"Strange after all, these foreigners!" Russians are sure. "Well, these strange Russians!" they think in response. Why what Europeans laugh at: doesn't it seem funny to Russians? Why do Russians make friends, fall in love, raise children, have fun and grieve differently than other peoples? Why do the polite smiles of foreigners cause distrust in them, and the careful attitude towards money - ridicule? Over the long years of teaching the Russian language to foreigners at Moscow State University, universities in Hanoi, Tampere and the Sorbonne, Alla Vasilievna Sergeeva, candidate of philological sciences, author of many textbooks and manuals, has accumulated a lot (she has been living in Paris for the last 14 years).