Judging by the hundreds of Facebook comments received on the article, it's
"I love Russia, its people, its culture, its architecture, its food and so much more.
Friendly, trustworthy and hardworking: such are also the adjectives our friends from across the Atlantic have used to describe Russians.
“We may never completely understand one another, but I will continue to visit Russia as often as I
After five years in Russia, professor Less Decay often notices how, notwithstanding cultural differences, there are plenty of sociological similarities between our two peoples.
Having studied Russian history in high school and Russian and Ukrainian languages in college,
“Kiev is not part of Russia, but the people and cultures are very much alike,” he writes. His whole experience was so
Some expressed hope that Russia and the U.S. might work together on international security. “As an American I respect Russians,” writes Kevin Strade from New York. “I respect their patriotism and frankly wish we could work together with Putin and Russia to fight ISIS.”
We’ve asked our readers to share some personal
Julia Hunton admits that her close Russian friends have enriched her life and knowledge of the world. However there are a few humorous things that she struggles with around Russians: “Not being allowed to sit on the floor, being lectured about wearing boots with summer dresses, having every detail of any out-of-the-ordinary wardrobe choice assessed and discussed ad infinitum by my friends' mom and family, and never quite feeling dressed up enough when I go grocery shopping with my Russian girlfriends.”
Oh, and Russians would practically drown you in tea if you let them, remembers Julia
Rich Di Ponte from Johnston, RI, U.S., has gone
Russians who have American friends have also shared a couple of
Tatiana Mar writes that American friends consider her to be a bit too straightforward - a typical Russian feature - “to which I always reply that in Russia we don't like to beat around the bush.”
She also remembers being off-guard when an American friend thought by mistake that Tatiana was complimenting her new jacket (in reality she was commenting on the beautiful scenery in front of them). The American friend happily accepted, having been starved of casual compliments in Russia.
“I realized that in Russia we indeed don't give compliments to people very often (or praise people, for that matter),” Tatiana told us. “But I never expected that my friend was taking it so seriously that I had never complimented her on anything…”
Conflict resolution was one area of difference, according to Anna Gul, who writes that Russians tend “to solve a professional conflict ‘po-
Ekaterina Belskaya writes that the majority of her friends are American, and that “Americans are
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