another side to design

Of course, the other side to design  -in a place without a history of consumerism  (and where, even now supply is very uneven) - is that most ordinary people make do, don't throw things away, and are very inventive in fixing things with bits of string.

The results are not pretty, neat or clever. But such repairs and 'innovations' do, for me, reflect a certain enjoyable directness here Thus, the common response to any suggestion is not the more typically English one (which involves discussing the difficulties and issues your suggestion raises) but instead a very straightforward  "of course" or "why not". 

from walking to talking

I find another aspect of Russian everyday life much harder to fathom. In England, it feels as if most conversations between people are 'contractual', based on individual negotiation, exchange and the making of agreements. Everything is flexible and has the possibility of change, of future improvement (for one, the other, or both). We talk by making offers, suggestions and arguments, by competing and/or collaborating.

In England I don't really notice I am doing this. But in Moscow such an underlying conversational logic only infrequently gets off the ground. This may be because people are just being very polite. But it feels like talk itself is often structured differently. So, for example, if I ask a question it is often treated as an unclear instruction, rather than the beginning of a discussion. If I frame a sentence around 'maybe we could do this/maybe we could do that' type arguments, all I do is confuse.

So, on the one hand, people seem to expect very direct, and straightforward statements, and prefer  explicit structures and rules. But, on the other, being direct (well, as direct as I can, which is not very) offers the opportunity for the other participant(s) to ignore what I say, make a non-committal and/or sideways reply, or just go off and do something different. Having rules or being given instructions does not mean you need to obey them.

Of course, there is potentially a very obvious point here; about the difference between the political and cultural histories of democracy and consumer society, versus Soviet communism and Russian capitalism. I have met this thing about rules everywhere; lots of them but nobody really takes much notice unless they have to. So drivers don't have licences; banks want an address for your account but don't care if it is the real one; authorities want some kind of stamped form but are never quite sure which; lots of guards watch over metro stations, but don't bother much when people jump over barriers without paying, just blow their whistles absentmindedly.

I wish I could pin down these 'talking' differences better; not because I think the contractual mode of conversation is preferable, but only to understand a little more about what is going on.

Handy hints 13: a tipping matter

One of the complaints that often does the rounds amongst expats in Moscow is that in up-market restaurants the waiter/waitress often fails to return with change after the bill has been paid, even if the amount remaining is much larger than a regular tip. This is the cause of much grumbling.

Funny that it should be in London that I finally 'get' what is happening in this situation - and again with much appreciation to V + K (saying hello above). The thing is, if you say thank you as you hand the bill over, this means that the transaction is completed, so the money is theirs. And since English people say thank you on every possible occasion - well you get the picture.

So to be completely clear; when you pay the bill in a Moscow restaurant, say nothing and preferably do not even look the waiter in the eye. This is not impolite as it would be in England, just normal.

handy hints for travellers 12: the little things

Found out something very useful today (which makes me realise just what a newbie I still am to Russia). I have noticed that men shake hands a lot; but when I am in a group, often as the only female, I am never included. It is those very ordinary everyday habits that confuse - I couldn't work out what the etiquette is. Do women not shake hands? When do I do the hug thing, or the cheek kissing business (if ever)? With whom is what the norm?

Well, it turns out, according to one of my older Russian colleagues, that a man will never shake hands with 'a lady', unless she puts her hand out first, in which case he will be very glad to shake it. So now I can join in with all the everyday male handshaking. But I forgot to ask him what the deal is when I meet another female stranger/acquaintance/friend. I haven't noticed women shaking hands very much.... so I need more advice here. What kind of greeting(s) should I do in this case?

Oh, and I should mention that the photograph was taken this weekend at my local park which fills up with older people on a Sunday afternoon who, I understand, then dance the tango.

Typically for me, I witnessed the beginning - which seems to involve many stand-up group picnics and some serious drinking - but, as usual, missed the main event, i.e. the dancing.

goodbye view!

The minor cheating, failure to make repairs and general all round low-level difficulties with my landlord's agent have finally blown up into a major row; after her failure to pay a phone bill which left me without internet for several days, the problem became how the flat is clearly perfect, and I am someone who breaks everything (non sequiturs being the hardest thing to deal with in any language). It is never a good idea to argue via a translator - not because he wasn't good, but because you can never have a really good shouting match or have the satisfaction of knowing you have scored even a single point. In fact, her increasingly litany of damages done by me, including many non-existent ones, led as expected to the possibility of calling the police, threats of arrest, locking me out of the flat, checking my papers and even deportation. All of this, of course, because she is planning to appropriate (well, steal is the more accurate word) my deposit.

The thing is, when you are used to the rule of law (however inadequate or problematic) it is hard to remember that in Moscow she could easily carry out her threats, through a simple bribe to a corrupt policeman. Which in turn is part of a bigger problem; when ordinary, civilised people, such as the people I work with, cannot make an impact on even a small injustice - for there is absolutely nothing to be done despite vague suggestions of involving lawyers. And that, in turn, makes it hard to believe, (in the way I am used to without thinking) in the possibility of having any effect on the world. This is sometimes called russian fatalism; but it is both more complex and more everyday than that. It makes it hard to plan, to have aims or ambitions, to believe you can have some control over present and future events, because it is proved again and again that things will most likely go wrong.... or at least strangely sideways.

All you can do in situations like these, is to try and respond well: and my colleagues are doing just that - being very helpful, sorting out a temporary home at short notice and helping me my stuff. Much appreciated.

Will be sorry to leave this place, not for its IKEA corporate look, but for the great location and the absolutely fabulous outlook on not just one but two Stalinist skyscrapers. Goodbye, view.

снег, снег, снег, снег!

Had my first Russian lesson this week, and feeling a bit pathetic at how bad I am. But found out something important, that has been confusing me. Much of what I read about the Russian language says that it is easy because letters do not change how they sound in different word contexts (unlike English where pronunciation is all over the place).

But, now I am here, this is clearly not true. Milk, for example, is spelt молоко or moloko, but pronounced malako (with the emphasis on the last syllable.) And snow...snow is written снег or SNEG (I know, sweet!) but is actually pronounced SNEK.  So, now I know that it is only the syllable which is emphasised in a word, which is pronounced correctly. Well I am also finding out that some letters are always pronounced the same; and that others are 'paired' so that one changes to the other when at the end of a word (as in г/к but also в which becomes ф or F when at the end of a word.).

So that must have made it all a lot clearer!

Russian word of the day - for your entertainment!

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Language and cultural change

I have been trying to reduce the number of if-it-is-possible, and what-I-was-thinking-was-maybe phrases that usually pepper my (very English) speaking, as I can see that they confuse my Russian colleagues as they try to unpick what I am actually getting at.

But I am also less willing to make any assumptions about cultural/language differences. I am asked quite a lot what English people are like, which is a pretty impossible question to answer. And even only being here for a few weeks all those generalities about what Russians are 'like' of course begin to fall apart as different personalities take shape. For many of the people I work with - in their 20s - the Soviet period was already almost over when they were born; the older stereotypes we have about communist life seem to hold much stronger in the west than here.

Went to a lecture about the post-revolutionary 1920s workers clubs (many of them famous as constructivist architecture) at Garage, which included some fabulous archive footage of workers doing leisure and educational activities in black and white collaborative gusto. And the audience looked just like any young European cultural audience. The problem is why I expected them to be any different - maybe either square jawed Slavs or strange communist characters.

Even for all these young 'new Russians', what they know about the past depends a lot of the often very different experiences of their parents. With the few young people I have asked, it is clear that their parents - the older generation - are very open in talking about Soviet times, it is not being forgotten. Some said their parents really missed how some things were, others that their parents or grandparents had suffered under communism and were glad for the change. So no easy generalisations here.

Lines of escape

One of my new colleagues speaks such perfect old-fashioned English that it is difficult to remember he is Russian. It turns out he learnt it from the BBC world service; as he says, he wanted to do it really properly as one of the only ways out of “Iron curtain” times. There are still echoes of that longing to escape – and the importance of learning the English language to do so – from many people I meet. People who have studied or worked abroad, or who want to (England, America, but also India). People who see more opportunities elsewhere, but who are also fatalistic – realistic?- about getting out, about having visas revoked without much explanation, about the unavailability of jobs in the current financial situation.

And it makes me and the other English people I am working with, seem like strange beasts. What reason could we possibility have to want to make the journey in the reverse direction?

Handy hints for travelers 1: alphabet

Everyone I talked to before I got here says that the most important thing is to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. They are right. Russian letters are phonetic and only pronounced one way (unlike English) so it is pretty simple. Feel a real fool though, as I painstaking spell out each word, especially as they are often very like the English or French equivalent, for example, стоп stop and старт start.

How do I learn to behave like a Russian?

Some glib cliches immediately; Russians don't like being told what to do and the English are too artificially polite and say sorry far too much. There is certainly something going on, even in these initial and lightweight email exchanges and meetings, sorting out what the job involves. I think I am showing that I am knowledgeable and capable by outlining what I intend to do; but increasing feel that it sounds as if I am ordering everyone about - I assume a give-take (customer service?) relationship, when maybe it is a different kind of ritual. And I am well aware that I sound mealy-mouthed, with all my please and thank you and sorry....to the extent that I even want to say sorry for being so ingratiating. But of course, Russians often sound insulting to me, they say things so directly. The potential for taking mistaken umbrage on both sides seems huge.

And this is not trivial. I now learn that a previous (non-Russian) employee was thrown out of the office, not even given time to retrieve her coat and still months later trying to get money owed under her contract. Contracts just don't mean much here, so forging the right kinds of personal relationships (and having some solid leverage if things get sticky) seems the only way to go. But how? Or is this already a misunderstanding?