across a note blogger, who always read with interest. I do not always agree with him , but I still enjoy reading.
Artem Krechetnikov (this is the name of the blogger) this time analyzes the results of a survey conducted by the international sociological organization World Values ​​Survey. Residents of 97 countries were asked: "Are you happy?". According to the study, the happiest country was Denmark, and the most unhappy - Zimbabwe. USA - were on the 16th place? Russia is on the 88th place. Just above and slightly below its neighbors in the CIS closely crowded.
In his article, Artyom, in particular, explains the difference in the estimates of the desired and possible between the typical American and the equally typical citizen of Russia (Ukraine and most other countries of the former Soviet Union). It is not so much about self-perception as about its external expression.
At the same time, he expresses interesting considerations. And I wanted to continue his thoughts. This is how Artem and I got a blog note in virtual “two hands”. Well, almost like Ilf and Petrov :) .
Arriving in America, I again went to the courses. Led them a real American. When she asked me: “How are you?”, I proudly answered: “So-so.” And it is proud, because in reality I was very bad then, many people knew about it, and my rather “optimistic” answer, I thought, would raise my status in the eyes of others. However, the teacher looked at me with undisguised surprise.
The reason for this surprise came to me a little later, when I realized that an absolute American cannot answer a similar question otherwise than excellent (excellent), great (excellent), very well (very well), good or at worst not bad ( not bad). Let some trouble in the life of this American lately: he lost his job, his wife left him, for some reason his back is constantly aching. Anyway GOOD. Otherwise, it will not be American, otherwise it will not shine anything in this society.
Recently, I came across a note blogger, who always read with interest. I do not always agree with him , but I still enjoy reading.
Artem Krechetnikov (this is the name of the blogger) this time analyzes the results of a survey conducted by the international sociological organization World Values ​​Survey. Residents of 97 countries were asked: "Are you happy?". According to the study, the happiest country was Denmark, and the most unhappy - Zimbabwe. USA - were on the 16th place? Russia is on the 88th place. Just above and slightly below its neighbors in the CIS closely crowded.
In his article, Artyom, in particular, explains the difference in the estimates of the desired and possible between the typical American and the equally typical citizen of Russia (Ukraine and most other countries of the former Soviet Union). It is not so much about self-perception as about its external expression.
At the same time, he expresses interesting considerations. And I wanted to continue his thoughts. This is how Artem and I got a blog note in virtual “two hands”. Well, almost like Ilf and Petrov :) .
')
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/30059/
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