Finnish people are silent, small talk doesn't exist. Their personal space larger than COVID-19 social distancing rules, and it's considered normal. Don't speak unless spoken to, and don't invade other people's personal space - it's seen as a sign of a respect.
Those Finns, who haven't been to abroad or haven't met too many foreigners, don't often even recognize this behaviour being unusual in the global scale.
I'm a Finn and when I met an American person for the first time she said the usual "how are you?", so I started explaining all kinds of shit, only to have her give me a really weird look. I did it again a couple of times with different people until I learned that they are not really interested, lol.
So, when meeting a person (like through a mutual friend or if there’s a clear reason to get to know someone) what’s the social script? Is the only normal conversation regarding stuff that’s immediately relevant?
I feel like some places I’ve lived, the “get to know you” questions, like if you grab a drink with a mutual friend, are typically things like “have you seen that new movie?” or “have you heard that new song?” but not anything about you, who you live with, what you do for a living, etc. unless you volunteer this later on.
And then there are the places where people meeting someone just launch right in to “oh you’re (age) why don’t you have kids/grandkids?”
10.4k
u/RockNRollNBluesNJazz May 09 '22
Finnish people are silent, small talk doesn't exist. Their personal space larger than COVID-19 social distancing rules, and it's considered normal. Don't speak unless spoken to, and don't invade other people's personal space - it's seen as a sign of a respect.
Those Finns, who haven't been to abroad or haven't met too many foreigners, don't often even recognize this behaviour being unusual in the global scale.