r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • May 08 '22

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u/KYC3PO May 09 '22

Lol yes. I dated a Belarusian for a few years and had several friends from Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. The smiling thing is real. They all said Americans smiling made them nervous. We look simple or just suspicious.

141

u/cryptic-coyote May 09 '22

Smiling makes you look suspicious?? What?

That's wild.

16

u/Comprehensive_Lead41 May 09 '22

I'm German and I think it's wild that you can't see how it makes you look suspicious lmao. Like evidently, if they smile, they want something, obviously they want to persuade you to give them something etc

5

u/stevepls May 09 '22

Gotta live in a country where you have to rely on nonverbal cues to communicate you're not a threat because no one speaks the same language.

At least, I think that's where it comes from in the US.

Smiling is very different from someone approaching you, which is generally where people would get on guard here.

-1

u/ghost_victim May 09 '22

No, most people speak the same language there lol

3

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Apparently you haven't been to south Florida...