Why Do Americans Smile So Much?

I have often had questions from students from Byelorussia, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and other Eastern European countries asking why Americans smile so much.  Americans smile because we want people to be comfortable around us.   We want to welcome people.  People often assume that we don't "mean" it when we smile.   Its not that.   Its just that a smile means something different to us that it does to other people.  In a sense, we define a smile differently.  To some cultures, you only smile among close friends.   We're different.  We smile among everybody, and we try to be friendly with everybody.

Also, for those of you who wonder what I do when I'm not tutoring, here's a little treat for you--its a shot of me in a bar playing guitar.   The song I'm playing is a song by a British band called the Rolling Stones, and the song is called "Dead Flowers".  The song is an example of irony.   See if  you can tell from the lyrics whether the singer really loves the person he's singing to.

 

I'm putting this up because students often ask me what I do when I'm not teaching, or what my hobbies are. 

The reality is though that teaching is what I do for a living, it is how I make  the entirety of my living--except for the occasional magazine article that I write and publish to keep my hand in the journalism trade and the occasional show in a bar that I get paid for.

 Check out  my website for details on ESL or accent reduction lessons or call me at (732) 807-5424 to schedule your FREE phone consult  and your FREE trial lesson.   Or take a look at my American Idiom of the Day Twitter feed or my Accent Reduction and ESL YouTube Channel for more free accent reduction tips and tips on American Style small talk.   Or you can check out the podcasts to the right, which are free for download.  All right?  All right.  'Til next time...