[EGreg]

I am in Russia now. I can say that people do smile normally if they feel like the conversation warrants it. But there’s not so much “fake” tinseltown hollywood pleasantry.

Americans in the US have a saying “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.” It is a culture very much fine tuned for business, which is why you want to make sure to grease the wheels of an interaction, and there is nothing to be gained by being straightforward with what you actually think. It’s avoidance of conflict and closing of a sale.

I remember when my grandparents immigrated to the USA they would relate stories like:

1) A woman would approach and say “hi, how are you”? And they would start answering but she would just walk on by LOL

2) My grandfather would offer a seat to a woman but she just started yelling at him for doing it.

Later, they adjusted. But even the word “you” — which Russians thought is “rude” because there is no “polite You” for strangers — actually is the polite version of Thou, because (unlike the Amish) the English got so polite that they just stopped using Thou altogether!