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Russia flagAleksandra
#...2 Today the friend of mine ask my — “How are you?." Simple question for simple talking). I have heard before that English speaking people usually answer — “ Fine, thanks”, or something like this. Questioner trying to be polite. As well as respondent don't want to be annoying telling about his worries. Russian mentality is slightly different. People like talking about happened last day, feelings, worries maybe hopes. It is especially works if they are talking with friends or family members, but usually except their boss))). It is absolutely normal to call or meet with your friend and talk “on souls." In big cities, where lives a lot of people, they usually have no time and, of course, they try to respect each other and no waste both time. But in small town and especially villages, people usually know everything about each other) It is nothing wrong with this, but, maybe, my answer should be shorter, I think))).

Corrections · 1

1
Today, a friend of mine asked me — “How are you?." A simple question for small talk). I have heard before that English-speaking people usually answer “Fine, thanks”, or something like this. The person who's asking (1) is trying to be polite, as well as the person who answers, which doesn't/does not (2) want to be annoying telling others/talking about his worries.

Russian mentality is slightly different. People like talking about what happened the day before – feelings, worries, maybe hopes. It is especially works/It is especially true/That holds especially true if they are talking with friends or family members, but usually not with their boss))). It is absolutely normal to call or meet with your friend (3) and talk alone, or as we say in Russian, “on souls." (4)

In big cities, where a lot of people live, they usually have no time and, of course, they try to respect each other and not to waste each other's time. But in small towns and, especially, villages, people usually know everything about each other) There's nothing wrong with this, but, maybe, my answer should be shorter, I think))).

Very interesting :) Corrections in red are important, while you can take corrections in blue more like suggestions. By the way, this is the first ever English entry I correct on iTalki. I am not a native English speaker, so some corrections might be wrong :)

(1) "questioner" and "respondent" sound a bit too formal to me. I mean, they are not wrong, but you would normally read these words in a legal context, or something like that.

(2) Contractions should be avoided in formal writing, even though people use them A LOT in everyday speech.

(3) According to what I have read, "to meet with sb" normally has a more formal tone, as in meeting with your boss or with a coworker to discuss a particular topic. This phrase is mostly used in American English.

(4) это «по душам» на русском? я не знал это выражение))

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