11. Politeness Strategies

Politeness strategies in any language are numerous. The most important ones are those that present a noticeable difference between the two languages and thus can cause serious miscommunication. The contrastive analysis of English and Russian politeness strategies has shown that Request Formulas and what can be called Tentative Discourse are dramatically different in the two languages.

Russian requests are mostly based on the Imperative, the equivalent of please being added for politeness. To be more polite, one can begin the request with the Russian phrase for "Will you be so kind" and then use the Imperative, but in most cases of both formal and informal communication the Imperative with please is quite enough. This pattern existing in the minds of the Russian speakers dominates their linguistic performance when speaking other languages too. The consequences of this in speaking English are most detrimental. Indeed, the Russian formula directly translated into English does not sound sufficiently polite even in informal communication.

The most abrupt request in English has a form of a question beginning with "Will you...?", "Would you...?", "Can you...?", "Could you...?", the Subjunctive sounding more polite then the Indicative, while please, though desirable in all the formulas, still cannot make an Imperative request sufficiently polite. The orders used in the army or deliberately abusive forms of command were excluded from consideration in both languages. In more formal communication or when one is asking for something less obvious the English request formulas tend to become even more polite: "Do you think you could...?", "I don 't suppose you could..., could you?", "Would you be so kind as to...?"

The second observation about the English politeness strategies in comparison with their Russian equivalents, is that English is characterised by a greater dislike of too explicit and categorical statements. [7, pp. 24-37]

Text 9 the image of russia in western travel guides

Travel guides give some very interesting material for interculturalists. They are a unique source of information about how one nation perceives another, a kind of “encyclopedia of stereotypes”. As their aim is to teach the reader to communicate with another culture, to behave in alien environment, they reflect two cultures in a condensed, concentrated form – one of the home country of the traveller and another of the country where he happens to be.

Guidebooks play an important part in cross-cultural communication. For the majority of travellers and tourists it is a guidebook that is a source of information about another country and its people, it is the main compass, the guiding star in the strange ocean where another language is spoken.

The task of the authors of guide-books is both noble and very complicated: in a brief, condensed form they have to introduce the reader to the history, culture, sights, traditions, specific features of the country he is interested in. The guidebook has to give confidence to a tourist who is leaving for the unknown. It is especially important for the tourists who decided to go to Russia, where a guidebook is often the only source of information about the country.

It is necessary to underline the positive moments in Western guidebooks. Probably the most important one is the attempt to show not only places and sightseeing but the people, their traditions and way of life, their social customs, their national characteristics. In one of the series of guidebooks there is even a chapter called "How to be a local" which advises what to do if you want to understand the soul of the people, not only to see but to feel the peculiarities of national life. For comparison it may be mentioned that guidebooks published in Russia are only concerned with the history, arts and architecture of the country they are writing about, one gets no idea from them about the people who live in this country. Among other merits of Western guidebooks there is a thoroughly selected practical information covering almost every issue that an ordinary tourist needs to know while staying in a different country. They usually have a very good and convenient structure, which allows a reader to find necessary information without any difficulty. They really help people to find their ways in an unknown world.

The first thing that attracts your attention while reading Western guides on Russia is an atmosphere of mystery and vagueness that surround it. Almost inevitably all books about Russia are opened up with famous words of Winston Churchill who once called Russia "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma". From this comes the main aim of a travelling to Russia: if there is a mystery it is necessary to solve it.

What are the ways of demonstrating the "mysterious Russian soul" to a reader of Western orientation literature? There are two main extreme and contradictory tendencies in portraying Russia and Russians today On the one hand, Russia is shown as a backward and crippled country, the former "Evil Empire", with wretched fate and people. Travel guides on Russia are filled with unpleasant descriptions, frightening scenes, dark sides of city life. The authors use different methods: from over-stressing and emphasizing real drawbacks to open lies. Just an illustration.

"More than 8,5 million people live in Moscow, a strange but fascinating metropolis that lacks the efficiency, comforts and conveniences that are commonplace in nearly every other world capital. Even the most well-informed tourists are taken aback by the city's comparative backwardness. In many shops and restaurants, prices are totaled on abacuses, not machines." [The Harper Collins Business Guide to Moscow. Eugene Theroux and etc. New York, 1990, p. 13]

On the other hand very often Russians are romanticized. The idea is that in spite all hardships, hunger, darkness and harshness of life Russians are very warm-hearted people, that they have "mysterious soul". "...If a Russian associate invites you to his or her home, to a restaurant or to a reception, be aware that Russians are well informed on a vast range of non-business topics - an airline pilot will be able to tell you about Pushkin, for example." [Guide for Tacis experts working and living in the Russian Federation, 1995, p. 24]

It is obvious that a character of any nation like a character of any person is full of contradictions. But in all this conglomeration of mysteries and contradictions while reading about Russia one idea lacks - it is just a country as anywhere else, and just people as anybody else.

One of the brightest examples of cultural misunderstanding deals with a smile as part of behaviour. Foreign visitors always complain about strange behaviour of Russians in the streets and public places. They say: "Russians are wonderful people, but they never smile to a stranger, they look so gloomy and serious when they are walking down a street". Travel guides justify tills behaviour on the ground that Russians are too overburdened with everyday hardships and sorrows to feel like smiling.

Similar opinion have Russian people about famous Western smile: "They are so strange, they smile all the time, even to an absolute strangers without any reason or meaning". In Russia a person who smiles without any reason is considered to be stupid and light-minded. In some situations smiling to a stranger in Moscow may turn out to be dangerous as it may be considered as an invitation to some intimate relations. This makes the reaction of Russian McDonald’s’ employee more understandable:

The company even taught them [McDonald's Russian employees] to smile - confounding the fear of one of the first employees who shook his head at the notion and said, "People will think we're idiots." [Insight Guides: Russia. 1994, p. 72]

There is a lot of wrong ideas and misunderstandings between Russia and the Western world. When a Russian professor was lecturing in the United States one of his students who was in her fifties once said to him: “When I was a girl I always felt so sorry about your people. I used to cry when I was thinking about your miserable lives”. The professor told her that that was exactly how he felt about Americans when he was a boy: “I couldn’t listen to the terrible stories about racism, and poor people sleeping in the streets, and unemployment, and many other unbelievable things”. They both had only one piece from the huge picture of national lives of both countries.

Unfortunately, instead of trying to overcome the misunderstandings existing between Russia and other nations the Western guidebooks make their contribution to fixing the stereotyped image of Russia that was formed long ago.

The other important problem is that the Russian life during last ten years has changed enormously and every month brings something new. The most important and the best part of Western guidebooks – accurate practical information – doesn’t work for Russia. They can’t keep track of every change in Russia. That is why almost every guide has useless and sometimes harmful information. Some ideas are very old like that idea that in Russia it is customary to drink tea from samovar. It was true 100 years ago, but today you can find one only in a remote village or its electric version in an expensive restaurant for foreigners.

The following descriptions of Russian eating habits would also make many Russians laugh: “Caviar should not be eaten with lemon but with blini (buckwheat pancakes)…” [Baedeker’s Moscow. 1995, p. 141]

“Fish plays an important part in Russian cuisine, especially sturgeon in various guises. Salmon, trout and pike-perch also figure prominently on the menu.” [Ibid, p.145] That could be true for the noble characters from Tolstoy’s novels but modern Russians have never heard of such traditions and sturgeon cannot be called “an important part in Russian cuisine” as it is rare and very expensive (same is true about trout).

A distinctive feature of the guidebooks on Russia is the lack of accuracy, exactness which are so important for foreigners, the impossibility to calculate and predict everything. The guidebooks on Germany or England punctually indicate everything from train schedule to prices and menu in a certain restaurant.

Life in Russia changes very quickly, Russian character – very slowly. Unfortunately, in most guidebooks it is the other way round. As a rule guidebooks to Russia are extremely uninviting. One must be really brave to go there after having read them.

Although egocentrism is typical of all guides, characteristics of other people sound more attractive and mild:

From Berlitz Travel Guides:

Finns: Ch.l - Helsinki and the Finns - ..aesthetic sensitivity; courage, ...tenacity and endurance in the face of adversity...; Finns love nature...; humour and simplicity; resourcefulness; ...one of Europe's least known, least explored ... countries. [Berlitz Travel Guide: Helsinki and Southern Finland, 1990 edition; pp. ll-12]

Hungarians: Ch .l - Budapest and the Hungarians - ...the people of Budapest maintain a relaxed good cheer. They find time to smile, help stranger, watch the city lights sparkling on the Danube.;... the chic women of Budapest; ...notoriously intellectual country. [Berlitz Pocket Guides: Budapest, 1994 edition; pp.7, 10]

Italians: Ch.l - Italy and the Italians - No people more joyfully lives up to its legendary image than the Italians. ...The Italian people, with Latins and Etruscans mixing over the centuries with Greeks, Lombards, Normans and Spaniards, are as diverse as this panoply of landscapes, ...patriotic sense; ...naturally cheerful and friendly ... An Italian designer observed that a nation's cars are like its people: Scandinavian and German models are solid, strong and reliable, built to resist an accident; Italian cars tend to be more fragile, but slick and spirited, built to avoid an accident. [Berlitz Pocket Guides: Italy, 1994 edition; pp. 9, 14, 10]

Swedes: Ch. 1 : The City and Its People - ... they are a very pragmatic, orderly and perhaps overly reserved people with a strong sense of social consciousness. If the Swedes appear to be very materialistic, they also remain close to nature. [Berlitz Travel Guide: Stockholm, 1992, p 12]

Germans: In spite of the reputation for hard work and earnest efficiency, the Germans have a strong romantic streak and relax quite unreservedly at Carnival time. [Discover Europe. Berlitz Publishing Co. Ltd., Berlitz House, England; 1994, p.345]

While being in Russia foreign visitor must behave himself:

"The Russians ... appreciate politeness, so try to learn the words for 'please', 'thank you' and 'excuse me' before you arrive. ... Don't wait to be asked to offer your seat to an elderly person and never put your feet on the seats (in Russia this is considered a particularly rude act)." [Essential: Moscow and St Petersburg by C. Rice, 1996, p. 103]

The guidebooks that are supposed to be the manuals on culture of communication become an obstacle on the way of communication of cultures. Instead of creating a positive platform for communication, understanding and contact with another culture, very often they spread the idea that different means bad. Guidebooks of this kind prevent their readers from perceiving another culture.

Communication of cultures, as well as satisfaction with travelling is possible only with a setting of mutual comprehension or at least with a desire to understand each other. Try to look at each other without prejudice and ideas, which the guidebooks impose. Here lies the key to understanding any other culture. [14, pp. 321-334]

106