Finnish culture from a point of view of Erasmus student – Michal Micor

 [At first I would like to introduce a small disclaimer that my observations are based mostly on an academic society and represent private opinion. ]

I came to Finland because I was quite interested in Finnish culture and way of living. I started to read various blogs and watched lots of videos related to Finland and Finns. Also two of my best friends have been in Finland and have told me a lot of stories. I learned a lot about various facts as well as stereotypes about Finnish people. One of the most common stereotypes is that Finns are shy and closed . Another one is that they need to be drunk to get social. And yet another one is that they never talk or smile to strangers and run away if strangers talk to them. Many of these stereotypes are not true or at least not entirely true and might be very harmful if misunderstood. I have talked to many Finnish people who were completely strangers to me and I don't remember a situation when somebody was running away from me. Some particular people were a little nervous about me bothering them, but well... everybody can have a bad day .The truth is, even though the first minutes might be awkward, later it isn't that hard to keep up conversation and soon you can notice that Finns are nice, kind people. They also don't need to be under the influence of alcohol to have a conversation (of course it helps in some cases J). There are many student organizations which organize events, unlike the club parties (at those events there is no alcohol or only a little of it). For example LUT Chaplains or hiking club “Ulvova Susi”. The thing about Finns and their relationships is that they seem to be much more focused on the quality of relationships than on their amount. In many cases they don't even practice small talk. Long silences during  tea with a friend is normal for them, unlike for me (In my country we even have a sentence relating to "awkward silence" used just to break a silence if the silence during conversation is longer than 10 or 15 seconds). For foreigners it likely sounds weird or even impossible, but once my Finnish friend got a little annoyed with my talkativeness and asked to say nothing until she says something. As a result we spent around 5 minutes saying nothing, just drinking tea. After that she was laughing that she could literally hear my thoughts "Don't say anything, Don't say anything ,....".

This is because as far as I noticed Finns don't practice talking for talking. They are talking when they have something to say. Therefore they do talk to each other, smile to each other and in many cases, they are absolutely not shy. In fact some of them are quite talkative and open, but you need to know them better, than "Hi, how are you?", to notice that. It is not enough, because greeting people, when you are passing them by, as warmly as you would do in many European non-Scandinavian countries, is not so much practiced in Finland. As a result you simply need to talk to those people and have actual conversations.

Finns have developed many other interesting ways of socializing with each other.

One of the most amazing examples of creating possibilities to spend time with other people are “guilds”. Students in Finland in many cases can choose subjects they study. That means that every student has a little "individual" study program. This also means they are meeting many new people in new classes. In order to bind particular groups of students like Electrical Engineering, "guilds" have been created. It is something like a micro association of the particular profession.

They have their common guild room in which students can rest and relax with a cup of coffee between classes. The guild also has a board to supervise it and therefore guild members can organize various events for university’s students.

Another way are sitz parties. They are a pleasant combination of alcohol and singing. So you can both drink something, sing a lot and meet many new people. Basically the whole point of sitz is singing, but between songs you drink. This might sound easy... but after a couple of songs, a couple of shots and a couple of beers it might turn out that you brought your inner singer to a completely new level.... Aside from sitz parties, Finnish people enjoy also simple joys like board games or computer games for example in the student union basement (the area in the basement of the university for parties). Imagine an average club room filled with people sitting in front of tables with board games or computers and enjoying their time. That's exactly how it looks. During many events like this, parties or barbecues there is a sauna available for participants. It is very popular. After all, sauna is an important part of Finnish culture. Finns are very close to nature, so in the typical Finnish sauna, people are sitting naked, one next to another. This is rather exceptional, because normally Finns are keeping a huge personal space for themselves. This is best observable at the bus stop. If you see row of people standing in one meter distances from each other, it means they are probably Finns.

A particularly interesting example of culture in Finland are the Saami people, which I had a pleasure to meet during my trip to  Lapland.  I visited  a reindeer farm owned by them, located near a village called Inari. Aside from the mentioned farm, in Inari there is also a Saami council and a museum.
Saami are native tribes living in the northern part of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Their main way of survival in the past was focused on breeding reindeers. Nowadays they preserve their way of living and they continue their craft in modern ways. They breed reindeers, sell their meat, organize many tourist activities like reindeer sleigh rides or presentations of their traditional dresses and huts and manufacture handmade crafts which are sold to tourists.  They have developed an interesting way of breeding reindeers. Due to the fact that there are not so many natural threats for reindeers in Lapland, they breed relatively fast. Saami took advantage of that and they limited their role to mark ear of a reindeer with a very special and sophisticated set of cuts (so they know to whom reindeer belongs) and count them once a year. Overpopulation of reindeers is solved by selling them for meat production purposes. In the meantime, Saami are making handmade medallions, toys and knives from reindeer’s horns.

What really impressed me in those people is their will to adapt. Aside from selling their handicrafts to tourist they also adapted to make guided activities like feeding reindeers and riding reindeer sledges or making exhibitions  of their original style of life. In fact, activities including reindeers have become so popular that some reindeers have even their photos on services like Instagram. In order to be able to do so Saami speak at least 4 languages (Saami, Finnish, Swedish, English and also often German and/or Russian). Between periods of counting the reindeers, Saami people travel around Scandinavia and give concerts of their native music. As I mentioned above, they have even their own council, where they decide how to better adapt to the modern world and also a museum of their own history open for tourists visiting Lapland.

So if you would like to visit Finland, but you are afraid of cold, closed, shy Finns... just fear not, come and see for yourself, what is a reality (and in case of desperation just talk to students :) )

Text by Michal Micor, a student in Independent Study in English course

Studying languages with different cultures

I had never studied German language before. Yet, the language was not the most interesting part of the classes I took at Lappeenranta University of Technology. The classes were held together with all the international students, which I thought was such a great idea. Diverse cultures and the international atmosphere must bring more content to the learning experience, I thought. And indeed, it really did. Getting to know different people from all over the world while learning a new language together was really something. However, there are some challenges when you are learning something new with people from different backgrounds. 

What I learned right away in the first class was that Finnish people and southern cultures have a very different learning patterns. Compared to the Finns, who prefer written exams and only speak the language when they know they are using the grammar correctly, many of the foreign people I met thought it was ok to make mistakes as long as you are trying to speak. During our conversational tasks I learned a lot from being more spontaneous and just trying to do your best, even when you don’t know if you are doing it right. I think it is very good to try to get it correct and perhaps it can even pay off when learning a language, but being brave enough to make mistakes is what you can learn a lot from too.

Please don’t get me wrong – I am not saying either way of thinking is not good. I think there’s a silver lining in both, whether you are trying to reach the perfect grammar or learn by having fun with the language. However, I think we can learn a lot from other people and having different cultures in class definitely diversifies our own way of thinking. It is an awesome way also to get to know all the foreign people in our university, which we unfortunately are not encouraged to do at other events. Learning something together is an awesome way to get to know one another. So please, continue mixing the classes, Language Centre! How do you guys feel, do you like learning languages with people from different backgrounds? Have you learned something new from different cultures? 

Text: A student of Independent Study in English course

English in my life

English language has been a part of my life ever since my childhood, first through watching television series and movies, and more on from the early youth, when listening to music and reading English language news and articles became an important part of my life.

However, although I had a good understanding of both the spoken and written English, the problem was in the writing, especially with the grammar aspect. This had it remarks to the English grade, which was below the average during my high school years. Part of which was caused by my dyslexia, which had its effect on writing in particular. From this basis, the next step, which I did regarding my studies, would not sound like the most likely one.

I decided to apply to a bachelor program, which was taught in English language. In the beginning of my bachelor studies I struggled rather a lot, but I had a strong belief that I can manage, if I just keep using the language and that way trying to improve my skills. After a few months of using English daily, and a few writing assignments later, it got gradually better.

Now, years later and using, during most days, more English than Finnish and having written hundreds of pages in English, I feel that I have reached a stage where I can manage with my language skills pretty much in every situation. However, you never can be perfect and there is always room to improve, like probably this text contains some misspelling. In that case, you just try to get as much feedback as possible and adjust your future work accordingly. This is a way, which I have noticed to be the most efficient way to learn for me. I guess that you can call it “learning by doing” approach. Besides this, also reading helped me to improve my writing, for example by providing examples of text structures which I have included in my own writing style.

To conclude, you never can be perfect with certain ability and life is full of learning possibilities. Sometimes you just need to take the leap of faith that you can manage with the imperfect skills you already have, rather than just wait to achieve the perfect skills. If I have done it, you can do it also - just use your language skills whenever possible. Open Your Mouth! 

Text: Ville Myllynpää, a student of Independent Study in English course