I could convey similar experiences with a different Nationality on more than one occasion, but I won't do that here.

Doddy, your observations concerning this group might be 100% accurate, but I believe it's important to acknowledge that your observations are PURELY ANECDOTAL! I'm not trying to instruct you as to how to write, BUT I've been following this thread. Yours is the first remark that refers to the group behavior belonging to those of a Nationality OUTSIDE their native country.

Politely, as I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, sir, it appears that you're unaware that your tangential observation is one of the means used by bigots to induce a "verbal riot" of sorts, with other subsequent posts containing more anecdotal negative "reports" of this or that ethnic group.

I can't necessarily state that I'm a supporter of all current native Russians, but I believe I have an explanation for "your" group's lack of queuing up. While I agree that queuing up is a good practice to follow when indicated, it appears to me that this custom is held more closely to the British than others. To me, that explains why it especially was an affront to you. Permit me, just an American born in Boston, to inform you of what I observed in May 1990 in Moscow & Leningrad; at the time, technically, it was still called the USSR.

I went shopping at something like a hardware store. If you think the British are THE authority on QUEUES, get a load of this! Not one queue, but three separate queues! My mother experienced the same thing when she visited in 1975. WHY ON EARTH DOES IT TAKE WAITING IN THREE QUEUES TO BUY A FEW ITEMS?

Answer:
The 1st queue is to choose what you want to buy. You tell the store employee at the head of this queue what you want to buy; he or she then scribbles it down on a piece of paper, which you then take to wait in the ...

2nd queue. You wait and you wait till it's your turn. Then you pay schlep #2 the rubles. He/she scribbles something on a piece of paper ... and then ...

you take the paper with you into the 3rd queue, stand some more, and WAIT. Finally, the third peasant takes your miserable slip of paper, disappears lord knows how long, finally returning with the items you bought.

Do you know what REACTION FORMATION is?

I could be wrong, but I bet that Russian group in Spain had this reaction engrained in them from direct experience OR if this tri-queue system dissolved after the break-up of the S.U., the parents of the young ones in the group engrained it in them.

Peace on Earth! lev29