Russians tend to be very straightforward. If you ask them what they think, they will usually tell you their opinion, even if they feel negatively about something. Since in the United States we tend to sugar-coat things, or describe things as better than they really are, this honesty can something be jarring.
Being direct is built into the Russian language. In English, we use a lot of filler words. For example, at a restaurant we might say in English, “I would like to order pasta.” In Russian, they say, “For me, pasta,” or “I’ll have pasta.” While these phrases may sound more abrupt and rude in English, it doesn’t sound that way in Russian. The language people use to interact with each other is just more streamlined.
While people use more direct language, this doesn’t mean that they don’t express their emotions! Russians will typically tell you what they think, and they usually have quite an abundance of words to use to tell you about it. Russian has tons of synonyms. Often, objects that are called the same thing in English are described with multiple words in Russian.
