What do you guys think about Russia and russians?

No more details? I just wondered what people say about russians in the world or in our case in USA, ‘cause guys from funadvice are mostly from USA. I just heard that usually people believe in odd things about Russia. Wished to hear something interesting, funny, untrue and just act depending on the comments. ‘Cause i’m from Russia) though not russian) it’s a multinational country.

Russians always play the bad guys in American movies, so they’re seen as evil a lot of the time. A lot of my friends call me Commie jokingly sometimes, Family Guy says we’re all bears on unicycles, I have no idea where that one came from. All we eat is beets, the women are often big and burly, if not petite, perfect, and usually lesbians. Sometimes dominatrixes. That’s all I can think of for the time being, but it’s quite a bit, eh? It’s all in good fun. THEN AGAIN. There’s the whole vodka thing.

I agree =)

Well, most people on this site aren’t ignorant. So, they’re not going to say untrue, or “bad” things about Russians.

Wow, some people answering here are totally ignorant about other cultures (sad to say).

Alls I can say is try to watch some more foreign movies. Its the best way to start learning about other cultures. Um, movies made in other countries, with subtitles, not fracking translated.

It’s not that difficult to make someone ignorant at some topic if you really wish to:) some propaganda, some “special” history books etc. As far as I see all what people say about our country is mythical:) but i had never heard that from someone in particular and was just willing for that to happen) and no i don’t consider members of FA ignorant) but I still think people know little about Russia no matter how educated they are) and no

You should try to enlighten the other members answering here. I’ve lived with Russian’s for quite a number of years, been involved in the culture and all of that, but I would not presume to know anything about the country. Tell us what are some of the good/bad point about Russians, and how we can learn more?

I assume you mean me, and I agree in a sense? The only reason I had all of that stuff to write is because I’m Russian, first generation, and I deal with it every day :P I know what we really are like, and I know how some Americans see us. With this kind of stuff though, it’s all meant well and it’s never hurtful, people just like to joke around with this sort of stuff. Seeing our differences, even in extreme and usually unrealistic ways, is a good thing, I think. As for movies, Russian ones are great, oh lord people, watch 12. It’s the most recent one I’ve seen, and it still has the little :O effect on me.

It’s not that difficult to make someone ignorant at some topic if you really wish to:) some propaganda, some “special” history books etc. As far as I see all what people say about our country is mythical:) but i had never heard that from someone in particular and was just willing for that to happen) and no i don’t consider members of FA ignorant) but I still think people know little about Russia no matter how educated they are) you may something you think to be true and be lying at the same time) my function is to correct you ‘cause I know how things really are) and no i wasn’t waiting for just “bad” things, though i didn’t doubt them. I want to know anything on the subject- just for myself)

What I mean (and I did not intentionally mean that you’re ignorant), is that instead of answering the way how you did, you should speak up authoritatively about the Russian culture you know. You’re an expert. Make it show on FunAdvice instead of basically perpetuating the stereotype. After all, if someone asked about Jamaica, I’d set the record straight. Knowing that you’re an authority on the subject – be an authority on it online as well. Its a good thing when people are good at something and actually show it instead of waffling.

That was my actual plan, yes!) But the thing is that I can’t just start a story from out of nowhere and begin describing life in Russia) that’s why i decided to ask what people think and comment or give details or correct them) i think that would be more interesting and useful) to find something out first you need to have a question) and I’ll try to answer any question on the subject) Good/bad sides of russians? Well. I don’t know of any widely spread out good or bad feature of whole groups of people here. That’s just a question of how a person was brought up etc. If you give a more specific question I’ll be ready to help) it’s like if I asked about godo/bad sides of americans- there are 280 millions of them and can you say they have something in common except that they all have a good command of english? I guess no. Though I can describe you bad/good sides of Russia. No problem.

You two have such a broad vision of the world.

Ericson said everything in this message. This is our mission. This is the way to act. If someone’ll be interested I’ll be an authority on the subject and make things clear. Do so too, bro from Russia!

???

Sure? And how often? We see american movies here in Russia and russians are berely mentioned. Like 1 in 100 movies could deal with russians. All these Xmen, Twillight, Avatar and on and on where do you see russians being seen evil there, where do you see russians at all there? And even if they are shown so no one will take that serious ‘cause it smth like a joke. Unignorant people should surely know this. Don’t know what Commie means. As for the Family Guy and his point of view emm do you really think people take him serious? Think they respect his point of view? Think he’s the whole nations teacher and their “school”? No. No one with just a tiny bit of brains takes that cartoon serious, it’s just funny and silly.

i like verybody. but i get p!ssed off when theres russians iun tacobell and cant understand a word ur saying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*everybody

As for the other part of the message i just can’t say ‘casue i don’t understand it:) words “beets” “burly” weren’t in our school programm) Women are indeed DAMN hot here! Bull hit it is that they aren’t. If you just enter the underground your eyes run around. Enter any train, any bus, any street, any shop, any class and you’ll meet pretty girls here. I don’t know how this is possible but it is. I lived in England for two years long ago and, no, I can’t say anything alike about this country. There was like one cute girl in the whole school! And not many hotties around( No off course there aren’t lesbians, bull hit, and no need to comment this even ‘cause no one with brains will believe it anyway. Girls are clever, cute and kind here mostly, true that, really:) An unknown word again. “Dominatrixes” i’m just sitting through a phone here so I can’t really just type them in a dictionary so they’ll have to wait. And as for the vodka- haha:) it is famous here, yes) a few days ago when i went to a shop there were around 40 different labels of vodka there and three types of bottles of each) just imagine?:) if there’s so many of it it means there is demand) but no, no, no russians don’t drink vodka mornin, day and night. Mostly poor people, some junkies and people of such classes drink vodka. There not that many of them. Civilized russians, ones with jobs, with families, kids, not ones who live it trash bins (these exist in any country I guess) don’t drink vodka as it is believed. At some celebrations only. New Years, parties, b-day etc. As for young people they certainly do enjoy alcohol and drink it a lot and despite americans alcohol is alowed since you’re eighteen here. But isn’t it a world wide practise to drink alcohol if your young? And, no, russian teens prefer beer, cocktails. Vodka makes you drunk in two cups, not acceptable. So poor, uneducated loosers do pay vodka like they’re nuts. Not all the nation.

Just a bit of sarcasm that was.

you just really gave a strange answer. “Russians are like us but they live in Russia”. Joking?) You consider this an answer?) As though as people don’t know that russians are poeple like people living in Russia) your comment amused me)

Don’t know what tacobell is, guess it could be some place where people eat or smth. Well, yes, that does annoy, not a nice thing!!!!!! But you can’t say that russians are the only to speak there native language when they gather up. Of course it’s rude and, no, I never allowed myself to speak russian in the presense of foreigners! I did that only when we were alone. So it’s just a question of unpoliteness and not of nationality. We have two guys from Turkey at university and they aaalways speak turkish near us. It iritates a lot. I would rather they did it when they are by themselves.

I prefer not to have an overall perspective about a large group of culturally, ethnically, and racially diverse people. Having said that, my best friend is Russian. I like hearing stories about his home town. I also loved Anastasia (yes, I do know the cartoon was not historically accurate), but in general the history of Russia has always seemed fascinating. The culture also fascinates me. The amount of racism and antisemitism is a little disturbing, but most countries in Europe seem to have that sort of history.

Everything I said seemed to be taken a bit more heavily than I intended, but I definitely see why. For some reason I thought that he wanted the stereotypical things said about us, but I guess not, and I’ll be the first to thank you for correcting me, because you’re perfectly right. In that case, to be perfectly honest, most Americans don’t know much about Russians and therefore have a lot of questions, most of them being, “How do you say…in Russian?” I have nothing else to add, I guess. I’ve already been enough of an embarrassment here :P

I did figure out why I thought he wanted stereotypes though: “Wished to hear something interesting, funny, untrue…”