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How the Finnish survive without small talk

bbc.com

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Re: How the Finnish survive without small talk

#21

Post by salvar »

buboard wrote: post #8

[flagged]

Speaking from an Icelandic perspective, I think the 'love of socialism' stems from the fact that we've pretty much always needed to rely on one another to just survive in the harsh living conditions. Of course, these conditions have improved drastically since the early 20th century but I think a lot of the culture remains.

Re: How the Finnish survive without small talk

#22

Post by holstvoogd »

stabbles wrote: post #5

Finns do love to talk about the weather.

We do that for small talk in Holland mostly. run into your neighbour? 'ooh, the weather!' 'quite!' and move on :) Actually, it is mostly complaining about it. too hot, too wet, too dry... And all while it is mostly excruciatingly mild compared to places with real weather :P

Re: How the Finnish survive without small talk

#23

Post by tomp »

illuminati1911 wrote: post #7

(I’m a Finn) I didn’t know what small talk was until I went to study abroad. Most of my foreign classmates often asked me things like ”how are you doing?” etc. and when I literally answered them what I had been up to recently they were very confused. ”Dude...no need to tell your life story, just say ’good’ and that’s it” I replied ”Why do you ask a question if you don’t care about the answer?” I learned the hard way,…

Looks like I need to move to Finland :D

Re: How the Finnish survive without small talk

#24

Post by lasagnaphil »

chrisseaton wrote: post #15
lasagnaphil wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the Japanese clerk’s elaborate script is just an educated formality rather than a sincere conversation...

> just an educated formality rather than a sincere conversation So small talk, then.

I think it is a little different than smalltalk. When people smalltalk, no matter how shallow the conversation is, there is still an intention to “get to know” with each other. But in the cashier example, the cashier does not have any goal to forge a relationship with the customer, but will repeat the same thing over and over because that’s what they’re told to do in the manuals.

Re: How the Finnish survive without small talk

#25

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

It is strange that this article sees Finland as an odd man out in terms of customer-service interactions, and it suggests the USA or the UK is the norm. I have lived in both southern Europe (where people are claimed to be more extrovert) and in Finland, and generally interacting with a "barista" or cashier in both places is exactly the same, consisting of only the words "Hello" and "Thanks". In the USA one might get small talk coming from employees who don’t know you, but that tends to be feigned and is therefore rather creepy.

Re: How the Finnish survive without small talk

#26

Post by vidarh »

illuminati1911 wrote: post #7

(I’m a Finn) I didn’t know what small talk was until I went to study abroad. Most of my foreign classmates often asked me things like ”how are you doing?” etc. and when I literally answered them what I had been up to recently they were very confused. ”Dude...no need to tell your life story, just say ’good’ and that’s it” I replied ”Why do you ask a question if you don’t care about the answer?” I learned the hard way,…

I'm Norwegian, and had the same experience moving to the UK. For several years I kept grumbling about how rude people were to ask and then just keep walking while I stopped to answer.

Re: How the Finnish survive without small talk

#28

Post by jacquesm »

buboard wrote: post #8

[flagged]

I am not sure where I am going to start to help to sync up your worldview a bit but there are so many things wrong with this comment that an attempt will run a lot longer than the original.

Your ideas on socialism seem to be confusing communism, socialism, the well-fare state and the social contract all at once.

There is a lot of stereotyping in your comment (fair enough, there is too in the article), and you are jumping to conclusions about both the rates and the underlying cause of suicides in the Nordics.

Finally, your last paragraph again draws on stereotypical blue-prints about the British and the Americans.

Re: How the Finnish survive without small talk

#29

Post by jen729w »

buboard wrote: post #8

[flagged]

Seems like as good a time as any to pop in a reference to Michael Booth’s lovely book ‘The Almost Nearly Perfect People’. He’s British, from memory he’s married to a Dane, and he treks around all of the Scandinavian countries — Iceland & Greenland included — and dispels the common myths.

Review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/10/perfect-people...

Re: How the Finnish survive without small talk

#30

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

buboard wrote: post #8

[flagged]

The OP does have a point. Community solidarity has traditionally been there in the Nordic countries due to the harsh climate conditions and need to band together. However, the 20th-century welfare state model allows one to contribute to the community and help the neighbours without having to interact with them personally. Note how charitable organizations that do require personal interaction have broadly fallen by the wayside now that the welfare state has taken over, except for the occasional foreign sect working outside of the mainstream churches.
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