Well, from what Russian linguists say, as Russian language requiters that each noun, each object have its own gender, we, Russian speakers, feel rather uncomfotable if we can't detect the gender or sex. Especially while speaking to a person. For English speakers, however, such a problem apparently matters less. Therefore, they communicate in a way that is different from ours. They start to chat with a preset idea that they do not know their new counterparts' sexes like we do not know about ages of new people who we start to chat with. So there's a behaviour pattern that can seem weird for us, but might be guite fine for English speakers. And I want to learn it.


Quote Originally Posted by charlestonian
Quote Originally Posted by chaika
I won't tell Юрий Чайка you said that.

Как бедный Юрий, Чайка - моя фамилия.
You ain't no Russian, are you?
Used to be?


Quote Originally Posted by Ramil
Quote Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie
Why do you need to know the person's gender? If you need to say "him/her", just explain that you don't know the person's gender or make a guess. If they feel a need to correct you, then they will. Since it is a universal problem, they rarely get offended. Iamjames, for example doesn't seem offended that we mistake her for a guy all the time, does she?
Your nick btw is also confusing to strangers
Kalinka means small California (маленькая Калифорния)