Moscow Impolite City

[Adel]

Report: Moscow Impolite City

The St. Petersburg Times
 
Moscow is one of the least polite cities in the world, according to a survey of 36 cities released Wednesday.

The Russian capital ranked 31st, ahead of only Seoul, South Korea; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Bucharest, Romania; and last-place Mumbai, India, according to the survey by Reader’s Digest magazine.

The most polite people live in New York, followed by Zurich and Toronto, the survey found.

The magazine sent out a team of reporters — half of them men, half of them women — to assess the politeness of residents in big cities in 35 countries.

The reporters gauged the politeness of strangers by carrying out three tests: Each followed people into public buildings 20 times to see whether the door would be held open for them, each bought small items from 20 stores and recorded whether sales assistants said thank you, and each dropped a folder filled with papers in 20 busy locations to see whether anyone would help pick up the fallen papers.

The survey found that people were just as courteous in rich countries as in poor ones and that people acted nearly as politely during rush hour as at other times of the day.
 

[Shadow]

I am very sure that if any Dutch cities would have been i the survey they would have been lower 

Most public buildings have automatic doors to avoid people getting a door slammed in their face.
The only time a sales assistant will say thank you is if you tell them you have time and they can finish their phone call to friends.
When dropping a folder with papers it all depends on if there is money in the papers. If there is expect to lose half.

[BillyB]

The most polite people live in New York

That report is hogwash. New York is known to be one of the least polite cities in America.

[TheHorseman]

I agree with Billy  NY has a reputation of being the least friendly place in America. 

When it come to Russia the same rules apply to the big city vs the country as they do here in the states.  The people in the country in Russia, ie smaller cities are much friendlier than in Moscow and St Petes.  But given that the servey was taken in St Petersburg, you have to take in to account that the people in SPB don't like the people in Moscow.  I have heard several stories from people living there about the two cities.  Oh, I have been to SPB, but only to the airports in Moscow. So I don't know from my own experience.

I guess I am just an old cowboy.  This is one reason I like the smaller cities that are way out in the middle of Russia.  Just like here the larger the city the less friendly the people.

Will

[BigG]

Gentlemen,
I beg to differ with you regarding politeness of NYC.  Our reputation for impoliteness is exaggerated.  NYC is are the business capital of the USA and most people in the central business districts are briskly moving from one business venture to another.  However, IMHO, we are more than willing to assist other people.  Whenever a tourist asks for information or directions, after we figure out what they are asking, we attempt to assist them.

NYC is truly an international city with over 50 percent of its population being foreign born!  We NYers are not homogeneous group and reflect a very diverse population.

Have a Nice Day!

[catzenmouse]

I would love to see them try this test at Sheremytevo (SP) airport in Moscow. Not only would it come in last but they would have to create a new set of negative numbers for the results. We just came through there yesterday and I can honestly say that I will go WAAAAAY out of my way to avoid EVER going there again. It was my fourth time through there and each time the experience was worse than the time before. I expect rudeness and lack of customer service in Russia but this place seems to take great pride in being the most miserable place on the planet.

Ken

[TheHorseman]

I would love to see them try this test at Sheremytevo (SP) airport in Moscow. Not only would it come in last but they would have to create a new set of negative numbers for the results.

I am with you Ken

I just went through there last month,,, fourth time for me... I hate it too.

Will

[BillyB]

Sheremytevo sucks the big one. After my first unpleasant experience there when going to Novosibirsk, I pay a few hundred dollars more going through London instead of Moscow when traveling to Uzbekistan.

[LatinSwede]

I am very sure that if any Dutch cities would have been i the survey they would have been lower 

Most public buildings have automatic doors to avoid people getting a door slammed in their face.
The only time a sales assistant will say thank you is if you tell them you have time and they can finish their phone call to friends.
When dropping a folder with papers it all depends on if there is money in the papers. If there is expect to lose half.

I used to live in Utrecht.  One of my fond memories was grocery shopping with room mates.  Back then Nederland was still on the guilder.  You know those nice carts hooked together?  Yeah, I had to put in my 1 guilder coin to get a shopping cart.  In order to get it back, I had to return the cart to the corral, reconnect it, and "mijn lieve Nederland guilden" was back in my hand.  On a really busy day (taking the cart back), any random Dutch woman would walk up to me, put a guilder in my hand and take it away.    The Dutch are know to be tightwads with their money, so this is effective.  It's like the supermarket Albert Heim was using their own stingyness  against them.  Sometimes I wish they had something like that here.  Everytime I go to the grocery store the parking lot has carts everywhere, because people are too lazy to bring it back to the coral.  In Dutch I call somebody like that a "klootzak".
 
Anything else?  Oh, I have fond memories in Het Centrum with my friends feasting on greasy unhealthy fries drenched in Mayonaise.  On occasion I'd have kipcorn or frikadel on the side, washed down with Grolsch.  Ja, dat was echt leker!