Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Understandable English Podcast.
It's been a little while since I've made one of these because it has been a crazy few weeks.
I am now back living again in the UK, in Northern Ireland, and I'm just starting to get back into a normal routine.
I understand that this has been a very difficult time for many people and I really hope that, wherever you are and whatever you are doing, that you are safe and well and taking care of yourself and others around you.
But today, as always on my podcast, I'm not going to talk about politics or anything too serious.
I want to talk about some of the cultural similarities and differences between the UK and Russia that I've noticed both when I was in Russia and also when I returned to the UK, and every time that I return to the UK.
So the first very, very clear similarity is that Russians also love to drink tea.
So it's a well-known stereotype that British people love tea.
And in general, we mainly drink black tea.
Black tea with milk, that is.
In Russia, people also love black tea.
It's the most popular.
And even Earl Grey tea could be found in every supermarket in Russia.
The only key difference I could see here is that in the UK probably about 95 of people drink tea with milk.
And in Russia, it's much more popular.
I know that certain regions drink tea with milk a lot more often, but in terms of the general population there are probably less people that drink tea with milk than those that don't drink tea with milk.
The second similarity and we will talk about similarities first is that I think that both cultures are quite calm.
So unlike some other nations, Russians and British people are rather calm.
They don't talk very loud and they behave themselves in a calm way when they go out in public.
However, I would say that yes, in the UK I do notice more noise, more talking in public and maybe some more loud behavior, particularly when people are drinking alcohol.
But in general, compared to many European countries and nations around the world, I would say that Russians and British are pretty similar in this area.
They are both quite quiet and quite calm in public places.
Some other similarities I would say is actually food.
So when I lived in Russia, it was very easy to get used to the cuisine.
So the Russian cuisine, Russian food, because in the UK we also have a very simple cuisine, a simple food with meat, potato sort of basic dishes.
And honestly, I didn't find the difference between Russian cuisine and British cuisine very, very different.
Of course, dishes are different and there are some different ingredients.
But in general, I would say that the overall style of cooking is not so different.
One of the key differences I noticed is that most Russian kitchen or cuisine is cooked in a pan or on a hob, so on the top of the oven.
But in the UK we use the oven for a lot of things, so we often cook with an oven.
And of course, there are some things in the UK that are very hard to find, such as Russian Smetana.
So I guess, like sour cream Tvorog, which is cottage cheese, and what else.
We also eat maybe Cucumbers a lot less than in Russia and maybe even tomatoes a bit less as well.
And these are all things that are very, very popular in Russian cuisine.
Another common love I would say between the two nations is football.
So football is very, very popular in Russia and of course extremely popular in the UK.
And it's very easy to meet a Russian in Russia that supports a British football club or really likes British football.
So both countries are very similar in that way regarding sports.
There are so many other cultural ties or connections between Russia and the UK.
I would say that, in general, both countries are quite interested in each other's cultures, whether that's for literature music, such as compositions, and famous composers poetry, all of those things.
For example in Russia.
I know that Sherlock Holmes is incredibly popular, Mary Poppins and a lot of other British classics.
And this really comes from strong cultural ties between the two countries throughout the years.
And not a lot of people think about this, but there is a real strong Russian influence in London too.
And the connections between our two countries have always been quite strong culturally.
So there are many more similarities I could talk about.
Of course.
I would finish that section by saying that the one thing you realize when you live in a very different country for quite a while is that people, in a way, are the same everywhere.
In the UK and in Russia.
You find nice people, you find not so nice people.
You find angry people, you find shy people.
You know, there's all different types of people in every country.
And of course, there are some cultural differences, but you'll always find people anywhere in the world that you can communicate with, that you can be friends with and that you will be often more similar to than maybe another person in your own country.
And I think that's pretty amazing.
So now for just a few differences.
I've already mentioned a couple of differences within those categories, but let's have a look at some more.
The first one regarding sports is of course winter sports.
Wintersports in general are not very popular in the UK because of our climate.
So we have a very mild climate.
That means it isn't very hot and it isn't very cold.
And as a result, even in the UK, many people don't know how to ice skate, so to skate on ice.
In Russia, this is extremely popular.
So winter sports such as hockey, ice skating, sledding all of that stuff is extremely popular in Russia and not so much in the UK.
Traditional winter sports or activities such as skiing are generally in the UK, associated with more wealthy people, so people who have quite a bit of money, because you usually have to travel somewhere like to France or the Alps along Europe in order to go on a skiing holiday.
But in Russia, this is a much more accessible activity.
It's something that the general population do for fun and it isn't really associated with wealth or being rich.
So another small difference, and this isn't really cultural, I guess, but in the UK a lot of people live in houses, so most of the population live in some kind of house and there's lots of different types.
So there's very small houses, there's bungalows, which only have one floor.
There's semi-detached houses, so two houses that are joined together.
Detached houses and terraced houses, so lots of houses in a row and they're all joined together.
Living in apartments in most of the UK is not very popular, but in cities such as London, of course, it is the main type of housing in big, big cities.
But in general, especially wealthy British people, they prefer to live in the suburbs, so outside of cities.
Whereas I notice in Russia that a lot of the expensive housing is right in the city center.
It's very, very popular.
On that same topic I would say one small difference is that in the UK we count floors differently from in Russia.
So in Russia, the first floor is called the first floor, so floor one.
But in the UK, we call it the ground floor, the ground floor.
And then the second floor in Russia would be called the first floor in the UK.
So in the UK it goes ground floor, first floor, second floor, etc.
But in Russia it starts straight from first floor, then second floor, then third floor.
And another difference I would say is about the temperature inside of buildings.
In the UK it's not very cold, so we often don't use heating a lot inside.
People tend to wear more clothing whenever it's cold.
And they wear things like dressing gowns.
Slippers, of course, are very popular, kind of like tapki in Russia.
And when people feel cold, they tend to just wear more clothing instead of putting the heating on.
This difference might be from the fact that oil and gas and all of those natural resources are much more expensive here in the UK, so people are a bit more careful.
It might also be from the fact that the climate is not very extreme, so people tend to worry a lot less about the cold.
And with time, of course, you just get used to not having so much heating inside.
But the side effect is that when I lived in Russia, I felt warm, really hot all of the time.
I was always so warm when I was inside buildings and apartments and even the men's room.
Oh and of course, another difference I just remembered is small talk.
So small talk is very popular in the UK.
People engage in these small conversations almost everywhere.
So whether you're in an elevator, a shop, a queue or somewhere like that, in most places in the UK you will be met with some kind of small talk interaction.
In the service industry as well.
It's much more common where small talk will be used.
The service people will be expected to smile a lot, maybe ask you how you are such questions like that, and it's a lot less common in Russia.
One similarity though, I would say in the service industry is that tipping, so leaving extra money in a restaurant, etc.
Is not that necessary.
So in both cultures it isn't such a serious thing.
You can leave a little bit of money and if you don't it won't be a big drama or a big problem.
Whereas in America, tipping, so leaving extra money is a really important part of the culture there.
And the service staff really need those tips to survive.
So I could talk about all of these differences and even more, for probably two or three podcast episodes.
I'm sure that I will continue this topic in the future.
But that's everything for today.
I don't want this episode to be too long.
So I hope that this was interesting for you.
I just wanted to share some of the differences I've noticed after living for quite a while in Russia, almost two years.
And yeah, of course, all of my life in the UK, in different parts of the UK.
So thank you so much for listening.
I hope you're well and I wish you a fantastic rest of your week and I'll see you in the next episode.
Goodbye.
