> You can, and should, speak Russian with a permanent broad smile

Funnily enough, I was told the exact same thing about English when I was learning it as a Russian native.

I learned it on my own... always imagined it as "speaking without letting the heat out"

In contrast, see “Why Russians never smile”: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27317859

Are we trying to make psychopaths? That’s sounds very unsettling for conversation.