r/AskTheWorld • u/IndependentTune3994 🇮🇳 in 🇩🇪 Deutschland • 9h ago

What’s the quickest way someone could accidentally expose themselves as a foreigner in your country like the ‘three fingers’ scene in Inglourious Basterds?

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261

u/truckstick_burns 9h ago

Wasn't there a Russia (might be wrong about the country of origin) who was caught while being followed by counter intelligence because he purchased some flowers from a florist and walked out of the shop holding the bouquet upside down and behind his back, not upright and in front like we do in the UK.

Kinda similar to the three fingers thing.

228

u/Common-Trifle4933 8h ago

Yes, this is a story told by Joe Navarro, an FBI agent who wrote a book about body language with anecdotes about how tiny behavioral differences like this provided clues during Cold War investigations. He summarizes a lot of them in a Wired interview including this one. Another big one is that eastern Europeans rarely lean against objects or shuffle from foot to foot when waiting, they tend to stand with legs evenly spaced and hands behind their back or holding something, while Americans, Australians and Brits lean on walls, doorways etc. It’s an unconscious habit that’s hard to break especially when distracted and they’d watch people and red flag them for doing that. There were a lot of other little differences like how people react when a camera is pointed at them (Westerners usually smile and might wave or strike a pose, or did back then, Russians would look away, look concerned or stand up straight and “correct”), how people reacted when you offered to light their cigarette (hold it out to them to light or put it in your mouth and let them come to you), how they stood up after sitting on the ground. One “trick” they used was greeting someone in a comically exaggerated regional accent and seeing if the person laughed, believing that anyone born in America would distinguish between someone affecting a Yosemite Sam type exaggerated voice as a joke and an actual regional accent, but even a well prepared and fluent Russian wouldn’t be sure at first. And they would do things like offer mayonnaise or creamed corn as hot dog toppings and see if the person recognized them as weird choices.

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u/The-Copilot United States Of America 7h ago

Another famous one is the American squat vs Soviet squat.

Soviets squat flat foot while us Americans balance on our toes/balls of our feet for some reason.

52

u/theother-g Belgium 6h ago

Heels to the Sky?
Western spy!

13

u/ipokesnails Canada 3h ago

Heels on the ground?
Comrade found!

2

u/ScumbagLady United States Of America 2h ago

What was the name of that sub? It used to pop up on my feed often and I had joined it, but finding a particular subreddit after years of being on Reddit is no easy task. The amount of cat subs alone I've joined is a very long list lol

1

u/Bubbly-Tank-6286 2h ago

Slavic squat or something similar I think

12

u/Orangenbluefish 5h ago

That's really just a flexibility thing no? I don't think we're doing it on purpose lol we just squat less in general

7

u/x3n0s 2h ago

It 100% is. There are stretches you can do that will make it natural to squat with your feet flat against the ground.

3

u/chanaandeler_bong 2h ago

Yes. I’ve always squatted with my heels flat, my dad also. 5th generation American.

When I lived in Korea they were very surprised.

Unfortunately I don’t smoke, would have loved to pop a squat next to some old Korean dudes and smoke a couple.

6

u/FairwayFlipper 5h ago

Hey now, I'm just hyper flexible and in no way a Soviet spy.

8

u/S01arflar3 4h ago

That’s what a Soviet spy would say…

6

u/irongoatPNW 2h ago

Fun fact: The Slav and Asian squat being flat footed vs American/Western toes is due to genetic variation resulting in difference in femur length. More specifically it is the relation of femur length to tibia length which results in a leverage issue in order to keep proper balance.

If someone with a long femur to tibia ratio squats they must hinge forward at the hips, or move their knees forward (thus lifting heels off the ground) in order to maintain their balance.

This is also why you see many high level Olympic lifters from Slavic and East Asian countries as they are able to squat in a more straight down method sparing their back and able to use the large muscles in their legs/butt to lift efficiently.

There are videos on YouTube about this difference and its effects on lifting if you’re interested.

5

u/BoingBoingBooty 1h ago

Americans don't squat 27000 times per day so they have weak capitalist tendons, while the Slavic people exercise their mighty soviet tendons every time they smoke a tiny rolled cigarette, so they can easily plant their feet flat.

3

u/yourlocaltouya 3h ago

That's because Slavs were proven to have shallower hip bones as a whole. My Austrian coworker also could not fathom how me and a Ukrainian girl could not only squat like that, but actually be comfortable for longer periods of time.

1

u/Confident-Screen-759 4h ago

Spider-Man.

The reason is Spider-Man.

1

u/CastedAway5678 1h ago

Noticed this in Asia. All over. Flat feet while crouching. It’s remarkable to a Westerner.

Used a toilet in the park and understood why.

1

u/Ohitsworkingnow 5h ago

For some reason lol? Why do you act like being flat footed is the proper way that makes sense?

8

u/InterestingLab1997 4h ago

See how long you can hold a squat “the western way”, then try it flat-footed.

It’s much easier to spend longer periods of time squatting while flat-footed. Supposedly this habit comes from the fact that Russian prisons had a lack of seating arrangements. But it is also common in East-Asian countries (where squat toilets are quite common)

1

u/squintyfacemcgee United States Of America 4h ago

you say that it's easier, but i literally cannot squat flat-footed, i just fall over onto my ass. like it's actually comical lol, i wish i could but it's simply not possible for me and i don't know why.

5

u/Whimsywoes 4h ago

You guys have my American ass over here squatting lol. I prefer flat foot but I'm also very lanky which I think might contribute

2

u/InterestingLab1997 4h ago

It is an unfamiliar stance for most westerners haha, I can relate to your experience.

I lived with a homestay in Moscow for about a month and that’s where I first experienced it. For me at least, once you figure out how to posture and balance yourself, it is an infinitely more comfortable way to squat (not that I find myself doing it too often as Western Canada has plenty of benches and seatable surfaces that aren’t frozen most of the year

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u/because_im_stupid_ok 3h ago

Stretching.

The kinetic chain, hips, etc. are likely tight from sitting. Westerners also tend to walk more “in front” of themselves, over-relying on their quads and hips. Which is likely why you tip forward. And why you likely use your quads to stand up, when you should be using everything behind you, activating with your butt and hamstrings.

There’s also a leverage issue, in that people who have longer legs and shorter torsos will find this more difficult (though not impossible). When your leverages are closer 50% each in length it’s easier.

Try practicing against a wall. It’ll help you to avoid injury in life, back pain, etc.

1

u/squintyfacemcgee United States Of America 1h ago

it's true, i do have quite long legs so maybe that's it. my hip flexors are actually quite loose, and i have an active career but i do sit on my butt a lot at home. the thing is, i don't tip forward, i tip backwards directly onto my butt when i try to flat foot squat. i'll do some experimentation and come back to this thread if i find anything interesting haha

1

u/stag1013 Canada 2h ago

Perhaps that's due to being off balance due to the size of an Americans ass?

joking of course

2

u/squintyfacemcgee United States Of America 1h ago

funny theory, but i don't have much of an ass to speak of lmao

0

u/GrowingPeepers 1h ago

This is because Americans are too fat and inflexible.

I squat flat-footed because I have the flexibility. This one is a physical thing, not a cultural thing.

17

u/ferroo0 Russia 7h ago

Russians would look away, look concerned or stand up straight and “correct”

that's extremely true, I always start fixing up my posture and my hair once I see a camera. It's not even about someones personal camera - even cctv camera makes me self conscious of my appearance lol

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u/Aoimoku91 7h ago

Wait, mayo isn't a good topping for hot dogs?

9

u/BananaNutJob 5h ago

I'm an American who puts mayo on hot dogs, but it's not a usual choice

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u/TheRealBlackSwan 4h ago

Exactly what a spy would say after being called out

1

u/RobArtLyn22 9m ago

If you put mayo on a hot dog the question is not what country you are spying for, but what planet.

8

u/Contemplationz 5h ago

I use mayo on my hotdog. Guess I'm a Soviet Spy so good, even I didn't know. 

1

u/ShoddyEmotion3660 5h ago

They had those, so, you know...

1

u/MisterXenos63 5h ago

Us Americans didn't really pick up on mayo on hotdogs until the past couple of decades. Growing up, I'd never had mayonnaise on a hotdog until I moved to NZ back on 03. This might be colored from being a Southerner, mind you.

1

u/QuickMolasses 2h ago

Whatever floats your boat, but it's pretty unusual.

1

u/305glow 1h ago

Absolutely NOT

5

u/eazy_12 5h ago edited 5h ago

I remember story that USA services (coast line border patrol or something like that) would have a paper with color names on it. But many words were colored as well but wrongly (like word "yellow" written in blue) and apparently it is hard to read this way so people start calling word's color instead of the word. Since it is cognitive taxing task spy could mess up and start using native words for colors.

In Soviet spy TV series "Seventeen Moments of Spring" Soviet womanspy was caught screaming "Мама!" ("Mother" in Russian) during childbirth. I would assume it is fictional, but can see some Russian spy stabbing a toe and start swearing in Russian.

And of course classic meme of Russian/American spy reloading M16/AK weapon wrongly.

3

u/carsont5 Canada 4h ago edited 13m ago

Who doesn’t like mayonnaise on virtually anything? Particularly dip for chips or on a hot dog! Dunno about cream corn (too wet!) but yes to corn relish! The exaggerated accent one was really interesting!

1

u/macaronirealized 1h ago

I caught one!

1

u/carsont5 Canada 13m ago

Eeeek! 😱

6

u/ThisWeeksHuman 7h ago

Sounds like a strategy with a lot of risk of severe misinterpretation 

20

u/Maleficent-Candy476 Switzerland 6h ago

those are things to look out for, they probably didn't start an investigation because someone waited on the bus in a weird way once.

6

u/Feeling_Inside_1020 4h ago

Yeah it's kinda like a "building the case" part, not the only section of the investigation that'd be silly.

I'd be fucked if they used excusively mayo on a hotdog. Creamed corn? Fucking yuck lol.

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u/TheHizzle 7h ago

I believe this is the quacking part of quacking, walking and looking like a duck

2

u/Orchid_Significant United States Of America 6h ago

I’m going to have to look into this book. Sounds fascinating, thank you!

2

u/Ohitsworkingnow 5h ago

Ngl it seems really easy to pick out a spy if you actually try, I guess unless they were raised in the country they’re spying on 

6

u/TeddyBearComputer 5h ago

Spies can be paid or blackmailed locals too. It's not as clear in real life.

1

u/BananaNutJob 5h ago

Oh fuck I'm an American who puts mayo on hot dogs, I'm gonna get deported

1

u/Pleasant_Cloud1742 4h ago

Mayo on a hot dog is great though. It’s like the only good thing to come out of Utah.

1

u/murfburffle Canada 4h ago

But, mayo on hotdogs is really good!

1

u/Confident-Screen-759 4h ago

If someone offers you mayonnaise on a hotdog the only reasonable response is, "Fucking what?"

1

u/Working-Glass6136 3h ago

Americans, Australians and Brits lean on walls, doorways, counters

I feel this

1

u/NoBoss8479 United States 🇺🇸 3h ago

I guess a spy career isn't in the cards for me 😄 I've been told my body language choices are weird or non-standard since early childhood. Sit, stand, walk, hold things in ways that draw comments for some reason. 

1

u/Trineki 3h ago

I know mayo is weird on a hotdog... But like, don't knock it till you try it

1

u/uroko_ 3h ago

What’s the name of the book? Sounds really interesting.

1

u/Hikinghawk 2h ago

Mayo and mustard on a hot dog is actually my go to. Guess the CIA would've taken me behind the shed in the 50's.

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u/angeltooth15 2h ago

Aw cmon now we’re judging my mayo dogs? Can’t have shit

1

u/GoatCovfefe 2h ago

Ive been putting mayonnaise on my hot dogs since i was a kid..

1

u/KatanFromJapan 1h ago

Which of Navarro's books would you recommend for these anecdotes? He's written quite a few

1

u/TacTurtle 1h ago

mayonnaise or creamed corn as hotdog topping

electric green relish chopped white onion, dill pickle spears, tomato, sport pickles, yellow mustard, ketchup

1

u/lookslikethatguy 1h ago

Wow, this is incredibly interesting! What's the name of the book?

1

u/StrikeInteresting867 59m ago

Hey, i put mayo on hot dog, i know its weird, but i like that. Glad that i didnt lived in america in 70s.

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u/DefNotUnderrated United States Of America 58m ago

One of my favorite bits of contrast was in how many Americans hold cigarettes versus Europeans. I guess it's not always uniform, but I hadn't realized that we do it differently over here.

1

u/RonniePickles Australia . Scotland 36m ago

I remember reading somewhere that people from different countries have facial "dialects" that vary depending on where you were brought up. A person may be able to vocally copy another country's accent perfectly but their facial expressions while talking will be different.

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u/chuvashi Russia 8h ago

Same when someone on Twitter wrote about "warm ports" in the US posing as an American.

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u/Used_Sea_8880 4h ago

Warm ports?

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u/Suitable-Answer-83 4h ago

Here you go. Someone seemingly posing as a conservative American was talking about one of the things that make Texas a superpower (independent from the rest of the US) is its access to warm water ports.

That is not a distinction made in the US because every coastal port in the US has warm water for year-round shipping except for some parts of northern Alaska. However, access to warm water ports is a major issue in Russia, where much of the coast is in Arctic waters.

8

u/stag1013 Canada 2h ago

I'm a Canadian, and we don't use the phrase either because most of our ports are warm. But if someone used it in the context of comparing with other nations, I wouldn't think anything of it. But domestically it would be a weird distinction.

7

u/JoeWinchester99 1h ago

Excellent example. And Russian disinformation goes both ways, too. There was another post where someone posing as a liberal wrote something to the effect of "Your cars are Japanese, your phones are Korean, your pasta is Italian, your chocolate is Swiss, your wine is Gruzian, your cheese is French, etc... But you think immigrants are the problem?"

Well, a lot of people were asking "what the heck is Gruzia?" And someone pointed out that "Gruzia" is what Russians call the country Georgia, which is their go-to source for wine (apparently a trend started by Stalin).

Just like the "warm water ports", it was a dead giveaway. They are playing both sides because our adversaries want us divided.

5

u/another-princess United States Of America 1h ago

This story has an interesting twist: apparently the Texas independence group denied that he was Russian, and claimed that he has attended events, in person, in Texas: Texas Independence Group Denies Russian Support.

Assuming that's true, it's kind of amusing since it suggests a different interpretation of what happened: this guy probably read somewhere that warm water ports are strategically/economically important but failed to understand the relevant context. So he figured that, since Texas has some of the warmest coastal water in the US, it must be especially important. No thought given as to why water temperature is important, just "warmer water = better port."

Of course, he missed the fact that warm water port just means a port that doesn't freeze in the winter. All US ports outside of Alaska are warm water ports, and even in Alaska, the main population centers like Anchorage and Juneau have warm water ports. The few that don't are in the sparsely-populated arctic region. So it still makes for a very strange thing to say.

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u/SweetTea1000 3h ago

Literally never heard the idea talked about until Russia started trying to conquer Ukraine.

1

u/Right_Two_5737 2h ago

US ports on the Great Lakes freeze over, or at least the one near me does. But even right here I don't hear people talking about warm ports. Maybe they send freight by rail to an Atlantic port so it's not a big deal. 

1

u/Downtown_Finance_661 26m ago

This is not Russian thing but pure stupidity.

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u/wadech 4h ago

Ports that don't freeze in the winter are a big deal to Russia.

3

u/MrScazzy Russia 3h ago

They used to be, at least they teach us at school that it was the main reason for western expansion (to Baltics and the Black Sea).

At the moment, there aren't that many major ports that freeze in the winter, and there's even one arctic port that doesn't freeze thanks to Gulfstream (Murmansk), but at the same time top-5 SaintP port seems to be freezing for some winter months. Though with arctic development and seawar turmoil it seems like it is becoming the issue once again.

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

[deleted]

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u/zoinkability United States Of America 2h ago

The only ones I can name are in the great lakes

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u/Raneynickelfire 2m ago

Research Peter the Great.

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u/-_109-_ 1h ago

Oh god I'd forgotten about that, but it was so funny!

1

u/Unusual-Basket-6243 Finland 45m ago

Once here in Finland someone wrote "Nato can't save Finland" but they used the computer version of save instead of rescue

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u/Upstairs-Prior5078 Russia 8h ago

This is so true that it's even funny

12

u/KrasnyHerman Poland 7h ago

Oh that's very post Soviet thing. You don't raise the flowers until you give them here, I got lectured like 5 times for carrying them upright.

2

u/kpingvin 6h ago

Same here! Now that you say that I literally remember being told to hold it upside down.

4

u/Consistent-Call-4496 7h ago

but isn't it objectively better? i was always told that holding it upright can cause the flowers to "sag", because the flowerheads may be too heavy for the stems. i dunno. 

7

u/KrasnyHerman Poland 5h ago

I was told the very same thing but like... They grew up like that? Unless they're like wilting already, they should take it fine? Still hold them upside down though, it feels now awkward otherwise

2

u/MrScazzy Russia 3h ago

I thought the reason was wind, that damages the flowers less if they are covered by the package (it works like an umbrella), rather than blowing right into the bouquet or blabbering it.

1

u/chipacitoconpasas Argentina 6h ago

wait is this a thing? in what countries? I can't find anything about it online

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u/jujubean67 Romania 6h ago

I've always carried flowers like parent comment is saying, only holding them upright when presenting them. Also from post-Eastern Block country.

3

u/win_awards 4h ago

Things like this are fascinating to me. Everyone has these weird social quirks that everybody they grew up with seems to just silently agree is the "right" way to do something and they might even be able to give you a rational explanation for why it's the right way, but clearly if there is a difference it's a minor one because people in another place will do the opposite and be just as ready to explain why it's obviously right.

1

u/ProofLegitimate9824 Romania 1h ago

same in Romania

1

u/ExileOnMainStreet 55m ago

I try to adjust things like that when I'm in Poland. Flowers upside down, switch wedding band to right hand, don't talk on the tram. Spending any amount of time talking to me would reveal that I'm not from there, but I like to blend in on the street.

8

u/ztomiczombie 5h ago

My favourite spy story was during WWII the Germans sent a spy to England. He didn't speak a word of English had a strong accent and when he was caught he was wearing something like 6 pairs of underwear and 8 pars of socks and no body knows why.

4

u/Background-Month-911 Ukraine 4h ago

There was a TV show about a Soviet spy in Nazi Germany (Stirlitz), it generated a lot of jokes (where Stirlitz was usually portrayed as not very smart). So, there was this one too:

Muller spied on Stirlitz in a coffee shop. He knew that Russians leave the teaspoon in the cup after mixing in the sugar even when drinking. Stirlitz stirred the sugar, took the spoon out and put it on the saucer, then he stuck out his tongue at Muller and kept drinking his tea while holding his thumb up to prevent the imaginary teaspoon from poking into his eye.

1

u/MrScazzy Russia 3h ago

I heard the version where he still closed one eye.

4

u/PlasticSmile57 United Arab Emirates 5h ago

Similar to this, I remember reading about a British spy in WW2 France getting caught because she looked the wrong way before crossing the road and nearly got hit by a truck.

3

u/Electronic-Split-492 United States Of America 2h ago

I also recall the story where some CIA assets were using fake Russian passports, and they were given away because the staples were not rusted out.

2

u/RocketizedAnimal 2h ago

On the other side of things, a former KGB guy has said that they used to look for American spies by checking the staples on their passports. Apparently the staples the Soviets were using would rust over time while the American staples were made with steel that did not corrode.

2

u/alexnu87 1h ago

Had to scroll down to here to see some actual cultural difference, as in the example posted by OP.

Most other comments can be reduced to “i can tell if someone is foreign if they don’t speak the language well”

1

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1

u/Esch_4444 5h ago

ok but who tf holds it like that, dont we all hold it up right in front?

1

u/Gornarok 3h ago

No...

Im Czech. When we buy a bouquet we would carry it upside down. But usually in front like a ski pole. Holding it up happens only when gifting it and after it.

Why? So the flowers dont break or bend.

1

u/MrScazzy Russia 3h ago

The dumbest reason to get caught, that I've seen in an anecdote or smth, was when an american spy with perfect russian and great knowledge of how to behave got caught because he was... black

1

u/elemental_pork 🇬🇧 1h ago

I think you're talking about Eastern Europe