Ada Baskina, a professor of journalism at Moscow State University, provided insight on some of the differences between Russian and American cultures in Olin yesterday in a lecture titled "American Culture from the Outside: A Russian Perspective."
The differences Baskina spoke about reflected a wide range of cultural distinctions, ranging from simplistic hand gestures to profound values.
For example, once while at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Baskina thought she had lost her ticket and had to change her plane. "I looked around, looking for [the] customer service desk. And I saw it. ... it looked that there was a girl at that desk," she said. "When I opened my eyes and looked at her I found that it was not a girl. She had mustaches and very reddish cheeks."
"I turned and there was another customer service desk," Baskina said. That desk appeared to have a man working at it, but upon arriving she found "he had horns and a tail."
"It was October 31," she said. In Russia, there is no concept of Halloween, and Baskina recalled being confused and surprised. "Even if I knew, I could not imagine ... that it could be possible during the working day in the international airport to have this masquerade," she said.
This experience prompted her to look into the differences between the two cultures. She developed her research into a course that she has taught at many American universities.
Many "superficial things" are different between the two cultures, she said. For example, when Americans count, they tend to begin with the pointer finger and put their fingers up in the air as they go.
Russians, however, begin with the pinky and bend the fingers inward to the palm. What is two to Russians is three to Americans, Baskina said, demonstrating with her hand.
Baskina has found other gesture differences between Russian and American cultures. While both share the thumbs up sign to show approval for something, no thumbs down exists in Russia.
The faces that people make also vary between the cultures. Baskina told a story of a family that she knew who emigrated from Moscow to Chicago. They had a three-year-old son, who saw a child make a face by stretching out his lips and showing his tongue while watching "Barney" one day. The boy thought that this was funny and decided to greet his dad that way when he came home.
"This gesture from the Russian perspective is disgusting," Baskina said. "His father almost lost his conscious[ness]."
According to Baskina, smiling is a "well known phenomenon" for Americans. "Americans are usually smiling," she said, a characteristic that is not shared by Russians.
Baskina's friends at George Washington University showed her a survey, which asked, "How do you imagine Russians?" Answers included, "they have gloomy faces, lack of smiles, [and are] not very friendly," she said.
According to Baskina, this is not completely right, but it is also not completely wrong. "Russians do like smiling, but their smiles are equivalent to their attitude to a person," she said. In America, smiling "is a sign of politeness, nothing more. For a Russian it is a sign of real, sincere friendliness."
Baskina has concluded that four characteristics are particularly considered to be ideals in American society: optimism, self-esteem, transparency and tolerance. Although this does not mean every American has these virtues, they are all seen as positive traits, she said.
The difference between Americans and Russians, in terms of optimism, is highlighted by a simple daily ritual, she said. When Americans are asked how they are, answers tend to be positive, such as "good," "fine" and "great," she said. In Russia, however, people often answer "so-so" or "nothing good."
When an American friend of Baskina was in the process of divorce, she offered her advice that the "world was in stripes" of dark and light, meaning that good and bad parts of life are fairly balanced and evenly spaced.
Baskina's friend disagreed however, telling her, "We Americans usually think that a life should be light. Even though there are some dark periods, it is not natural."
Self-esteem is another characteristic Baskina has found to be uniquely American. After first hearing about the concept of self-esteem in the United States, she shared her observations with her students and friends at home, and found they did not place the same value on it as Americans might. Russians take the exact opposite approach, according to Baskina.
"The society is much more valuable than an individual," she said. "You should love your relatives, your friends, your society, your state [and] in the last place in this love is you yourself."
The definition of individualism that Baskina gave from a Russian dictionary is "when the interests of an individual [are] set over the interests of society." This, she said is, "the same as selfishness."
Baskina also found that tolerance exists as an "ideal" in American society. "It doesn't mean that each of you are very tolerant," she said.
But in her experiences at various universities, she has found that the "best teachers in America [try to teach] their kids, their students [about] this spirit of tolerance. Almost each university has a course or courses about tolerance," she said.
While this concept is displayed as an ideal in American society, "Russian culture is absolutely intolerant," she said. "[It's] very hard and a very sad issue."
