RW and Car Etiquette…
If anything, RW maybe familiar with taxi etiquette. There are significant differences that WM will have to instruct their RW when it comes to the steel coachworks. Some of these differences are related to safety so it is important to do so as-soon-as-possible. They will not necessarily pick these things up by osmosis.
1) RW don’t habitually buckle their seat belts. In taxis only the driver and front passenger are required to wear them. Furthermore, they will only buckle up when the driver nears a police checkpoint. Consequently, RW will wonder why you are wasting time and benzene idling a parked car while wait for them (RW) to buckle in..
2) RW may exit a vehicle before it is fully parked and the engine is off. In Russia taxis may or may not turn off their engines to let their fares out.
3) If you are taking a RW to a store, as soon as you are parked she will be at the store entrance by the time you have locked your car door. RW are used to just getting out of a taxi and going straight to do their business. This can be disconcerting at first. From our side it appears that they are being very thoughtless and are taking their fiancés/husbands for granted as being mere chauffeurs. Truly, this is not their aim.
4) When picking up a WM/RW couple, the RW will ride in the back and the men in the front. As in Russia, when mixed groups gather, they will separate. Men do men things and women do women things. It is not that your RW has chosen her RW friends over you… it is just a difference in culture. This habit will most likely never change.
5) It will take some time before the RW will realize that car doors don’t need to have their handles ripped off to close them. Most RW are experienced with Ladas (the most prevalent Russian car on the road, running or not). Ladas are a typical Russian product in that they are built to last, however fit and finish is something else. To put it mildly, the doors need to be persuaded to close. After a lifetime of slamming doors, many RW have an automatic reflex in strong-arming a car door to death. Ladas can take this punishment, however our precision Western autos cannot or should not.
I offer these few tidbits that come to mind. Perhaps the causal relationship is not quite correct. If not it is just as good a story to get the point across.
Ronin
Last edited on Sunday November 19th, 2006 10:15 am by ronin1
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