directness

Having hopefully concluded the tragedy portion of our broadcast, let's return to our regularly scheduled program.  I've decided in the time before classes start again that I'm going to try to update this blog every day.  

Wait, what?!

Yes, that's right, every day.  Yes, it's probably definitely not going to happen.  Yes, I'm not really sure what I'm going to talk about.  But hey, we'll give it a shot, right?  Maybe this kind of challenge is what I need.  I've decided that since there's not much going on in my life to report right now, I'm instead going to talk about the atmosphere and attitude of life in Russia.  Today's word of the day is: directness.

Russians have a bit of a reputation for being very direct people.  While this is a stereotype, and thus must be considered carefully and with much skepticism, I do think there is some truth to it.  I don't want to get into heavy-handed speculation about the trajectories of cultural mores; I want to talk about grammar.

SIDEBAR: For those of you following along at home, that last part indicates that we've entered the "crackpot theories" portion of this post.

When I started teaching English, I quickly noticed a greater self-awareness in the words and phrases I use to voice certain thoughts.  One thing I realized right away was how difficult it is for Russian students studying English to get a grasp on the way we couch any sort of request in subjunctives and conditionals and what-have-you's.  For instance, it is perfectly common to hear someone say something like "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind opening the window," if a classroom is too warm.  In Russian, they have no such peculiarities.  Well, there are ways to do it, but no one uses them in regular speech; if you want someone to open a window, you just say "Open the window, please."  Add in the facts that Russian contains no definite or indefinite articles (i.e. "a" and "the") and typically use "please" less than is required in English, and you can get sentences like, "Open window."  So you can see where you can start to build this reputation for directness.

That said, I think it is pretty clear that Russians tend to be more direct than Americans in many situations.  Trust me when I say this is not a criticism; "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind opening the window" is ridiculous.  Try another example.  First consider this:

And now this:

Which reads, quite literally, "SMOKING KILLS."  Which is more effective?  My role is not to decide.  (Hint: it's not the first one.)  So in conclusion and in summation, if you meet a Russian in your travels and he or she seems a bit forward, try not to take umbrage.  After all, we can not choose our grammar; grammar chooses us.