I work in a German company. A young man recently joined us as project manager. I talked like that with him and hearing my foreign accent (where without him), he asked me if I was not speaking Russian. When I find out that yes, he moves into Russian and I whisper. Very rarely you will meet a foreigner with such a literate construction of sentences and with such a good stock of words. Well, word for word, he told me that he worked for several years under a contract in Russia and Ukraine, and learned the language there. And since he managed construction objects, he mastered a magnificent and non-normative vocabulary. Since then he has only spoken to me in Russian, which clearly pleased him (it was necessary to shine and boast of his knowledge of the language).



Then I decided to take a break to buy cigarettes. I go down and see him standing, smoking. I think I am shooting at him, then I am running for cigarettes. He gives me a cigarette, and at this time I’m digging in my wallet, looking for cigarettes. When he saw this, he rounded his eyes and said:

Will you give me money for a cigarette? (I want to point out that in Germany it is normal to come and ask for a cigarette on the street and pay for it.) Don’t confuse me with these slugs. I lived in Russia.



And the pride took over us. You can teach good things in Russia.