Subjects Covered

Compiled from our experience and numerous encounters with expatriates living in Russia, this afternoon is a one-time opportunity to get the answers to your most hidden questions about the largest country in the world, which you happen to live in!

Work related topics:

Ø Russian Time “management”

You feel your counterparts, friends and/or colleagues are never on time? Discover why timetables and deadlines may be taken with a lot of relativity here.

Ø Men/women relationships: Why women are so pretty and men dressed in dark?

Are Russians machos? How to adapt in Russia as a woman expatriate (business or not)? Learn why men do not always shake hands with you.

Ø Who is your Russian colleague?

Learn how typical Russian organizations are working, what means hierarchy and authority here? Understand likely reactions to your western management style.

Ø Escape typical negotiation tricks: Why do they drink and I am drunk?

How to behave in business and private meetings were vodka seems to be filling up the glasses automatically? A few tips to keep your head over water (or vodka!)

Ø Fatalism and strategy

What does it mean, where does it come from and how does it influence (your) life and work in Russia? How can you motivate employees who seem so pessimistic?

Ø Russia and the West

We are not so different after all, but still not the same… Why do we have stereotyped images of each other?

Off-work related subjects:

Ø Law & Order: Why the metro is so clean and the stair cases so dirty?

Respect of the rule and respect of the individual may have a different meaning in your home culture; learn from the other side of the mirror.

Ø Street behaviour: smile interpretation

You have the feeling the sales-people, the commuters and your neighbors are not smiling? Decipher the meaning of a smile across cultures (and in Russia in particular).

Ø The importance of the size of the country: Why size does matter, here?

Russia is the largest country in the world; understand why Russians like to think big…

Ø Friendship, family and education in Russia today

Many tips and F.A.Q.s about the Russian real way of life.

Ø Kolbassa, Kiosks, Supermarkets, etc: Why all this craze?

You are surprised to see toilet paper sold at the news stand, you are hesitating in buying ice-cream from a Kiosk, you don’t understand why it is almost posh to go shopping at Auchan, and you are stunned by the number of types of sausages available there? We will explain you why such elements are so important to Russians.

Ø The State, the uniforms and the civil society

You feel uniforms surround you? Surprised by the (non)reaction of the citizen to (what seems) strange decision by the state? Find out the Russian understanding of those organizations.

Ø Vocabulary check, the magic words: Defitcit (Дефицит), near-abroad (ближнее зарубежье ), democratic (Демократический), Europe, etc

Words that sound the same may be used in various languages, but they do not really mean the same thing. We will review a few of them that are real faux-amis.