It’s actually hilarious. We ask people how they are doing, but don’t want them to respond with anything negative. Lol, what a complete waste of time.
Nailed it. My kid brother and I were in Moscow in 2005, you could still smile for passport pictures back then, i think. I didn’t; he did. Walking around the city, stopped by a couple of militsia (drunk police kids in uniform) that asked for passports. We handed them over. They started joking around with each other. My brother is a linguist (clairemont and cal) and according to understanding of russian they were saying ‘is he trying to pick up the photographer?’ 😀 well that pissed him off, i cooled him down and thank God we are not still breaking rocks in siberia
My Wife and her family (obviously) are Ukrainian. Her and all the cousins and younger generations were born here, but the aunts uncles, etc. are all FOB. Hard work is all they know. There is no time for fun, it must be morose, hard labor. No smiling, and if you have the energy to laugh or cut it up you are not working hard enough. If you have any free time it must be spent at church, or plowing something by hand.
Are Russians about the most unhappy looking people ever?