Opinion: why Americans easily figure out our immigrants in the crowd
'04.02.2021'
Source: Yandex Zen
Every immigrant is desperately trying to become “their own” in the United States. But not everyone succeeds in doing this, because Americans can easily figure out a native of post-Soviet countries in a crowd, writes the author of the America-Russia blog on Yandex Zen. Next - from the first person.
When I immigrated to New York with my wife, I hoped to quickly become one of the Americans, hide in the crowd. Why? It's easier to do business with them and look for work. But in the end, in 2 years, nothing came of it - in the eyes of some Americans, I am still a Russian immigrant, a vodka lover and a hacker.
Why so?
First, it is my typical Slavic type.
Light skin and hair, blue eyes, a round Russian face with a small chin, a snub nose. We, the Slavs, are all alike. Russians are like Poles, Poles are like Serbs, Serbs are like Ukrainians. Americans, not seeing the difference between Ukrainians, us and Belarusians, call everyone Russians.
Yes, there is a "dark" Slavic branch of Bulgarians and Romanians, but most of "ours" in the US are not from there.
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Second, the my dress style.
In the United States, Americans wear anything, that is, what they found a rumpled house they put on. The common people don't bother with ironing their clothes. American women also do not take a steam bath, buy everything at discounts from inexpensive brands and dilute the images with colorful clothes in African style.
They are not slovenly, just the main thing for them is themselves, and that the clothes are inexpensive and comfortable. Against this background, fresh Russians, who come in large numbers in ironed shirts and blouses, look like a foreign object. True, this is a profitable business - soon I also put on a sweater with jeans and wore it for a week without taking off.
Third, American women do not undergo plastic surgery and injectionslike ours.
Friends in Russia say that in Moscow you will no longer meet a girl without pumped lips, cheeks tucked up with fillers, beauty injections and other things. That almost from the age of 18, Russian beauties begin to use this chemistry. American women look natural: as they were born, they were useful.
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Fourthly, no matter how trite it is my accent.
No matter how I pumped up my pronunciation, “Ha-wa-yu?” Will come out somewhere, which causes hysterical laughter of my American friends at work in a New York cleaning company.
It is very difficult to defeat the Russian accent. Plus, American English sounds different from the British we were taught in schools. And with all sorts of words puts the graduates of the Russian school at a standstill.
Fifth, eating habits!
Here I myself notice that our nation has habits that Americans cannot understand. For example, in America, they do not eat porridge for breakfast, they simply pour cornflakes into a bowl and pour milk. This breakfast drives my brain crazy.
Add to this the lack of soups and borscht for lunch, the abundance of bread and fried meat with sausages, and you can understand why Americans are so obese. By their eating habits, they easily figure out Russian emigrants.
Original column published on the blog. “America-Russia” on Yandex Zen
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