Thread: Zdravstvuite

Анатолий и Троберт, в чём заключалась "тупость" американцев и русских соответственно? Почему они показались вам тупыми?

Originally Posted by Marcus

Троберт, в чём заключалась "тупость" ... русских? Почему они показались вам тупыми?

Потому что мне было 22 года!

Really, that was the largest part of it -- I was fresh out of college and "full of myself" (arrogant).

But if you want me to be more specific: At first I was shocked by the lack of "customer service" skills -- is it so difficult to smile, продавщица? And I was shocked by the dirt and graffiti in the apartment buildings -- why didn't someone take the initiative to clean them (my parents were in the military, and I was a Boy Scout)?

And I was REALLY shocked by some of the racism and antisemitism that I heard from seemingly educated Russians. (The homophobia, I was prepared for... but not the rude comments about blacks and Jews!)

But later, as a young adult with no money living in New York City, I began to understand that all of this existed in America, too. Communism may have made some of the problems worse in Russia -- people who don't own the property they live on have less incentive to take care of it, for example -- but mostly, it was human nature.

P.S. I'd be grateful if someone could suggest colloquial Russian equivalents for the blue phrases...

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

P.S. I'd be grateful if someone could suggest colloquial Russian equivalents for the blue phrases...

"full of myself" - сам себе голова
"customer service" skills - манера обращения с клиентами
take the initiative - самостоятельно
have less incentive to take care of it - не видят смысла заниматься этим

Originally Posted by BappaBa

"full of myself" - сам себе голова

сам себе голова (синонимы к сам себе голова)
сам себе голова  - сам себе господин, хозяин положения, господин положения, свободный, вольная птица, вольный казак, сам себе хозяин, стоит на своих ногах, сам маленький, сам большой, самостоятельный, независимый, живет своим умом, свободный как птица, самосильный, стоит на собственных ногах