After the Berlin Wall collapsed, the world population started to see Russians up close and personal. The world got to learn that Russians are not always walking with balalaika and vodka while being chained to a bear. European cities are filled with Russian-speaking tourists. They look normal. Ignore the small group of them dancing on the restaurant tables after a day of skiing in Courchevel. Russian export oil, weapons, and computer programmers. Americans and Russians became really good friends in Space exploration (where else?).
After 20 years of personal contacts lots of Westerners are still having troubles understanding the Russian Soul. Do you know why they are not smiling? Trying to figure out what Mr. Putin really means speaking while talking about Ukraine? Can’t figure out how on Earth a brigade of unarmed Ukrainian Soldiers can come up with an idea of marching toward Russian military pointing AK-47 at them? Spending $51B on Olympics to improve the image of Russia followed by the immediate invasion of Ukraine to seriously damage the above doesn’t make any sense to you? Russians programmers work for/with you and “trying to do better” get carried away and miss deadlines?
I got good news for you! Enroll into Coursera’s free trainig “Understanding Russians“. Spend 9 week working hard for 4-6 hours a day, and you may get a chance to understand Boris and Natasha. Does it worth the efforts?
yakovfain.com 
I’m thinking about attending this course…
If you will, please share your opinion afterward.
Its not worth the effort. Why in a world would I need or want to hire Russian programmers when Russians on Live Journal, forums and other public internet outlets are bashing Americans for everything that is bad in their lives, calling them names etc. completely ignoring corruption and criminal government of their own. Maybe Putin wants to give his castle in Gelendzhik to people as a hospital?
No matter where: online games, communities or real life…. if it comes to Russians you´ll always read/hear the same: they suck. And i can approve this by several experiences.
I got curious after reading your post, so I’ve taken a look at the contents of this course. It is not really about ‘what on earth is going on in their heads and how do we approach them?” as I first thought.
The lecturer is clearly Russian herself and the whole course is in this painful ‘russian-university lectures’ style, which (for me) means ‘absolutely unbearable’.
For example, this is from syllabus:
“3.3. Discourse approach to Communication. Characteristics of Communication as a Process (15.58)”
I’ve got bored after first 2-3 minutes of this. So yeah, I guess after what has been going on in Russia & Ukraine lately the world might need a course on how to deal with this madness, but this particular one won’t help one bit.
I got curious so I’ve taken a look at the contents of this course. It is not really about ‘what on earth is going on in their heads and how do we approach them?” as I first thought after reading your post.
The lecturer is clearly Russian herself and the whole course is in the worst type of ‘russian-university lectures’ style, which (for me) means ‘absolutely unbearable’.
For example, this is from the syllabus:
“3.3. Discourse approach to Communication. Characteristics of Communication as a Process (15.58)”
I guess you can imagine the rest.
I’ve got bored after first 2-3 minutes of this. So yeah, I’m afraid that after what has been going on in Russia & Ukraine lately the world might need a course on how to deal with this madness. But this particular one won’t help one bit.
Yep, at least first 2 weeks seem very boring… Not very practical course.