It's May 8th today. That means it's a year since we arrived back in Russia yesterday. This should be a time for reflection, but I feel that we did enough reflecting coming out of Winter. Now is the time for action. And Summer is coming this week. Starting Wednesday the weather will be 21 and then climb to 30 by Saturday. For now it is still a cool 7 degrees.
Tomorrow is Victory Day in Russia. I love quizzing our taxi driver on various topics. Even though I may not agree with him (and I don't let him know if that is the case) it is always interesting to hear his perspective on things. According to him, tomorrow is the most important holiday of the year in Russia.... by a long way. I have written about Victory Day other years, so I won't repeat my opinions here. Tomorrow I am thinking of going to the parade and observing Russians celebrate their victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.
I came across a video on You Tube today. It is made by a Public Relations company, so they will naturally have their marketing slant on it. Nevertheless it is possible to get some further insights into Russian culture. As far as Russian culture is concerned, it is safe to say it is always unpredictable and inconsistent. This presentation has a Russian saying the same thing about his own culture. Add to that, Russians always break the rules, even their own cultural rules.
I can't say I agree with everything in the video, but that is simply because Russian culture is so often contradictory, even for Russians.
Some comments:
Russian's are very generous.... I have experienced generosity from Russians, with their time before, but then time is not a commodity in Russian society the way it is in Australia.
When it comes to money Russians don't seem to spread it around very much, but then I think there is generosity amongst those who have a deep loyalty to one another. When a Russian is loyal, that loyalty goes very deep. But a Russian's circle of loyalty is usually fairly small and hard to get into.
The comments I found most interesting were on time. This is perhaps because the Russian view of time is so different from the Western view of time. It often fits into an event oriented world view, more similar to Central Asia or the Middle East.... BUT Russia is contradictory.... there are times when Russia behaves like the West and tries to behave like the West. The trick is (just like the video says), you never know when this will happen.
Sometimes time just stops
This is definitely true and I have experience this before. People can easily turn up 1-2 hours later than they said they would (event oriented culture).
Time is not just money- it's big money- at the same time, it's nothing
I think this is talking about big business negotiations. I have never been involved in them, but I can imagine them taking a long time. If the money is big, then I am sure the time is too :) (to make it happen).
Time depends on the mood, five minutes could turn to five hours
When you are relying on someone official to get something done for you, you had better hope and pray that they are in a good mood. If they are not, there is no cultural obligation on them do something quickly for you. If they are in a good mood they could be nice and do it quickly, as a way of being nice. It is worth always being nice and patient with people for this reason. When a request is made and the person says no, the best response is not to get upset, as this could turn someone's mood off and then things could take longer. It is better to be patient and nice, and hope that this will be noticed and then speed things up.
Deadline could be final and could be not, deadline is the line that you go along, not the line that you cross
This was an insight for me. I had always thought that perhaps deadlines were ignored or did not matter. According to this perspective, they still matter. Sometimes a deadline is the time to start working on something, it is the time when a task has now reached priority level. A deadline could last anywhere from a few hours, in most cases to a few days or even a few weeks.
You never know how Russians finally manage to do it on time
Hmmm, this seems to contradict the early comments, unless you view time through a non-western perspective. If the deadline is something to be traveled along, then it is possible to get something done on time.
We have a deadline of importance coming up in June and July. It will be a cultural experience traveling along that deadline. We hope the line is not too long. Our current visas run out on July 5th, we hope the end of the deadline comes before then, so that we do not need to travel outside of the country.
Tomorrow is Victory Day in Russia. I love quizzing our taxi driver on various topics. Even though I may not agree with him (and I don't let him know if that is the case) it is always interesting to hear his perspective on things. According to him, tomorrow is the most important holiday of the year in Russia.... by a long way. I have written about Victory Day other years, so I won't repeat my opinions here. Tomorrow I am thinking of going to the parade and observing Russians celebrate their victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.
I came across a video on You Tube today. It is made by a Public Relations company, so they will naturally have their marketing slant on it. Nevertheless it is possible to get some further insights into Russian culture. As far as Russian culture is concerned, it is safe to say it is always unpredictable and inconsistent. This presentation has a Russian saying the same thing about his own culture. Add to that, Russians always break the rules, even their own cultural rules.
I can't say I agree with everything in the video, but that is simply because Russian culture is so often contradictory, even for Russians.
Some comments:
Russian's are very generous.... I have experienced generosity from Russians, with their time before, but then time is not a commodity in Russian society the way it is in Australia.
When it comes to money Russians don't seem to spread it around very much, but then I think there is generosity amongst those who have a deep loyalty to one another. When a Russian is loyal, that loyalty goes very deep. But a Russian's circle of loyalty is usually fairly small and hard to get into.
The comments I found most interesting were on time. This is perhaps because the Russian view of time is so different from the Western view of time. It often fits into an event oriented world view, more similar to Central Asia or the Middle East.... BUT Russia is contradictory.... there are times when Russia behaves like the West and tries to behave like the West. The trick is (just like the video says), you never know when this will happen.
Sometimes time just stops
This is definitely true and I have experience this before. People can easily turn up 1-2 hours later than they said they would (event oriented culture).
Time is not just money- it's big money- at the same time, it's nothing
I think this is talking about big business negotiations. I have never been involved in them, but I can imagine them taking a long time. If the money is big, then I am sure the time is too :) (to make it happen).
Time depends on the mood, five minutes could turn to five hours
When you are relying on someone official to get something done for you, you had better hope and pray that they are in a good mood. If they are not, there is no cultural obligation on them do something quickly for you. If they are in a good mood they could be nice and do it quickly, as a way of being nice. It is worth always being nice and patient with people for this reason. When a request is made and the person says no, the best response is not to get upset, as this could turn someone's mood off and then things could take longer. It is better to be patient and nice, and hope that this will be noticed and then speed things up.
Deadline could be final and could be not, deadline is the line that you go along, not the line that you cross
This was an insight for me. I had always thought that perhaps deadlines were ignored or did not matter. According to this perspective, they still matter. Sometimes a deadline is the time to start working on something, it is the time when a task has now reached priority level. A deadline could last anywhere from a few hours, in most cases to a few days or even a few weeks.
You never know how Russians finally manage to do it on time
Hmmm, this seems to contradict the early comments, unless you view time through a non-western perspective. If the deadline is something to be traveled along, then it is possible to get something done on time.
We have a deadline of importance coming up in June and July. It will be a cultural experience traveling along that deadline. We hope the line is not too long. Our current visas run out on July 5th, we hope the end of the deadline comes before then, so that we do not need to travel outside of the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment