(New York, NY) We spent a long 8 hours in the JFK airport while we waited for our Aeroflot flight to Moscow. We talked about the differences we think we know between “American” culture and “Russian” culture. Here is a list of our ideas (I am good at lists):
- Language (English OR Russian ethnic languages)
- Citizenship (USA OR Russian Federation)
- Nationality (American OR … whatever the “ethnic” identity is in Russia such as Tazak or Chukchi)
- Alphabet (Arabic OR Cyrillic)
- Demeaner (polite and calm and quiet and smiling OR loud and forceful and unsmiling?)
- Appliances (very available and maintained by individuals OR less available, smaller, used by groups of friends/family?)
- Dress (informal and comfortable OR dressy and high heels!)
- Forms of instruction (active learning OR lecture and memorization)
- Documentation (driver’s license for internal and passport for external OR internal passport AND external passport)
- Police officers (peacekeeping and safety OR exploitive?)
- Size (4 timezones OR 11 timezones)
- Plumbing (public toilets available almost everywhere OR few public toilets available)
- Religion (many and diverse houses of worship everywhere OR Russian Orthodox Church plus a few others)
- Customer service (customer is always right OR customer is usually wrong)
- Cultural influences (cult of Hollywood and media OR cult of personality/leadership)