6 culture clashes we had being a american girl traveling alone in Russia

Come july 1st, we invested 12 times traveling through Russia for company Insider.

We also surely got to invest per night when you look at the $18,000-a-night suite that is presidential the Moscow Ritz-Carlton. Certainly one of my most remarkable experiences ended up being visiting A russian that is 200-year-old bathhouse where we paid $85 become whacked with branches and doused in ice-cold water.

While my travels had been mostly hanging around, used to do experience some social clashes. Listed below are six cultural distinctions that tripped me up in Russia.

1. The language barrier had been more pronounced than we’d anticipated.

Unfortuitously, I do not talk any Russian.

While I would anticipated interaction become tricky in rural Siberia, I thought more and more people might talk English in Moscow, the administrative centre city. But even at restaurants and shops within the capital, i came across that lots of locals talked small to no English.

Luckily, compliment of a variety of hand gestures, my trusty Google Translate application, and mercifully patient Russians, I became capable of making it work.

2. Unlike People in america, Russians do not have a tendency to smile at strangers.

In the beginning, I happened to be intimidated by numerous associated with Russians we saw, thinking they seemed unfriendly and stern. But we quickly discovered they just do not smile at strangers the means People in america do.

In the usa, we anticipate smiles from individuals we sell to, through the one who acts us our coffee, as well as from individuals we unintentionally make attention connection with. It was maybe maybe perhaps not the instance in Russia.

Some cultures — including Russia — perceive smiling for no apparent reason to be a sign of stupidity as Olga Khazan wrote for the Atlantic.

But despite their stony facial expressions, everybody else we came across or asked for assist in Russia had been completely friendly and helpful.

3. Russia’s views on sex seemed outdated.

A few feedback Russians made to me within my journey made me believe that the views on sex within the national nation are hotlatinwomen.net latin dating not quite exactly like when you look at the United States — or at the very least in liberal new york, where we reside.

Francesca Ebel published when it comes to Associated Press earlier in the day this current year that while ladies in Russia may hold prominent federal government roles, “traditional gender roles nevertheless hold sway, and efforts to handle issues such as the sex pay space, domestic physical violence and intimate harassment have actually barely scratched the outer lining. “

Throughout my journey, locals seemed shocked that I became traveling alone in Russia as a female.

Inside my two-day journey riding the Trans-Siberian Railway— the train line that is longest in the planet — one of several Russian ladies sharing my compartment asked me, “You’re perhaps perhaps not afraid traveling in Russia alone? “

We shrugged. “not necessarily. “

“Because we have been, ” she stated. “Russia is really a dangerous spot. “

While I became visiting a diamond mine in Siberia, a publicist for Alrosa, the nation’s biggest diamond miner, explained that health practitioners suggest ladies do not work with the mines since it can harm their reproductive health.

And soon after in Moscow, a professional contact we invested each and every day with exposed a vehicle home for me personally after which instantly seemed worried. He considered me personally and asked in most severity, “In America, can it be considered harassment now to start door for a female? “

4. All the Russian ladies we saw had a far more traditionally feminine style — with perfectly manicured finger finger finger nails, very very very long flowing locks, immaculate makeup products, and high heel pumps — than i am familiar with seeing in nyc.

As Yekaterina Sinelschikova had written for Russia Beyond, “a woman that is russian seems in public areas without making by herself up very very first (which frequently means foundation, powder, rouge, mascara, then one else to her flavor) — even when she is simply taking right out the trash. “

With my jeans, sneakers, and hair that is unstyledi love to think about it as effortlessly tousled), we usually felt underdressed from the roads of Moscow.

“for ladies, showing femininity. May be the title of this game when selecting things to wear, ” Sinelschikova penned.

5. Recycling would not be seemingly part of Russia.

Whenever we went along to toss one thing away inside my journey, i possibly couldn’t locate a recycling container — merely a garbage can.

Recycling is apparently perhaps maybe not yet typical in Russia. Just seven per cent of Russia’s waste is recycled, based on France 24. Some landfills that are overflowing been known to spontaneously catch on fire.

6. Exchanging company cards is important.

Trading business cards is really a practice that is common the united states, however in Russia, it seemed essential.

Virtually every time we came across a expert contact in Russia, they handed me personally their company card within 30 seconds of launching on their own, prompting me to scramble to dig around within my case for my very own.

The majority of the continuing business cards I happened to be given had been printed in Russian on a single part and English in the other.