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[artemisiabrisol]

via ohnotheydidnt's original post

I am not a figure skating choreographer. Nor I am on the planning committee of the European Figure Skating Championships (though my 2010 schedule has an opening). So I was not privy to the meetings that lead to the decision to require ice dancing pairs to perform a routine that was "representative of a country's culture."

Because

Comments

[ocelot_eyes]

(over here from Metaquotes too)

"Apparently the Russians have just never heard of cultural sensitivity."

Well... in many ways, they haven't. I come from Russia originally, and now live in Australia. In Russia people just don't HAVE political correctness. They don't walk on eggshells around everyone, worrying about offending someone - not because they want to be rude, but because political correctness is just not part of the culture. Someone makes a joke in Russia, they laugh and move on, no one feels offended.

The dancers probably thought they were doing something new and interesting, and to many Russians, Australia is a country they may not know much about. They probably just didn't stop to think about the implications and political correctness aspect, and it looks like no one told them about it before the performance...

Often I have found myself telling someone in Australia something that would be completely acceptable in Russia, and then catching myself thinking "oh shit, they're going to interpret that phrase completely differently" and apologising to the person.