Russians
 

There is this good old barber in some city in the US.

One day a florist goes to him for a haircut. After the cut, he goes to pay the barber and the barber replies: "I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service." The Florist is happy and leaves the shop. The next morning when the barber goes to open his shop, there is a thank you card and a dozen roses waiting at his door.


A policeman goes for a haircut and he also goes to pay the barber after the cut. But the barber replies: "I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service." The cop is happy and leaves the shop. The next morning the barber goes to open his shop, there is a thank you card and a dozen donuts waiting at his door.


A Russian software engineer goes for a haircut and he also goes to pay the barber after the cut. But the barber replies: "I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service." The Russian software engineer is happy and leaves. The next morning when the barber goes to open his shop, he finds a dozen Russians waiting for a free haircut!

yes, we russians immediately notify our secret network of fellow russians by telepathy when we smell a good deal.
this kind of reminds me of having some random american acquaintances find out my family is russian, and immediatly saying "oh, you must know dmitri!"

Yeah, I've encountered the same. It's not all that far fetched though. Russians in Chicago have social network where everyone knows everyone else through other people.

i'm a russian in chicago, i live in arlington heights. and i certainly don't know a large majority of the other russians in chicago...

Chicago is a большая деревня (big village) where everyone is connected with very many people through other people.

Speaking from personal experience.

I don't get the software engineer reference.

mozhet bit ya prosto malo ruskih znayu...ya po nastoyashemu uzhe amerikanka, ya zhivu v amerike ot 3 godika...i uzhe zabivayu ruskiy :(
a ti ne znayesh borisa? on zhivet v skokie ...
transliterated russian is so nice when you have no idea how to type in cyrillic on a computer :)

Now I'm wishing my Russian wasn't so rusty...

I know lots of Russians in Chicago, and there are a bunch that live in Rogers Park. One of my coaches from my fencing business is Russian, and he's constantly doing stuff with other Russians.

That's the main profession that Russians get upon arriving to the United States. Either that or programming.

The Jazz, yeah. Rogers Park, Arlington Heights, Wheeling, Crystal Lake, etc are all densely Russian populated places nowadays. Skokie was once too, but everyone started moving north after a certain point in time.

Yelizaveta, you cannot forget Russian in just 3 years. I've been here 8.5 and it's far from forgotten. And at my age, it was much easier to forget (13 upon arriving, 21 now). By the way, Boris who?

no, i've been here for 15 years, since i was 3 years old, not for 3 years lol...
and i don't want to mention random other people online with last names :)
i don't think that there are that many russians at all in arlington heights, I went to prospect for a year and i was one of the only ones there...

I figured you wouldn't and my mistake.

and besides, I haven't forgotten russian, my vocabulary just keeps getting narrower and narrower...

Mine just keeps increasing. I work at a Russian company plus having Russian speaking friends helps. They usually know a lot of new words that I don't.

makes sense...
unfortunately, I don't really have much contact with russian speaking people outside of my parents and their family friends. My friends all tend to be american, which is why although i claim russian, i feel more like an american with some extra cultural experiences. besides, my bf thinks it's hot that i'm russian, lol...

You may have been born in the former USSR, but you are pretty much American in my eyes. Your parents might have been a great contribution in instilling Russian traditions and values into you (or not, I don't know), but without actually experiencing Russian culture firsthand (something you couldn't have done at the ripe age of 3), you miss that certain characteristic that makes a person...well...foreign.

I'm not sure if that makes sense, though.

it definitely makes sense, yet i do feel as if my place of birth and the contact i have had with my parents and their exclusively russian friends does make me different than most americans who have been here for generations. Having that contact with a second culture and growing up in a house where english wasn't spoken gives me a different outlook on things sometimes. i really can't classify myself as 100% american. english wasn't my first language, and i only began to speak english when i was 6 and began school in america.