Finnish Culture

[Tiwaz]

[The silent people is a stereotype, that isn't really true. Put two older ladies who haven't seen each other in a while together and you will hear the town gossip, what new ailments they have, how the weather has been, etc etc, as good as anywhere else! We just don't need to have motor mouths that go running 24/7 at 80 km/h all the time.

Perhaps we should explain this little differently...

Finns do not talk with strangers easily. We do not have need to be best buddies of everyone else in the world. 99.9% of people I see on the streets are ones I have no need or reason to have any contact with. So why talk to them?

With my friends and people I am familiar/close with... I can be chatty.

I predict next question from foreigners. How do Finns make friends then? Well, that is challenge for you people to figure out. Do not want to make things too easy.

[FinnGuyHelsinki]

There are differences in how one indicates listening and thinking about an answer. When someone is talking, a Finn may not give constant verbal indications ("yes", "ok" "uhhuh",...) but rather just quietly listen. Also when asked a question and thinking about an answer, there may not be a sound ("ummm",...) to indicate that. The effect is amplified when speaking in a non-native language and needing additional time to formulate a sentence. Often it happens that the other person starts filling up the conversation instead, which makes the Finn revert back to listening. This becomes even more apparent over the phone as there are no visual clues available.

[Pursuivant]

[sammy]

Things seem not to be much brighter in Birmingham...



... a propos the Helsinki one sounds suspiciously alike to some of them Ultra Bra songs. But nothing really beats the old mega-grumpy Rotestilaulu...

[Pursuivant]

Tokyo is Jazz

[sammy]

...life's no pikuniku in Tokyo either

FF should gather it's own complaints choir... that would become a spectacle to rival any of those performed in Bayreuth. How evocative: The Meistergrumblers of Nürnberg... the Whining Dutchman... das Whinegold... Lohengripe... Carpifal... die Wail-kyre...

[pugs]

Hell, My Finnish partner and me have been together for 10 years. Still don't know what she's talking about most of the time, even in English. I yabber on to her in 'Pigeon Finnish'.................and we both end up speaking Finnglish (which is a kinda mixture). Bizarre.

Hey that's life. If we all understood everyone, life would be boring.....just go with it is my philosophy!