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Comment by Swizec | Hacker News Reader

> Anybody has any experiences confirming/disproving such problems exist in SF and Bay Area in general?

Slavic accent here. People definitely make jokes and I will probably never get used to social smiling. People generally assume I don't like them and/or that I'm mean. Easy to get around with conscious effort (used to practice the american teethy smile in the mirror).

If you're in tech, as an engineer or similar, none of that matters. If you want to be a starbucks barista I can imagine it being a problem even in SF. He did mention being in the menial side of the job market. That market is tough everywhere and why would they hire a foreigner that's culturally different when they can pick any number of other people knocking on their door?

Menial menial jobs (clenaing etc) mostly seem a market dominated by hispanics here in SF. Maybe he's the wrong kind of foreign to break into the market and build connections?

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> Maybe he's the wrong kind of foreign to break into the market and build connections?

That, and he's on the wrong side of 40, surrounded by young, low cost immigrants in a sanctuary city. Why incur FICA/Medicare/etc contributions for an actual citizen?

> Menial jobs

Guess we found and American that will do those jobs, despite the narrative we're fed.

I think the lack of network likely comes into play. When you look at service jobs, you will see some are dominated by an ethnic group or more likely nationality. SFO, Philippino; Nanny, Hispanic, Parking attendant? Barista? etc. Trying to break through those barriers is not going to be easy, specially when there is a pipeline established by the dominant group.

Well, I guess customer-interacting jobs when you are 55-year-old and don't speak very good English may be a challenge indeed. OTOH, they also would be a challenge if you speak perfect English but are an introvert, shy or irritable.

> Maybe he's the wrong kind of foreign to break into the market and build connections?

That is an interesting idea. Would like to hear some evidence for or against.

Slavs don't smile?

From what I've heard, social smiling is unknown in the Slavic world; you only smile when genuinely happy. I can't say I would object...

They certainly do, just on different occasions than Americans. Much less social "how do you do" smiling or smiling out of politeness. If you smile too much in situations that are not considered appropriate, some (especially people not exposed to American ways before) may consider you a light-weight and unserious person. You need to have a proper reason for smiling. A Russian proverb says "the laughter without a cause is a sign of a fool". Same goes with smiling, maybe less drastic.

Of course, it's a huge generalization, as many cultural broad-stroke descriptions are, but that's roughly how it is.

> You need to have a proper reason for smiling.

I wish this were common here (US) as well.

I think I prefer the US way. I know many people smile just to be polite, but I just like looking at smiling people I guess.

I agree, it's definitely more pleasant. When my mum was visiting she commented that the pleasantness of customer service was really amazing. What impressed her most was that there are people whose sole job it is to welcome yoy into a store.

But I have to admit that after the thousandth reflexive "How are you" without caring for a response, the novelty wears off. What if sometimes I'm not "Good, thanks, how are you?" ... but that would be impolite.

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