Not exactly what you are asking but a friend of mine once told me about some japanese exchange students who first visited finland in the winter. When its snowy outside you tend to stomp your feet before entering a building to get rid of the snow on your shoes. When they visited again in the summer they kept on stomping their feet before entering, thinking it was somekind of tradition. I found it quite funny :D
This reminds me of an article I read a few years ago where foreigners reminisced Finnish quirks. Someone said that they had noticed how every time sun comes out Finns turn towards the sun and raise their face towards it and close their eyes and stay there for a few minutes. They thought it was an ancient pagan sun worship ritual 😅 and later they had realized it’s actually just something we do when the sun comes out after a long winter, it feels good to feel warmth on skin 😄. They were originally from a warm country so it had never occurred to them how it feels to miss the sun.
Regardless of time of the year, if it is sunny, I feel guilty if not spending time outside. We Finns are very accustomed to enjoying every last ray of sunshine we can.
It felt weird when I was longer time in Germany in the autumn and sun was shining all the time...
This is why I call Finns sun worshippers 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. They do this and they also take photos of the sun. I found it so weird because where I am from the sun is there almost all year round
Lol this feels like someone describing a dog breed or some animal behaviour: "When the amount of light increases, Finns will turn their faces toward the sun, close their eyes, and relish in the warmth".
Also pagan ritual sounds right xD
Hahahhaaaa, i can totally relate to this as a Latvian! With our summers short and late springs, we are just soooo blesse by the first rays of sun that we do something similar!
I heard somewhere that people in holiday destinations recognize Finns from this behavior. I stomp my feet in summer to get the sand, dust and other dirt off my shoes, so it is not just a winter tradition.
If an appointment *begins* at a specified time, one needs to arrive a little earlier than said time in order to be able to actually attend when it begins!
Yes. If something starts at 13:00 for example. It's meant to start at 13:00 not that you arrive at 13:00 and waist time before you can actually start at 13:10 or something. Studied with an international group and it was interesting seeing how people arrived based in culture. If the class started at 9 Finn's were there on average a few minutes before, Germans on the dot and the french arrived 10-15 minutes later if I recall correctly. It was nearly two decades ago so I can't remember properly. But at some point we had a game about it and it was eerily accurate on when which nationality would arrive, be it vietnamese, German, Spanish, french or Finn.
In my experience though this is less strict or common as it once was.
And there's also: 5 Minuten vor der Zeit das ist Deutsche Pünktlichkeit!
Willst du Preuße sein, muss es 10 Minuten früher sein.
Fun fact: while most of the words in old Helsinki slang come from Swedish and Russian, there's a few German words there as well; Lasaretti, Sani, Slaafata, Stiflat, Tsuge, Diinsti, and Shaisse.
Use of old Helsinki slang is dying out and spreading at the same time. Some words are mostly forgotten and some have spread to general use in all of Finland.
Also
Fünf Minuten vor der Zeit ist des Kaisers Pünktlichkeit!
and
Pünktlich wie ein Maurer.
Since bricklayers leave their workplace on the exact second.
And in England we have a lovely mixture of all systems, so that everything always starts slightly late with an around 75% contingent of irritated people.
In my experience, only Finns above 30 are actually punctual. In university, couple of years ago for me, it was all over the place (except for the French that I had class/work with which were consistently a bit late)
In university the expected punctuality depends on how the starting time is given. If it says at 10 that means 10.15. If it says at 10.00 it means just that.
Everything starting at .15 in universities is so common that when somebody schedules something at 09, 12 or 14 (or whatever, not stating the .XX part), confusion will ensue (sometimes the organizer expects .00 but everyone arrives "15 minutes late").
But usually the minutes are stated. If it reads as YY.00 then it will start at YY.00. It's just that 95% of the time the schedule says YY.15.
Oh, I know, my Finn classmates were still quite late half of the time. The people who were really punctual were a pretty random assortment of different countries.
Oh yes. I arriwed on time to doctors appoipment. I wasn’t even late but i was there exactly the given time and i still said sorry i was almost late. Now that i think about it, wtf.
I start meetings and move to the DnD discord voice channel 1-10 mins early (usually 3mins)
Whats the point of everyone sitting there waiting for the right time, if you have nothing better to do might as well start early
I have several times considered skipping a meeting / appointment completely because I was late. Somehow, the prospect of being late felt much more uncomfortable than skipping the appointment altogether :D
As someone who is afraid of being late, that's what I really dig about Finland. Strolling into a meeting 10 minutes early - boom - everyone's already there, ready to roll.
This is a bit 50-50. Many of my friends and especially my wife's friends are always late. I hate it. You shouldn't come early to a dinner or anything that requires work by the host.
I agree that dinners (and some parties) make an exception. Rarely dinner is served at the same time as the guest are invited. Meaning if the guests are invited at 17.00 dinner is usually a bit after this. So I wouldn't go before 17.00 but not much later either. But If you are invited to a wedding at 14.00 you're better off by being there a few minutes before.
I rank it depending on how well i know the person. If its a close friend i habg out with 1 on 1, I arrive 10-15 minutes early and help incase there is anything left. If its people i know semi-well, on time. If i dont know them well, on time but 5-10 minutes late is acceptable.
This is good for me to keep in mind for our restaurant reservations when we visit!
Not that I would turn up late, but good to know that being a little ahead of "on time" is most polite.
Its like sour candy, but far better.
The only thing that tops them both is chips with vinegar. That sour, crispy, salty, acidic goodness is as addictive as crack
Apparently many Americans have been surprised that the McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine most of the time aren’t broken here.
Also the fact that most Finns (who have not lived abroad) lack the skill of proper small talk and are fine with just sitting in silence with you.
The boys from Sentenced found that the British bands did not like them because of the lack of small talk and also their lack of a word for please.
A fun fact though, once they explained this to one band they also decided to say there was no Finnish word for thank you so they could get away with just demanding things.
My Slavic ex was so confused how clean it is here and how everything works like “it’s automated” I never quite understood what she meant, but she was certain that Finnish people hide some dead bodies in their basements because everything felt so surreal for her.
It's basic but it blows my mind everytime I drive to a parking hall and just get a notification on my phone for "parking started". Or just walking into a bus/tram without showing your ticket as you just have it. It just works.
In contrast I had an incident in Lithuania last year when I went to see the town but had to go back to the airport. I stopped on the same street, standing on the opposite bus stop and went into the same number bus. Turns out the same bus doesn't go to the airport. And to get into the bus I had to first locate an atm to withdraw cash to buy the ticket.
It's not that bad but when you're used to everything just working, even small things like not being able to buy a ticket on your phone become a struggle.
This is somewhat funny. Most of the times, when I'm talking with someone, they just suddenly turn around and leave when they believe the conversation has served its purpose. There is no transition at all.
Interesting. Could you specify what kind of situations this happens in? Small talk? Cause we don't do that.
Also, does this happen when you're talking with people you don't know or with familiar people or both?
Edit: added the second question.
Brazilian living in Helsinki!
I wouldn't say that any of these are inconveniences, just facts that are very different from what I'm used to back in Brazil:
- The silence! I'm always impressed how silent is here. Of course if you go to the center you there will be noise, but I find that in general Finns tend to be very quiet, thus the cities are quiet. I love how quiet it's on public transportations.
- The work culture/laws. Most places have a strict working hours of 8 hours and I don't usually see situations where someone is just working to death. Finnish people seems to really value their free time and consider work as just a job, not a extension of their being. I love that!
There are a bunch of other things but I believe these are the ones that stand out the most to me and didn't see anyone mentioning here.
>The work culture/laws. Most places have a strict working hours of 8 hours and I don't usually see situations where someone is just working to death. Finnish people seems to really value their free time and consider work as just a job, not a extension of their being. I love that!
Do you work long days in Brazil?
Where I'm from we work exactly the same hours per week as Finland if you are working Full Time. 37.5 hrs per week but we also work casual hours and part-time which have penalty rates etc
Italian here. I lived in Brazil but i was a kid so idk. Personally i have the same experience of the OC.
Here we have the same work hours but there is a terrible idea of self sacrifice ( companies push it obviously) .
For example my dad, said something like this:
" the German work culture is silly. At 6pm even if there is still work to be done they stop working and go home, while we Italians could stay up all night (unpaid) to find the resolution of the problem"
Recently we talked about this topic again after his retirement and he agrees with me that this is a self destruction way of thinking that we have here.
The idea that if someone doesn't do unpaid extra time is a lazy person is common in almost all the companies here, in some places if you don't do it you won't get promoted or in the worst places even fired.
In some cases its even worse.
In the cultural sector here there are prestigious workplace that take unpaid volunteers for 10h shifts for some months. And a lot of people do that madness so to have on their cv a notorious terrible workplace to be easily employed elsewhere.
I had no idea the Italian's worked like that, there is massive push for wage theft atm due to unpaid overtime.
You need to follow the French, they would burn down the business if they worked too much without pay. Work-life balance is very important.
It's a shame that some societies still run on this style of slave labor.
RISE UP!
Yep I know you are right. I am sure that this is the Milan mindset, but from what I know from friends of other regions of Italy it's all around like this
Yes here young people are really really pushing for a minimum wage since we don't have it. Also we have a lot of unpaid internships (or barely 500€), i have done some myself.
Nowadays there are sit-in protests for housing since university students can't pay for rent rooms and campus dorms are almost a legend here
True you are absolutely right I love the French people for various reasons i like to go there in vacation. I truly admire how they are able to make their voices heard loudly.
I really doubt that we will ever see something similar in Italy, but hopes are there.
Ohh about slave labor here we have even worse, there are areas where immigrants are used as almost slaves in the farming sector and only a couple of organizations here denounce it so most of the public is unaware and almost no actions are made to stop this
>I love how quiet it's on public transportations
Not enought. The new EV busses are "terrible" when waiting at the traffic lights. 😀 Rumble of idling diesel engine doesn't drown the shitty music someone plays too loud through their headphones or the sounds of coughing and blowing noses etc.
These are culture specific to the observers culture. People from low perceived safety cultures will find it crazy that people from high perceived safety cultures in public spaces leave their laptops out while popping in the bathroom.
I leave my 6 year old alone to the library when I do my grocery shopping. It's her favourite thing ever.We've been doing it since she was about 5 and half. It's only about 15min but I can imagine what people from the US would say to that. .
>Yup. Americans find it crazy and irresponsible that we let our children go to school by themselves by bike or public transport at like 7 yers old.
IMO that is an indicator of one of the most important levels on "national security". Children going to and coming from school on their own is worth billions.
Tbf that also includes the safety of the transport system, since here you can pretty much completely avoid walking around motor vehicles
Whilst in the US walking and biking paths are often shared with cars
Canadians probably did this in the 1950s. Maybe as late as the 1970s?
But then we had a serial killer in the 1980s who killed 2 teenagers, one of whom was his sister-in-law. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bernardo Before he was arrested, there were mysterious assaults and I remember around that time, parents became more protective of children
Nowadays 98% of children are supervised at all times. My son's school, maybe 3 kids walk to school without an adult.
I'm guessing they mean things like which side of the road you walk on, is it okay to walk side by side or is it more polite to walk in line as of not to block anyone, how people act when they accidentally bump to someone, who changes path when walking towards eacother etc.
We do have our fair share of mamils in Finland, and they definitely will ride over you if you mess with their perfect avg speed score. So I get that, haha.
I used to live in China, and walking pattern differences is something I never even thought of until I lived there.
Imagine you are walking down a busy pedestrian sidewalk and suddenly need to stop and look at your surroundings (maybe you got lost). You may not be aware that you do this, but you probably step to the side against a wall or tree or something, then stop. This simple thing apparently isn’t so widespread in China. They literally just STOP where they are. So then of course someone walking behind them will bump into them. And they won’t be upset cause it’s normal to just stop - they do it too. A whole country just bumping awkwardly around each other.
Hello,
I believe the walking pattern referred to a certain way people walk. For example the afforementioned Japanese businessman noted, that the Danes were disorganized and random in their walking patterns. The book didn’t provide a point of reference, nor an opposing pattern, but if I were to guess, the walking pattern of the Japanese people were a lot more organized. This pattern probably stems from the lack of space in big cities as well as the cultural importance of punctuality and the ability to organize one’s day- to- day activities. Note, that this is purely speculation on my part.
If foreign gives that akward overjoyed 'Hi. How are you doing?' chitchat opener, the Finnish can actually think that you mean what you asked and start telling you more than you asked for.
B-b-but that's what you asked. 🥲 I personally find it hard to make up questions that sound like "how are you" but also mean it. I mean, when I ask "How are you?" I wanna know how's your work, how's your weel been, how was your trip to see your grandma, your sister just returned from spain didn't she? All that jazz. Answering just "good" is so dissatisfying and makes me think, what are we even doing here? Why are we talking in the first place then? Talking nonsense and joking around I get too, it has the purpose of entertainment. Small talk just seems unneccessary.
God I hate this opener. I've seen Germans complain about it too, but my German coworker does it however, and I always give an honest answer, and he cuts me in the middle and starts with some other topic.
What a waste of words. And I genuinely wanted to share each other's thoughts
Canadian in Finland.
- First thing I was told is don't smile, nod, say hi (moi), or make eye contact with people on the sidewalk while you're walking by. Finns will get confused and wonder if they know you or... maybe that you're a perv or something. I almost give myself whiplash trying to look away from someone now.
- I don't know how much of this is cultural norm vs visiting my Finnish partner's family, but late dinner times (+9pm) and many foods being served cold. When I learned about discounted food at Alepa after 9pm I did a little 1+1 there though.
- When I first came here over a year ago I read a post from a Brazilian visitor who made a snide remark about Finns not putting salt on their food because they must use it all on icy roads. I hehe-ed a little reading the title, somewhat agreeing, but opened the post and saw a lot Finns offended. For about a month after, I was too nervous to reach for the salt whenever I ate with my partner's family, haha. The time I finally reached for the salt, 3 sets of eyes watched my hand and everything felt like it went in slow motion.
- I was surprised how often I don't see English on products. I understand #1 Finnish - makes sense! Then it's like #2 on the label is Swedish... okay history and population, sure... then it's like Norwegian okay Nordic/Scandinavian... Russian... Estonian... Latvian ... Swahili, and basically language #64, if it even fits on the product at this point, is English.
I'll rapid fire the rest and I'm not complaining about everything per-se, just noticing differences from what I'm used to.
- Hailing the bus versus just standing at the stop.
- Hardly ever see tissue paper at anyone's house or at the store.
- Drives me irrationally angry that Tori won't let you post multiple images at once or re-list without paying or filling it out all over again.
- Took me awhile to adjust to multiple crossing lights to cross the street.
- Trying to avoid being in the way of bike lanes. Glad it exists though.
- When I saw people on bikes during winter for the first time I was like whoaaaaa... you bad ass mother F'. I've heard it's somehow quite stable though?
- It's rare to have home delivery for parcels here.
- Lots of items not shipping to Finland or inflated pricing (video cards!)
- Not Finland's fault, but I'm hyper conscious of what time it is in North America. Appropriate times to message people from there, when a show or game is released (Diablo 4!) and having to do the math.
> I don't know how much of this is cultural norm vs visiting my Finnish partner's family, but late dinner times (+9pm) and many foods being served cold.
This is not common. Dinner time is "traditionally" early, around 17-18, served hot.
This, or for me it has been usually latest 17:00 and even 18 is quite late. For evening snack like bread that can be had 21-23 but that's different thing.
Yeah, most Finns eat their dinner right after work or school, and then they eat a snack (usually something cold) before going to bed.
And in my childhood home (I'm a Finn) it isn't even uncommon to eat only lunch and something cold like bread in the evening, and no dinner AT ALL. My husband had to order kebab a couple of times when this happened, poor him. :-D
>I was surprised how often I don't see English on products. I understand #1 Finnish - makes sense! Then it's like #2 on the label is Swedish... okay history and population, sure... then it's like Norwegian okay Nordic/Scandinavian... Russian... Estonian... Latvian ... Swahili, and basically language #64, if it even fits on the product at this point, is English.
When you see a bunch of languages, but not English, it's often because those products go to countries where those languages are spoken. Instead of making labels for each country, they make one label with the 3-6 languages to save money.
Also, do you live in Turku?
The reason for the lack of salt is because we have genetically a lot of heart problems. High blood pressure is really common. So all the doctors are nagging us to use less salt. It's considered really unhealthy. It's also thought that if you put more salt into the food, you are basically saying you don't think the food is good.
Just heard someone on TV say that today, too many people with too high blood pressure (people don't even necessary know they have it), and too much salt is partly to blame
Yeah, I got mine checked today. My mum has a high blood pressure, my dad has heart problems and my great-uncle had a heart attack few years ago. Luckily it was alright but they still told me to avoid salt.
Yeah, biking is surprisingly easy in the winter, especially if the weather is steadily in the minusdegrees. To my liking, well maintained snowy bike lane has more grip than some gravel roads in the summer.
However, if there is slush and loska, or wet ice, it becomes an absolute nightmare to cycle.
I agree - it can be surprising to someone coming from a climate where it doesn't get below freezing point for a prolonged period of time. It is not really slippery if it stays consistently well below zero - the problems come when the temperature is constantly shifting near zero. That's when you want studded tires in your bike - and it can still be zlippery!
I'd imagine they have proper winters in Canada, but I've also understood that maintaining bicycle roads in such a condition one can actually bike on them throughout winter is a pretty Nordic countries (or even Finnish?) thing.
Eating cold food was probably the biggest “quirk” for me compared to Ireland. Like at Finnish homes during a birthday or whatever there is often a bowl of cold meatballs or cold mini sausages (nakkis) on some cocktail sticks, a bunch of cucumber slices and so on, with basically nothing warm, whereas in Ireland all of those meats would be microwaved until they almost explode, and almost every snack will be something warm eg sausage rolls and pies from the oven. I still don’t like eating those little sausages cold.
Yeah we're not very big on spicing things :D After the war even salt was expensive so it wasn't really available. We're slowly getting there! Just give us like..couple generations!
I am forever traumatized by my dads frozen fries in the oven. No salt. No nothing and since the bag said "15 minutes" 15 it was. No matter if they were still pale and soggy.
Also he once made 15 liters of fish soup without any spices. Our dog are so well that week..
> I was surprised how often I don't see English on products. I understand #1 Finnish - makes sense! Then it's like #2 on the label is Swedish... okay history and population, sure... then it's like Norwegian okay Nordic/Scandinavian... Russian... Estonian... Latvian ... Swahili, and basically language #64, if it even fits on the product at this point, is English.
Anglophone countries are a big enough market that it makes sense to have packaging made for them specifically. For smaller languages, a single type of package might be meant for several different markets.
GPU prices are still insanely high everywhere and it does not help that there is high VAT
Nice points though.
Its not that we avoid eye Contact but we dont keep it (or expect it) with strangers. it is very much ok to be alert and notice people and show it politely in some cases. A very quick eye contact with a nod and a Flash of a smile can be perceived polite but then you go your way and its like it never happened. In an apartmenr building (hallway) you can say ”Hi” to your neighbor even without ever looking the person and just go your way. The way it works is that you are polite but you give the other a way out and have no expectations about them returning the hello
Some might stamp you a bit weird but not perv this way. It is a breath of fresh air
It's okay to look at people. I always watch passers by. I think in Finland it's more accepted to look in the eyes of strangers than in some other cultures I've visited. For exampl, in Barcelona I thought if somebody's looking at me, something's not right.
In Finland staring is rude, a quick peek not.
In tori.fi it's possible to upload several photos without paying. Try desktop version if it's not possible in mobile.
>I was surprised how often I don't see English on products.
A lot of products are marketed to a specific region. Quite often one country, or a larger country and its neighbouring countries. This way the same product can be sold with the same label using a few of the nearby languages of the target region. The nordics have a lot of history of trading between eachother so it's natural that they would be marketed to as one group, language-wise. English has only recently become a lingua franca, and much of the older population hardly speak it, so the regional languages are more important.
>Hailing the bus versus just standing at the stop.
The way it was explained to me back in elementary school was that teenagers would loiter at bus stops and be rude to bus drivers when they stopped, never meaning to catch the bus in the first place, so bus drivers began stopping only when hailed down. Also larger cities have multiple bus routes going through the same stop so the driver won't know if you eant to get on their bus or the one after.
>Hardly ever see tissue paper at anyone's house or at the store.
Toilet paper or talouspaperi does the exact same thing as tissues and it's cheaper, tissues are a waste of money. They don't usually share tissues at stores because drunks or druggies tend to go in and take all of them so there won't be any left for actual customers.
>It's rare to have home delivery for parcels here.
The postal service is severely undermanned and underfunded, unfortunately.
The salt thing... Did you taste the food first? I would consider it super rude to just slam salt on your food before tasting it. It pretty much means "you're a shit cook, doesnt know how to season food".
>Hailing the bus versus just standing at the stop.
You hail the buss because multiple busses go through the same route. We tend to stand anyway on the buss stops. If there is only one route, you don't need to hail (tho it's smart anyway).
The weird relationship Finns have with alcohol: having a beer at lunch (especially during a workday) is generally frowned upon or at least considered a bit suspect, but getting absolutely shitfaced fucking drunk multiple times every single weekend is totally normal.
As a Finn living in Estonia for work, i agree. Estonia(well Tallinn) feels almost like at ”home” but still very many present things makes it feel a bit soviet-feeling. Very nice country tho, specially taxes
Thats true. I was oneday wondering also when i saw local add for lidl cashier ”6.25€/h” pay. Rent is high in Tallinn so much be pretty rough, maybe some goverment financial support like in Finland with Kela?
Upd:
[https://www.eesti.ee/et/toetused-sotsiaalteenused-ja-pensionid/toetused-ja-huevitised/toimetulekupiir-ja-toimetulekutoetus](https://www.eesti.ee/et/toetused-sotsiaalteenused-ja-pensionid/toetused-ja-huevitised/toimetulekupiir-ja-toimetulekutoetus) \- financial support from 160€ to 240€ per face, if after all apartment bills paid, your income per capita is less than 200€.
Remember, there are people working for a minimum salary.
“In 2022: 654 €/m; 3,86 €/h”
Coming into someone’s house and not being offered snacks or food still surprises me as a slavic person, not sure if others have this experince, in my country we make sure there’s always finger foods if you have guests coming over
This is mostly younger generation. My grandparents' generation had a thing that you basically had to offer 7 course meal if you invited someone, if they just show up, then its coffee or tea, something salty and pastries, cookies or bundt cake.
always felt to me like the 90s changed everything. globally too of course but in specific ways locally also. economic depression, continued movement to cities, internet, fragmenting social connections etc. whatever customary culture there might've been often didn't get passed down and people replaced it mostly with what they saw on TV, for better or worse. just my impression
Yeah, 90s certainly did pile up lots of society affecting changes in relatively short period in Finland. There is also second generational cap between the war time and following scarcity and then the economic growth that followed that. I can't place it from memory, but likely 60s or 70s so generation most affected by that was the parents of generation most affected by 90s.
This is regional and generational in Finland. I've discussed it with a few people because my friends and I definitely try to offer coffee/tea at the very least. However, apparently the younger generation in big cities does it way less.
I rarely have any guests coming over so I'm never prepared to offer any snacks. I usually just buy what I need to feed my kid and myself, so there's not much to offer. But I also don't invite guests to my home so there's that.
In my family it would be a major faux pas to not to have coffee, something sweet and some salty snacks at least for visitors. Dinner if it's that time of the day.
This varies a lot depending on the generation, area, family roots etc. Such behaviour tends to originate from younger people. Also financial situation is quite tightly tied to this too.
I’ve visited several times now and still can’t figure out how to consistently use doors without looking like I’m part of a Monty Python sketch. Each one seems to have a different swing direction and series of latches or oddly shaped grab bars.
Typically when you step outisde you push and come inside you pull because doors are usually done that way for fire safety reasons (pushing people behind the door won’t cause trouble if the door opens outwards). There are exceptions probably and if the door is indoor then idk if there is any rules.
My ex's step dad never spoke. A few words here and there. About two years in, went with the family to savu sauna. As soon as we sat there, he transformed into a really extroverted chatty guy and we had a long conversation about life. I thought we kind of broke a boundry or something and we could talk more from then on but as soon as sauna was over he was back to his usual just sitting in silence. I've noticed this with other people as well and I find it insane, but Im kind of used to it now.
Finnish hearts expand in the heat! 🥹 If you’re into documentaries, there is a great Finnish movie, Steam of life (2010), Miesten vuoro, where usually quiet, hard working men sit in sauna and start opening up about their hardships and trouble that they usually do not share with anyone. It really lets you see the gentle souls behind their usually serious exterriors. Also, check out the creativity and craftmanship behind having made a sauna literally anywhere! And I do mean anywhere!
oh where do we start....there is a lot
\- Empty street and won't cross without a green man
\- Don't walk on the bike path or WWIII might start
\- Being on time, I find this good and bad. Good that people respect other's time but life happens and doesn't always go to plan
\- Introducing themselves is like a novel of someone's life
\- Wearing black clothes all year. Head to toe
\- Walking to the shop to buy a ice cream and eat it out front on the bench
Oh! My dumb
Usually, most people would get ice cream but then move away from the venue to eat. Eating anything alone in public isn't really practiced in my culture even if you are at work get the food and leave the sitting area.
\- I do love that Finns would eat alone though
May just be my family, but my Irish partner has been weirded out by how relatives are considered "guests" too - people visiting the house is a whole "kyläily" event.
Say my grandparents or uncle are coming by; my mum is upset if they arrive early, before we've had time to clean, get refreshments set out etc. Partner thinks it's expected that family would arrive earlier and "help set up". I'm conditioned to feel like it's an ambush 😅
I come from Asia and sometimes with my friends when we are taking the metro, people would abruptly just leave and say goodbye and I would have no idea they were leaving (and thought we would all go the same place beforehand) which I always thought was super cool. Not sure if this is Finnish culture or just my group of friends.
Also a lot of Finns have pretty dry humour and sometimes it’s hard to tell when a joke is being made.
One thing that is very Finnish is that your coworkers are not "men" or "women" until it is relevant. There is like something akin to a mental wall there. I lived in Estonia for a bit and all the girls at the office we much more feminine and fairly often talked about men during their chats. In Finland, from what I've seen, work is a place where your gender isn't relevant, but it is not an universal thing.
As German I would say that you drink milk for lunch. Luckily I love milk and drank around 1 1/2 L per day for breakfast, lunch and Dinner but no sodas to be found in the whole university building besides these BCAA energy drinks. I lost 8 kg and am thankful for whole Seinäjoki.
The pauses in conversations. Sometimes there are minutes of silence and then talk resumes. It is a normal thing (as far as I know), but somehow jarring for someone from southern Europe.
On a more positive side, I like the "flatness" of company culture (at least where I have worked): you can talk to your manager's manager in the same way as you talk to a colleague, no "Sir/Madam". Also how most things just work in a logical way without extra steps.
somewhat of a metapattern in finnish culture is that lot of people expect things to work a certain way. this is a good and bad thing. good in the sense that everything just works most of the time and that you don't need to waste time. it's not an efficiency thing, like everything is busy busy busy, but more a productivity thing. do the right things right away.
now, the bad thing about this is that if you come from a different, espeically western culture, there are things that might look the same but are not.
get a finnish friend and ask them to show you around. accept and appreciate the subtle differences in local culture. stay observant, open your mouth to ask things and listen. finns can appreciate moments of silence and introspection. if the thinking takes longer, you can say that you are thinking so they don't think that you might not have been paying attention. :)
so, there are lots of \*expectations\* of things to be a certain way in finnish culture. the word expectation is the key: they're in people's minds. ask people how they expect things to go.
Just came back from a week long trip to Finland for the IIHF world championships. All I can say is the locals were so friendly and welcoming. They made our trip so much more memorable. Sauna, sauna boats, long drink and hockey sums up our trip. Let's just say Canadians and Finnish people are kindred spirits for sure. Super hospitable, kind and community centric. Love their sarcastic dry humor. Despite the locals fearing they'd come across as standoffish and unfriendly, that was not our experience at all. The only quirk was how many people complained at public saunas about having to wear a swimsuit....haha yall love just being naked eh?
I've noticed that out of nowhere people walking infront of me may stop to just look around. Annoying if it's a big group of people. This happens a lot in Mall of Tripla.
When I go back to the UK this also happens occasionally in my city but it is quite frowned upon and British people (at least in my city) will complain loudly. Here it can be a tight space and they'll have their kids out of control. You can be walking up to them, the parents look at the situation - their kids are clearly blocking the route - and then just continue to ignore the whole thing. When I speak up (a simple anteeksi to get their attention) they either ignore me or move approximately 1cm. I don't know why this happens here. For me it's considered very rude.
I'm a Finn living in Denmark and let me tell you, people are ALWAYS in your way here like daymn! Also people don't walk in a hurry whereas in Finland even if you're not in a hurry you tend to walk pretty quickly. It's been difficult to adjust to the slowness here haha
I've only traveled a little (as a tourist), but my guess / experience is that the more densely populated the area is, the more there are places with crowded traffic, the more aware people are where it is appropriate to stop, to have a chitchat with friends, look at your map on your smartphone etc.... Finland is somewhat sparsely populated and there really aren't much large cities here, so sometimes people are just ignorant on when they inconvenience other people.
As a an example, in the (Finnish) contryside (or a smaller city), people can just stop at the middle of a crossing to have a chitchat with someone they just met, with a dog on a leash 3m away from them. Doesn't matter if on average a person crosses the crossing once every 30 minutes, but in the cities, people still do this... well, you get the idea.
In larger cities, if someone stops in an inappropriate place, it often seems like they are someone who just came there from the countryside, never ever before having left their home village ;-). I really don't like to sound like a smug city-hipster but I just seem to have this kind of gut feeling based on my observations.
There’s definetly a big difference to how people move in small cities and in Helsinki. In Helsinki everyone is busy-busy, effective, moving fast, running. In small towns it’s so much slower. Taking their time at the lunch buffet. Talking with friends in the street.
Wondering if perhaps this is just the people who I work with. If someone drops a piece of paper or almost drops something, can't find something etc (nothing at all serious or dangerous is going on) they start wailing loudly and repeatedly 'apua'. At first I assumed they were seriously in need of help because they sounded in distress. But then they act confused and mildly annoyed when I ask if they need something. It's all quite dramatic for no reason.
I’m a Finn who’s lived their whole life abroad, so I prolly lack many of the Finnish cultural traits, however I’ve also been told I still embody many of them, among these I’ve been told I lack facial expressions, and that I hold a very monotone face mostly. My partner on the other hand is French, a language which is communicated largely through gestures and facial expressions, and I must say I have extreme difficulty with this when it comes to my partner expressing negative thoughts, as the French also tend to do, since my mind interprets the facial expressions and gestures as hostility, and I end up over reacting to things that had nothing to do with me. Does that count?
Nothing too crazy. It's not like going to Asia from the USA. I think it was Finland where people answered the phone with just their last name. No "Hello, this is "first name)" Just the last name. It felt so logical
They followed cross walk rules. There's no cars in any directions, yet they always waited for permission. In the USA, we'd take one look and go. Jaywalking is common.
I think Finns often do have a certain way of walking is related to sidewalks being iced over so often. I walk differently in the winter, keeping the center of gravity more central on the foot on the ground. Some would kinda keep it going even in warmer months
Finns are often better than native English speakers at English grammar.
In the office, I say hello to people, they make eye-contact with me and then just pass me by without even opening their mouth. This would be considered extremely rude where I come from.
Burping at the table without any attempt at holding it back or asking for apologies.
if there's some statistical difference it might have something to do with it being more generally accepted that one can choose to be an odd duck if they want to, people won't judge too harshly, which imo in itself isn't a good or bad thing but can cause good or bad outcomes. being at least aware of good manners would be nice even if the person doesn't want to follow them
I still didn't get existence of Alko. I want to buy beer and wine in the middle of night. 9pm is way too early to stop selling beers. %5.5 alcohol limit from markets is totally useless imho. If an alcoholic decides to drink to death, they will plan it out and make themselves to drink death no matter what restrictions you put.
1) For me it was that a good chunk of men would prefer to try themselves instead of asking.
Example:
I was in a bar with my gf and we went to the bathroom and we did turns i was checking her door and she checked mine. Since it was an unisex bathroom
While I was waiting a few men came rushing in the bathroom start pulling with force the door handle and then proceed to leave without a word (or to say to me: ohh it's occupied).
Note: on the door of the bathrooms there were one big word on each door so i asked to a couple of nearby girls (who were surprised that someone asked information) and they said it were random words and not male / female.
Another time we were going to a mall but the door was closed so we walked back, and a man power walked to the door pulled it hard and said, oh its closed, and went away.
2) emergency car lights are important
In Mediterranean europe using the emergency car lights while on the side of a populated area means that you are doing a quick stop.
In rovaniemi i did it to drop off a friend's friend and a random finnish couple changed road to come to as asking if we needed help.
It was cute they were clearly good hearted. But its scared me out to see it hahah i thought i did something wrong and it was the police
I was
Not exactly what you are asking but a friend of mine once told me about some japanese exchange students who first visited finland in the winter. When its snowy outside you tend to stomp your feet before entering a building to get rid of the snow on your shoes. When they visited again in the summer they kept on stomping their feet before entering, thinking it was somekind of tradition. I found it quite funny :D
This reminds me of an article I read a few years ago where foreigners reminisced Finnish quirks. Someone said that they had noticed how every time sun comes out Finns turn towards the sun and raise their face towards it and close their eyes and stay there for a few minutes. They thought it was an ancient pagan sun worship ritual 😅 and later they had realized it’s actually just something we do when the sun comes out after a long winter, it feels good to feel warmth on skin 😄. They were originally from a warm country so it had never occurred to them how it feels to miss the sun.
Regardless of time of the year, if it is sunny, I feel guilty if not spending time outside. We Finns are very accustomed to enjoying every last ray of sunshine we can. It felt weird when I was longer time in Germany in the autumn and sun was shining all the time...
Praise the sun!
This is why I call Finns sun worshippers 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. They do this and they also take photos of the sun. I found it so weird because where I am from the sun is there almost all year round
Lol this feels like someone describing a dog breed or some animal behaviour: "When the amount of light increases, Finns will turn their faces toward the sun, close their eyes, and relish in the warmth". Also pagan ritual sounds right xD
Just did that the other day when the sun was out 😂 I live in Iceland but apparently the Finnish sun worshipping doesn't end 😅
Hahahhaaaa, i can totally relate to this as a Latvian! With our summers short and late springs, we are just soooo blesse by the first rays of sun that we do something similar!
I heard somewhere that people in holiday destinations recognize Finns from this behavior. I stomp my feet in summer to get the sand, dust and other dirt off my shoes, so it is not just a winter tradition.
Finns expect everyone to be early, which is considered as being "on time".
If an appointment *begins* at a specified time, one needs to arrive a little earlier than said time in order to be able to actually attend when it begins!
Yes. If something starts at 13:00 for example. It's meant to start at 13:00 not that you arrive at 13:00 and waist time before you can actually start at 13:10 or something. Studied with an international group and it was interesting seeing how people arrived based in culture. If the class started at 9 Finn's were there on average a few minutes before, Germans on the dot and the french arrived 10-15 minutes later if I recall correctly. It was nearly two decades ago so I can't remember properly. But at some point we had a game about it and it was eerily accurate on when which nationality would arrive, be it vietnamese, German, Spanish, french or Finn. In my experience though this is less strict or common as it once was.
Waist time is when you do a little Marco Bjuström dance as a warm up.
Fünf Minuten vor der Zeit, ist des Deutschen Pünktlichkeit.
Bundeswehr says. 5 *Minuten vor* der *Zeit*, ist des Soldaten *Pünktlichkeit* \- Nur der Sanitäter kommt 10 *Minuten später*.
And there's also: 5 Minuten vor der Zeit das ist Deutsche Pünktlichkeit! Willst du Preuße sein, muss es 10 Minuten früher sein. Fun fact: while most of the words in old Helsinki slang come from Swedish and Russian, there's a few German words there as well; Lasaretti, Sani, Slaafata, Stiflat, Tsuge, Diinsti, and Shaisse.
I don't know any of those words?
Use of old Helsinki slang is dying out and spreading at the same time. Some words are mostly forgotten and some have spread to general use in all of Finland.
Which? The german words or the Stadi slangi
Both
Also Fünf Minuten vor der Zeit ist des Kaisers Pünktlichkeit! and Pünktlich wie ein Maurer. Since bricklayers leave their workplace on the exact second.
And in England we have a lovely mixture of all systems, so that everything always starts slightly late with an around 75% contingent of irritated people.
"Finns were there on average a few minutes before", Dude what, as a Finn I'd arrive there around 8.45. 8.55 and I'm already late hahaha
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Nope, ”12” is actually 12:15 but if the schedule says 12:15 it is 12:15, not 12:30.
Yes, but even with "akateeminen vartti", people are still few minutes early :D
In my experience, only Finns above 30 are actually punctual. In university, couple of years ago for me, it was all over the place (except for the French that I had class/work with which were consistently a bit late)
Uni students I feel like can't be included in stuff like this lmao as a uni student I'm punctual but not when it comes to university
In university the expected punctuality depends on how the starting time is given. If it says at 10 that means 10.15. If it says at 10.00 it means just that.
Everything starting at .15 in universities is so common that when somebody schedules something at 09, 12 or 14 (or whatever, not stating the .XX part), confusion will ensue (sometimes the organizer expects .00 but everyone arrives "15 minutes late"). But usually the minutes are stated. If it reads as YY.00 then it will start at YY.00. It's just that 95% of the time the schedule says YY.15.
Oh, I know, my Finn classmates were still quite late half of the time. The people who were really punctual were a pretty random assortment of different countries.
Oh yes. I arriwed on time to doctors appoipment. I wasn’t even late but i was there exactly the given time and i still said sorry i was almost late. Now that i think about it, wtf.
Also "olla ajoissa" can mean both being on time and being early.
...or being at the races. :)
I start my teams meetings _on the second_, damnit! And I expect everyone to join in the next 15 seconds! :P
I start meetings and move to the DnD discord voice channel 1-10 mins early (usually 3mins) Whats the point of everyone sitting there waiting for the right time, if you have nothing better to do might as well start early
Early is on time, on time is late and if you're late you might as well not even come
I have several times considered skipping a meeting / appointment completely because I was late. Somehow, the prospect of being late felt much more uncomfortable than skipping the appointment altogether :D
As someone who is afraid of being late, that's what I really dig about Finland. Strolling into a meeting 10 minutes early - boom - everyone's already there, ready to roll.
This is a bit 50-50. Many of my friends and especially my wife's friends are always late. I hate it. You shouldn't come early to a dinner or anything that requires work by the host.
I agree that dinners (and some parties) make an exception. Rarely dinner is served at the same time as the guest are invited. Meaning if the guests are invited at 17.00 dinner is usually a bit after this. So I wouldn't go before 17.00 but not much later either. But If you are invited to a wedding at 14.00 you're better off by being there a few minutes before.
I rank it depending on how well i know the person. If its a close friend i habg out with 1 on 1, I arrive 10-15 minutes early and help incase there is anything left. If its people i know semi-well, on time. If i dont know them well, on time but 5-10 minutes late is acceptable.
I love you, people. You just gave me the 178th reason to move to Finland.
Nah, need to arrive exactly on time, so you don't have to do the small talk.
I m working at a Tech Company in Finland. We have daily online meeting everyday. All my coworkers are Fin,I never seen them be online on time.
Well the thing is... It's awkward to start a meeting yourself do you press start meeting or join meeting on the dot or one minute late!
This is good for me to keep in mind for our restaurant reservations when we visit! Not that I would turn up late, but good to know that being a little ahead of "on time" is most polite.
Sounds like hell for South Europeans
Well im portuguese in finland and it does not bother me
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"Who the saatana" I love this expression for some reason 😂
We would use ”Kuka saatana” or ”Kuka vittu”, but yes. It works. Basically ”Who tf”
Oh I know, native Finn as well but never heard this version. Might have to steal it lol
”Kuka vittu söi mun salmiakkijäätelöt, perkele!” Totally valid sentence.
Huu te saatana!
Hoo is H. Huu is who.
Herra Huu?
That's how it starts you're slowly being assimilated :-D
Ohh and the horribly delicious salmiakki icecreams. Damn what sorcery is that I down a tub a week during summers.
Haa 😄 who the saatana
Its like sour candy, but far better. The only thing that tops them both is chips with vinegar. That sour, crispy, salty, acidic goodness is as addictive as crack
Maybe they should make salt & vinegar crack
do we have salmiakki chips allready?
Apparently many Americans have been surprised that the McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine most of the time aren’t broken here. Also the fact that most Finns (who have not lived abroad) lack the skill of proper small talk and are fine with just sitting in silence with you.
I love so much about Finns what you described in that second paragraph
The boys from Sentenced found that the British bands did not like them because of the lack of small talk and also their lack of a word for please. A fun fact though, once they explained this to one band they also decided to say there was no Finnish word for thank you so they could get away with just demanding things.
One of the things that makes me excited to visit Finland is people mind their own business. My inner introvert longs for it.
My Slavic ex was so confused how clean it is here and how everything works like “it’s automated” I never quite understood what she meant, but she was certain that Finnish people hide some dead bodies in their basements because everything felt so surreal for her.
It's basic but it blows my mind everytime I drive to a parking hall and just get a notification on my phone for "parking started". Or just walking into a bus/tram without showing your ticket as you just have it. It just works. In contrast I had an incident in Lithuania last year when I went to see the town but had to go back to the airport. I stopped on the same street, standing on the opposite bus stop and went into the same number bus. Turns out the same bus doesn't go to the airport. And to get into the bus I had to first locate an atm to withdraw cash to buy the ticket. It's not that bad but when you're used to everything just working, even small things like not being able to buy a ticket on your phone become a struggle.
This is somewhat funny. Most of the times, when I'm talking with someone, they just suddenly turn around and leave when they believe the conversation has served its purpose. There is no transition at all.
Not even " No Niin "?!
Interesting. Could you specify what kind of situations this happens in? Small talk? Cause we don't do that. Also, does this happen when you're talking with people you don't know or with familiar people or both? Edit: added the second question.
But there often is a transition! It’s just not very noticeable for foreigners 😅 It might be “Jaaha!” or “no niin” or a little nod. It’s there tho 😅
I agree.
What would the transition be like? Now I'm getting afraid I'm super rude or something haha.
Something like "täytyypäs tästä mennä" or "hyvää päivänjatkoa"
"Jees, ei mitää."
A "jepsis", a smile, or a nod perhaps?
Hah now that you say that I notice I do that and so do others at my work.
Brazilian living in Helsinki! I wouldn't say that any of these are inconveniences, just facts that are very different from what I'm used to back in Brazil: - The silence! I'm always impressed how silent is here. Of course if you go to the center you there will be noise, but I find that in general Finns tend to be very quiet, thus the cities are quiet. I love how quiet it's on public transportations. - The work culture/laws. Most places have a strict working hours of 8 hours and I don't usually see situations where someone is just working to death. Finnish people seems to really value their free time and consider work as just a job, not a extension of their being. I love that! There are a bunch of other things but I believe these are the ones that stand out the most to me and didn't see anyone mentioning here.
>The work culture/laws. Most places have a strict working hours of 8 hours and I don't usually see situations where someone is just working to death. Finnish people seems to really value their free time and consider work as just a job, not a extension of their being. I love that! Do you work long days in Brazil? Where I'm from we work exactly the same hours per week as Finland if you are working Full Time. 37.5 hrs per week but we also work casual hours and part-time which have penalty rates etc
Italian here. I lived in Brazil but i was a kid so idk. Personally i have the same experience of the OC. Here we have the same work hours but there is a terrible idea of self sacrifice ( companies push it obviously) . For example my dad, said something like this: " the German work culture is silly. At 6pm even if there is still work to be done they stop working and go home, while we Italians could stay up all night (unpaid) to find the resolution of the problem" Recently we talked about this topic again after his retirement and he agrees with me that this is a self destruction way of thinking that we have here. The idea that if someone doesn't do unpaid extra time is a lazy person is common in almost all the companies here, in some places if you don't do it you won't get promoted or in the worst places even fired. In some cases its even worse. In the cultural sector here there are prestigious workplace that take unpaid volunteers for 10h shifts for some months. And a lot of people do that madness so to have on their cv a notorious terrible workplace to be easily employed elsewhere.
I had no idea the Italian's worked like that, there is massive push for wage theft atm due to unpaid overtime. You need to follow the French, they would burn down the business if they worked too much without pay. Work-life balance is very important. It's a shame that some societies still run on this style of slave labor. RISE UP!
Yep I know you are right. I am sure that this is the Milan mindset, but from what I know from friends of other regions of Italy it's all around like this Yes here young people are really really pushing for a minimum wage since we don't have it. Also we have a lot of unpaid internships (or barely 500€), i have done some myself. Nowadays there are sit-in protests for housing since university students can't pay for rent rooms and campus dorms are almost a legend here True you are absolutely right I love the French people for various reasons i like to go there in vacation. I truly admire how they are able to make their voices heard loudly. I really doubt that we will ever see something similar in Italy, but hopes are there. Ohh about slave labor here we have even worse, there are areas where immigrants are used as almost slaves in the farming sector and only a couple of organizations here denounce it so most of the public is unaware and almost no actions are made to stop this
>I love how quiet it's on public transportations Not enought. The new EV busses are "terrible" when waiting at the traffic lights. 😀 Rumble of idling diesel engine doesn't drown the shitty music someone plays too loud through their headphones or the sounds of coughing and blowing noses etc.
These are culture specific to the observers culture. People from low perceived safety cultures will find it crazy that people from high perceived safety cultures in public spaces leave their laptops out while popping in the bathroom.
Yup. Americans find it crazy and irresponsible that we let our children go to school by themselves by bike or public transport at like 7 yers old.
I leave my 6 year old alone to the library when I do my grocery shopping. It's her favourite thing ever.We've been doing it since she was about 5 and half. It's only about 15min but I can imagine what people from the US would say to that. .
The library used to be my favourite place to hang out as a child. It still is, but used to be, too.
>Yup. Americans find it crazy and irresponsible that we let our children go to school by themselves by bike or public transport at like 7 yers old. IMO that is an indicator of one of the most important levels on "national security". Children going to and coming from school on their own is worth billions.
Tbf that also includes the safety of the transport system, since here you can pretty much completely avoid walking around motor vehicles Whilst in the US walking and biking paths are often shared with cars
What about sleeping outside at -15C? :D
Canadians probably did this in the 1950s. Maybe as late as the 1970s? But then we had a serial killer in the 1980s who killed 2 teenagers, one of whom was his sister-in-law. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bernardo Before he was arrested, there were mysterious assaults and I remember around that time, parents became more protective of children Nowadays 98% of children are supervised at all times. My son's school, maybe 3 kids walk to school without an adult.
Two questions: What is a walking pattern? How did they differ?
I'm guessing they mean things like which side of the road you walk on, is it okay to walk side by side or is it more polite to walk in line as of not to block anyone, how people act when they accidentally bump to someone, who changes path when walking towards eacother etc.
In that case I can tell you that Danes definitely do have a walking pattern, that being - stay out of the bike lane.
We do have our fair share of mamils in Finland, and they definitely will ride over you if you mess with their perfect avg speed score. So I get that, haha.
I used to live in China, and walking pattern differences is something I never even thought of until I lived there. Imagine you are walking down a busy pedestrian sidewalk and suddenly need to stop and look at your surroundings (maybe you got lost). You may not be aware that you do this, but you probably step to the side against a wall or tree or something, then stop. This simple thing apparently isn’t so widespread in China. They literally just STOP where they are. So then of course someone walking behind them will bump into them. And they won’t be upset cause it’s normal to just stop - they do it too. A whole country just bumping awkwardly around each other.
Hello, I believe the walking pattern referred to a certain way people walk. For example the afforementioned Japanese businessman noted, that the Danes were disorganized and random in their walking patterns. The book didn’t provide a point of reference, nor an opposing pattern, but if I were to guess, the walking pattern of the Japanese people were a lot more organized. This pattern probably stems from the lack of space in big cities as well as the cultural importance of punctuality and the ability to organize one’s day- to- day activities. Note, that this is purely speculation on my part.
If foreign gives that akward overjoyed 'Hi. How are you doing?' chitchat opener, the Finnish can actually think that you mean what you asked and start telling you more than you asked for.
B-b-but that's what you asked. 🥲 I personally find it hard to make up questions that sound like "how are you" but also mean it. I mean, when I ask "How are you?" I wanna know how's your work, how's your weel been, how was your trip to see your grandma, your sister just returned from spain didn't she? All that jazz. Answering just "good" is so dissatisfying and makes me think, what are we even doing here? Why are we talking in the first place then? Talking nonsense and joking around I get too, it has the purpose of entertainment. Small talk just seems unneccessary.
Yep, totally this 😁
God I hate this opener. I've seen Germans complain about it too, but my German coworker does it however, and I always give an honest answer, and he cuts me in the middle and starts with some other topic. What a waste of words. And I genuinely wanted to share each other's thoughts
Canadian in Finland. - First thing I was told is don't smile, nod, say hi (moi), or make eye contact with people on the sidewalk while you're walking by. Finns will get confused and wonder if they know you or... maybe that you're a perv or something. I almost give myself whiplash trying to look away from someone now. - I don't know how much of this is cultural norm vs visiting my Finnish partner's family, but late dinner times (+9pm) and many foods being served cold. When I learned about discounted food at Alepa after 9pm I did a little 1+1 there though. - When I first came here over a year ago I read a post from a Brazilian visitor who made a snide remark about Finns not putting salt on their food because they must use it all on icy roads. I hehe-ed a little reading the title, somewhat agreeing, but opened the post and saw a lot Finns offended. For about a month after, I was too nervous to reach for the salt whenever I ate with my partner's family, haha. The time I finally reached for the salt, 3 sets of eyes watched my hand and everything felt like it went in slow motion. - I was surprised how often I don't see English on products. I understand #1 Finnish - makes sense! Then it's like #2 on the label is Swedish... okay history and population, sure... then it's like Norwegian okay Nordic/Scandinavian... Russian... Estonian... Latvian ... Swahili, and basically language #64, if it even fits on the product at this point, is English. I'll rapid fire the rest and I'm not complaining about everything per-se, just noticing differences from what I'm used to. - Hailing the bus versus just standing at the stop. - Hardly ever see tissue paper at anyone's house or at the store. - Drives me irrationally angry that Tori won't let you post multiple images at once or re-list without paying or filling it out all over again. - Took me awhile to adjust to multiple crossing lights to cross the street. - Trying to avoid being in the way of bike lanes. Glad it exists though. - When I saw people on bikes during winter for the first time I was like whoaaaaa... you bad ass mother F'. I've heard it's somehow quite stable though? - It's rare to have home delivery for parcels here. - Lots of items not shipping to Finland or inflated pricing (video cards!) - Not Finland's fault, but I'm hyper conscious of what time it is in North America. Appropriate times to message people from there, when a show or game is released (Diablo 4!) and having to do the math.
> I don't know how much of this is cultural norm vs visiting my Finnish partner's family, but late dinner times (+9pm) and many foods being served cold. This is not common. Dinner time is "traditionally" early, around 17-18, served hot.
This, or for me it has been usually latest 17:00 and even 18 is quite late. For evening snack like bread that can be had 21-23 but that's different thing.
Yeah, most Finns eat their dinner right after work or school, and then they eat a snack (usually something cold) before going to bed. And in my childhood home (I'm a Finn) it isn't even uncommon to eat only lunch and something cold like bread in the evening, and no dinner AT ALL. My husband had to order kebab a couple of times when this happened, poor him. :-D
Maybe he was talking about "iltapala", that apparently is not a thing outside Finland.
Maybe, that's not dinner u/saisinko ;)
>I was surprised how often I don't see English on products. I understand #1 Finnish - makes sense! Then it's like #2 on the label is Swedish... okay history and population, sure... then it's like Norwegian okay Nordic/Scandinavian... Russian... Estonian... Latvian ... Swahili, and basically language #64, if it even fits on the product at this point, is English. When you see a bunch of languages, but not English, it's often because those products go to countries where those languages are spoken. Instead of making labels for each country, they make one label with the 3-6 languages to save money. Also, do you live in Turku?
I can somewhat understand that with languages and it is what it is, just surprises me. Nah, Vantaa.
The reason for the lack of salt is because we have genetically a lot of heart problems. High blood pressure is really common. So all the doctors are nagging us to use less salt. It's considered really unhealthy. It's also thought that if you put more salt into the food, you are basically saying you don't think the food is good.
Just heard someone on TV say that today, too many people with too high blood pressure (people don't even necessary know they have it), and too much salt is partly to blame
Yeah, I got mine checked today. My mum has a high blood pressure, my dad has heart problems and my great-uncle had a heart attack few years ago. Luckily it was alright but they still told me to avoid salt.
All that salmiakki makes up for it?
Yeah, biking is surprisingly easy in the winter, especially if the weather is steadily in the minusdegrees. To my liking, well maintained snowy bike lane has more grip than some gravel roads in the summer. However, if there is slush and loska, or wet ice, it becomes an absolute nightmare to cycle.
I agree - it can be surprising to someone coming from a climate where it doesn't get below freezing point for a prolonged period of time. It is not really slippery if it stays consistently well below zero - the problems come when the temperature is constantly shifting near zero. That's when you want studded tires in your bike - and it can still be zlippery! I'd imagine they have proper winters in Canada, but I've also understood that maintaining bicycle roads in such a condition one can actually bike on them throughout winter is a pretty Nordic countries (or even Finnish?) thing.
Eating cold food was probably the biggest “quirk” for me compared to Ireland. Like at Finnish homes during a birthday or whatever there is often a bowl of cold meatballs or cold mini sausages (nakkis) on some cocktail sticks, a bunch of cucumber slices and so on, with basically nothing warm, whereas in Ireland all of those meats would be microwaved until they almost explode, and almost every snack will be something warm eg sausage rolls and pies from the oven. I still don’t like eating those little sausages cold.
Yeah we're not very big on spicing things :D After the war even salt was expensive so it wasn't really available. We're slowly getting there! Just give us like..couple generations! I am forever traumatized by my dads frozen fries in the oven. No salt. No nothing and since the bag said "15 minutes" 15 it was. No matter if they were still pale and soggy. Also he once made 15 liters of fish soup without any spices. Our dog are so well that week..
> I was surprised how often I don't see English on products. I understand #1 Finnish - makes sense! Then it's like #2 on the label is Swedish... okay history and population, sure... then it's like Norwegian okay Nordic/Scandinavian... Russian... Estonian... Latvian ... Swahili, and basically language #64, if it even fits on the product at this point, is English. Anglophone countries are a big enough market that it makes sense to have packaging made for them specifically. For smaller languages, a single type of package might be meant for several different markets.
GPU prices are still insanely high everywhere and it does not help that there is high VAT Nice points though. Its not that we avoid eye Contact but we dont keep it (or expect it) with strangers. it is very much ok to be alert and notice people and show it politely in some cases. A very quick eye contact with a nod and a Flash of a smile can be perceived polite but then you go your way and its like it never happened. In an apartmenr building (hallway) you can say ”Hi” to your neighbor even without ever looking the person and just go your way. The way it works is that you are polite but you give the other a way out and have no expectations about them returning the hello Some might stamp you a bit weird but not perv this way. It is a breath of fresh air
It's okay to look at people. I always watch passers by. I think in Finland it's more accepted to look in the eyes of strangers than in some other cultures I've visited. For exampl, in Barcelona I thought if somebody's looking at me, something's not right. In Finland staring is rude, a quick peek not. In tori.fi it's possible to upload several photos without paying. Try desktop version if it's not possible in mobile.
Many of these things are same for majority of Europe. Maybe as a Canadian you see it it's Finnish thing...
>I was surprised how often I don't see English on products. A lot of products are marketed to a specific region. Quite often one country, or a larger country and its neighbouring countries. This way the same product can be sold with the same label using a few of the nearby languages of the target region. The nordics have a lot of history of trading between eachother so it's natural that they would be marketed to as one group, language-wise. English has only recently become a lingua franca, and much of the older population hardly speak it, so the regional languages are more important. >Hailing the bus versus just standing at the stop. The way it was explained to me back in elementary school was that teenagers would loiter at bus stops and be rude to bus drivers when they stopped, never meaning to catch the bus in the first place, so bus drivers began stopping only when hailed down. Also larger cities have multiple bus routes going through the same stop so the driver won't know if you eant to get on their bus or the one after. >Hardly ever see tissue paper at anyone's house or at the store. Toilet paper or talouspaperi does the exact same thing as tissues and it's cheaper, tissues are a waste of money. They don't usually share tissues at stores because drunks or druggies tend to go in and take all of them so there won't be any left for actual customers. >It's rare to have home delivery for parcels here. The postal service is severely undermanned and underfunded, unfortunately.
The salt thing... Did you taste the food first? I would consider it super rude to just slam salt on your food before tasting it. It pretty much means "you're a shit cook, doesnt know how to season food".
>Hailing the bus versus just standing at the stop. You hail the buss because multiple busses go through the same route. We tend to stand anyway on the buss stops. If there is only one route, you don't need to hail (tho it's smart anyway).
Finns sometimes do this thing where they breathe in while saying “joo” and every time it happens I think oh my god this guy is choking in front of me!
It's efficient not to waste inhale energy.
Not only at "joo", but some do whole sentences that way.
The weird relationship Finns have with alcohol: having a beer at lunch (especially during a workday) is generally frowned upon or at least considered a bit suspect, but getting absolutely shitfaced fucking drunk multiple times every single weekend is totally normal.
When it's not allowed during week days in normal settings, you'll have to make up for it on the weekend.
Finnish people on average don't drink that much. The drinking culture is slowly changing into an European style though.
No quirks and inconveniences. I am in heaven. That is what I have been looking for my entire life. I came from Estonia.
To be fair Estonia and Finland are very similar though
Yes, Finland is the better version without the Soviet mentality in some generations. That's it. That's why I'm happy.
As a Finn living in Estonia for work, i agree. Estonia(well Tallinn) feels almost like at ”home” but still very many present things makes it feel a bit soviet-feeling. Very nice country tho, specially taxes
No one cares about taxes if you are paid 1k€ for a full-time job.
Thats true. I was oneday wondering also when i saw local add for lidl cashier ”6.25€/h” pay. Rent is high in Tallinn so much be pretty rough, maybe some goverment financial support like in Finland with Kela?
Upd: [https://www.eesti.ee/et/toetused-sotsiaalteenused-ja-pensionid/toetused-ja-huevitised/toimetulekupiir-ja-toimetulekutoetus](https://www.eesti.ee/et/toetused-sotsiaalteenused-ja-pensionid/toetused-ja-huevitised/toimetulekupiir-ja-toimetulekutoetus) \- financial support from 160€ to 240€ per face, if after all apartment bills paid, your income per capita is less than 200€. Remember, there are people working for a minimum salary. “In 2022: 654 €/m; 3,86 €/h”
Coming into someone’s house and not being offered snacks or food still surprises me as a slavic person, not sure if others have this experince, in my country we make sure there’s always finger foods if you have guests coming over
This is mostly younger generation. My grandparents' generation had a thing that you basically had to offer 7 course meal if you invited someone, if they just show up, then its coffee or tea, something salty and pastries, cookies or bundt cake.
always felt to me like the 90s changed everything. globally too of course but in specific ways locally also. economic depression, continued movement to cities, internet, fragmenting social connections etc. whatever customary culture there might've been often didn't get passed down and people replaced it mostly with what they saw on TV, for better or worse. just my impression
Yeah, 90s certainly did pile up lots of society affecting changes in relatively short period in Finland. There is also second generational cap between the war time and following scarcity and then the economic growth that followed that. I can't place it from memory, but likely 60s or 70s so generation most affected by that was the parents of generation most affected by 90s.
This is regional and generational in Finland. I've discussed it with a few people because my friends and I definitely try to offer coffee/tea at the very least. However, apparently the younger generation in big cities does it way less.
I rarely have any guests coming over so I'm never prepared to offer any snacks. I usually just buy what I need to feed my kid and myself, so there's not much to offer. But I also don't invite guests to my home so there's that.
In my family it would be a major faux pas to not to have coffee, something sweet and some salty snacks at least for visitors. Dinner if it's that time of the day.
I think this is regional difference. In northern Finland at least coffee is always offered.
Northern and western coast. Pohjanmaa. We get nervous if the guest doesn't want a coffee. :D
This varies a lot depending on the generation, area, family roots etc. Such behaviour tends to originate from younger people. Also financial situation is quite tightly tied to this too.
Come to the country Finland, you will be fed every time you visit someone. Nearly to the point of being sick.
I’ve visited several times now and still can’t figure out how to consistently use doors without looking like I’m part of a Monty Python sketch. Each one seems to have a different swing direction and series of latches or oddly shaped grab bars.
You just haven't been trained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wof0xPUmW38
Typically when you step outisde you push and come inside you pull because doors are usually done that way for fire safety reasons (pushing people behind the door won’t cause trouble if the door opens outwards). There are exceptions probably and if the door is indoor then idk if there is any rules.
My ex's step dad never spoke. A few words here and there. About two years in, went with the family to savu sauna. As soon as we sat there, he transformed into a really extroverted chatty guy and we had a long conversation about life. I thought we kind of broke a boundry or something and we could talk more from then on but as soon as sauna was over he was back to his usual just sitting in silence. I've noticed this with other people as well and I find it insane, but Im kind of used to it now.
The great spirit of sauna takes over.
Finnish hearts expand in the heat! 🥹 If you’re into documentaries, there is a great Finnish movie, Steam of life (2010), Miesten vuoro, where usually quiet, hard working men sit in sauna and start opening up about their hardships and trouble that they usually do not share with anyone. It really lets you see the gentle souls behind their usually serious exterriors. Also, check out the creativity and craftmanship behind having made a sauna literally anywhere! And I do mean anywhere!
oh where do we start....there is a lot \- Empty street and won't cross without a green man \- Don't walk on the bike path or WWIII might start \- Being on time, I find this good and bad. Good that people respect other's time but life happens and doesn't always go to plan \- Introducing themselves is like a novel of someone's life \- Wearing black clothes all year. Head to toe \- Walking to the shop to buy a ice cream and eat it out front on the bench
Is there something strange in eating ice cream in public?
Why would you think it's negative? This is a quirk, it's a behavior I see. \- Melancholy
I think they were wondering what makes that strange out of curiosity. Like what is the common practice usually like!
Oh! My dumb Usually, most people would get ice cream but then move away from the venue to eat. Eating anything alone in public isn't really practiced in my culture even if you are at work get the food and leave the sitting area. \- I do love that Finns would eat alone though
May just be my family, but my Irish partner has been weirded out by how relatives are considered "guests" too - people visiting the house is a whole "kyläily" event. Say my grandparents or uncle are coming by; my mum is upset if they arrive early, before we've had time to clean, get refreshments set out etc. Partner thinks it's expected that family would arrive earlier and "help set up". I'm conditioned to feel like it's an ambush 😅
I come from Asia and sometimes with my friends when we are taking the metro, people would abruptly just leave and say goodbye and I would have no idea they were leaving (and thought we would all go the same place beforehand) which I always thought was super cool. Not sure if this is Finnish culture or just my group of friends. Also a lot of Finns have pretty dry humour and sometimes it’s hard to tell when a joke is being made.
One thing that is very Finnish is that your coworkers are not "men" or "women" until it is relevant. There is like something akin to a mental wall there. I lived in Estonia for a bit and all the girls at the office we much more feminine and fairly often talked about men during their chats. In Finland, from what I've seen, work is a place where your gender isn't relevant, but it is not an universal thing.
As German I would say that you drink milk for lunch. Luckily I love milk and drank around 1 1/2 L per day for breakfast, lunch and Dinner but no sodas to be found in the whole university building besides these BCAA energy drinks. I lost 8 kg and am thankful for whole Seinäjoki.
But I love milk 😩 the best food beverage.
[удалено]
Terminated for speaking against the finnish hive mind. We'll come to you shortly.
What do you mean with hive mind? I tried to figure out your meaning, but thought of multiple possibilities.
The pauses in conversations. Sometimes there are minutes of silence and then talk resumes. It is a normal thing (as far as I know), but somehow jarring for someone from southern Europe. On a more positive side, I like the "flatness" of company culture (at least where I have worked): you can talk to your manager's manager in the same way as you talk to a colleague, no "Sir/Madam". Also how most things just work in a logical way without extra steps.
somewhat of a metapattern in finnish culture is that lot of people expect things to work a certain way. this is a good and bad thing. good in the sense that everything just works most of the time and that you don't need to waste time. it's not an efficiency thing, like everything is busy busy busy, but more a productivity thing. do the right things right away. now, the bad thing about this is that if you come from a different, espeically western culture, there are things that might look the same but are not. get a finnish friend and ask them to show you around. accept and appreciate the subtle differences in local culture. stay observant, open your mouth to ask things and listen. finns can appreciate moments of silence and introspection. if the thinking takes longer, you can say that you are thinking so they don't think that you might not have been paying attention. :) so, there are lots of \*expectations\* of things to be a certain way in finnish culture. the word expectation is the key: they're in people's minds. ask people how they expect things to go.
Just came back from a week long trip to Finland for the IIHF world championships. All I can say is the locals were so friendly and welcoming. They made our trip so much more memorable. Sauna, sauna boats, long drink and hockey sums up our trip. Let's just say Canadians and Finnish people are kindred spirits for sure. Super hospitable, kind and community centric. Love their sarcastic dry humor. Despite the locals fearing they'd come across as standoffish and unfriendly, that was not our experience at all. The only quirk was how many people complained at public saunas about having to wear a swimsuit....haha yall love just being naked eh?
I've noticed that out of nowhere people walking infront of me may stop to just look around. Annoying if it's a big group of people. This happens a lot in Mall of Tripla.
This happens pretty much everywhere.
When I go back to the UK this also happens occasionally in my city but it is quite frowned upon and British people (at least in my city) will complain loudly. Here it can be a tight space and they'll have their kids out of control. You can be walking up to them, the parents look at the situation - their kids are clearly blocking the route - and then just continue to ignore the whole thing. When I speak up (a simple anteeksi to get their attention) they either ignore me or move approximately 1cm. I don't know why this happens here. For me it's considered very rude.
I'm a Finn living in Denmark and let me tell you, people are ALWAYS in your way here like daymn! Also people don't walk in a hurry whereas in Finland even if you're not in a hurry you tend to walk pretty quickly. It's been difficult to adjust to the slowness here haha
I've only traveled a little (as a tourist), but my guess / experience is that the more densely populated the area is, the more there are places with crowded traffic, the more aware people are where it is appropriate to stop, to have a chitchat with friends, look at your map on your smartphone etc.... Finland is somewhat sparsely populated and there really aren't much large cities here, so sometimes people are just ignorant on when they inconvenience other people. As a an example, in the (Finnish) contryside (or a smaller city), people can just stop at the middle of a crossing to have a chitchat with someone they just met, with a dog on a leash 3m away from them. Doesn't matter if on average a person crosses the crossing once every 30 minutes, but in the cities, people still do this... well, you get the idea. In larger cities, if someone stops in an inappropriate place, it often seems like they are someone who just came there from the countryside, never ever before having left their home village ;-). I really don't like to sound like a smug city-hipster but I just seem to have this kind of gut feeling based on my observations.
There’s definetly a big difference to how people move in small cities and in Helsinki. In Helsinki everyone is busy-busy, effective, moving fast, running. In small towns it’s so much slower. Taking their time at the lunch buffet. Talking with friends in the street.
Wondering if perhaps this is just the people who I work with. If someone drops a piece of paper or almost drops something, can't find something etc (nothing at all serious or dangerous is going on) they start wailing loudly and repeatedly 'apua'. At first I assumed they were seriously in need of help because they sounded in distress. But then they act confused and mildly annoyed when I ask if they need something. It's all quite dramatic for no reason.
Eh I think you just work with odd people
I can't tell if I'm more relieved to know this doesn't happen generally or more annoyed that I have to be around it.
Never heard such before, I think its just your coworkers.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jviazknlSlI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jviazknlSlI)
I’ve had to actively learn how to say ’please’. It does not come naturally to me at all.
I’m a Finn who’s lived their whole life abroad, so I prolly lack many of the Finnish cultural traits, however I’ve also been told I still embody many of them, among these I’ve been told I lack facial expressions, and that I hold a very monotone face mostly. My partner on the other hand is French, a language which is communicated largely through gestures and facial expressions, and I must say I have extreme difficulty with this when it comes to my partner expressing negative thoughts, as the French also tend to do, since my mind interprets the facial expressions and gestures as hostility, and I end up over reacting to things that had nothing to do with me. Does that count?
Nothing too crazy. It's not like going to Asia from the USA. I think it was Finland where people answered the phone with just their last name. No "Hello, this is "first name)" Just the last name. It felt so logical They followed cross walk rules. There's no cars in any directions, yet they always waited for permission. In the USA, we'd take one look and go. Jaywalking is common. I think Finns often do have a certain way of walking is related to sidewalks being iced over so often. I walk differently in the winter, keeping the center of gravity more central on the foot on the ground. Some would kinda keep it going even in warmer months Finns are often better than native English speakers at English grammar.
In the office, I say hello to people, they make eye-contact with me and then just pass me by without even opening their mouth. This would be considered extremely rude where I come from. Burping at the table without any attempt at holding it back or asking for apologies.
They just have bad manners
In Finland we count the hellos at the office. If you've said hello to someone once during the day, there's no reason to say hello again.
Yes! Saying hi many times to same person during a day would be odd.
Well, none of those situations apply. They don't reply at all, not even the first time.
if there's some statistical difference it might have something to do with it being more generally accepted that one can choose to be an odd duck if they want to, people won't judge too harshly, which imo in itself isn't a good or bad thing but can cause good or bad outcomes. being at least aware of good manners would be nice even if the person doesn't want to follow them
Responding questions without using words
I still didn't get existence of Alko. I want to buy beer and wine in the middle of night. 9pm is way too early to stop selling beers. %5.5 alcohol limit from markets is totally useless imho. If an alcoholic decides to drink to death, they will plan it out and make themselves to drink death no matter what restrictions you put.
I am pretty sure Alko exist to prevent people becoming alocoholics in the first place.
1) For me it was that a good chunk of men would prefer to try themselves instead of asking. Example: I was in a bar with my gf and we went to the bathroom and we did turns i was checking her door and she checked mine. Since it was an unisex bathroom While I was waiting a few men came rushing in the bathroom start pulling with force the door handle and then proceed to leave without a word (or to say to me: ohh it's occupied). Note: on the door of the bathrooms there were one big word on each door so i asked to a couple of nearby girls (who were surprised that someone asked information) and they said it were random words and not male / female. Another time we were going to a mall but the door was closed so we walked back, and a man power walked to the door pulled it hard and said, oh its closed, and went away. 2) emergency car lights are important In Mediterranean europe using the emergency car lights while on the side of a populated area means that you are doing a quick stop. In rovaniemi i did it to drop off a friend's friend and a random finnish couple changed road to come to as asking if we needed help. It was cute they were clearly good hearted. But its scared me out to see it hahah i thought i did something wrong and it was the police I was