Finnish life and culture

I have lived in Finland for more than two months already and although I have mainly been hanging around with other exchange students you see a lot of the culture. Finnish culture is Western European and is in many aspects not very different from the Dutch culture. Still some things are remarkable and can be a little bit difficult to get used to. Let me reflect in this blog on the cultural differences I have experienced so far.

First of all about the way the country is organized. Finland is a welfare state in which many things are taken account of by the government. As a student you only have the benefits and don’t have to pay taxes! For example education. All levels of education are for free. Even for university they don’t have to pay tuition fees, but only books and other study material. Besides students get a grant from the university which is more than what we get from DUO. Moreover students have a lot of benefits from paying a small fee to the student union like cheap (and pretty good) meals, health care and many discounts. For example for public transport or museums. The ice-skating hall I went to was also for free as is the use of the city library. You only have to pay if you return your books late. Also the university libraries are accessible for everyone, not only for students. You can enjoy many things here in Finland without paying for it. The other side of the coin is of course the high taxes, also on food and drinks.

A second difference with the Netherlands is that the teachers want you to use their first name if you send them an email. In the Netherlands I always have to think about how to address the lectures, but here you don’t have to think that much about the titles they have or whether you r email is formal and polite enough. However, politeness is highly appreciated.

Finns are also very trustful. I could for example try out a bike for half an hour. I could just take it with me and be back after an hour, without leaving anything valuable. Also the money we had to pay for a cottage we could just leave on the table when we left the cottage. They didn’t even came to check if we cleaned the cottage the right way. They expect people to do so and that’s what children learn. “Leave the place the way you like to find it”. That is a common rule in Finland and it is very nice to see that people stick to it. They also clean up their own mess, another norm. You don’t see garbage on the streets and that is quite different from the situation in the Netherlands.

They are also very font of recycling. They have different containers for paper, plastic, glass, cans and other garbage and they expect you to use these. They don’t only have deposits for plastic bottles (big and small ones resp. €0,40 and €0,20)) here, but also for empty cans (€0,15).

Another character trait of Finns is that they are not outgoing at all. There will be no Finn starting to talk to you on the streets for example. However, they are very helpful. If you have a question they are very willing to help you and to give you precise directions. What I also have noticed here in Finland is that many students live in their own small apartment instead of in student houses our buildings like the Verberne flats. They like their own privacy and rest. Although they do not talk a lot they are very interested in why you came to Finland, what you think of Finland, what you know about Finland etc and they really like it if you know something. They are proud of their sportsman and love to talk about it. Another topic that they really like to talk about is the weather. So if you ever come to Finland, these are two topics you can use to get in contact with the Finns.

A nice thing here in Finland (at least in Turku and surroundings) is that they have roads for bicycles. As a Dutch person who loves cycling this is very good. It gives you a safe feeling on the streets. The way the cycling traffic is organized is little bit different from the Netherlands where it is very luxuous as a biker. In Turku most of the time they have just one bicycle road on one side of the street and you can go in both directions. This is no problem at all if people stick to one side, but they don’t . And besides that most of the time there is a pedestrian road right next to it on the same level (so not a little bit higher like in the Netherlands). Consequently pedestrians start walking on the bicycle road and vice versa which creates  a mess sometimes. As a biker you have to look constantly for people who MIGHT cross the bicycle road because they don’t look, they just go. And this gets even worse when the bicycle road and pedestrian way are combined. Luckily, this is my only frustration here in Finland and I start to get used to it and not getting upset about it.

Lunch is the main meal in Finland. Many students go to the student cafeteria to eat what we in the Netherlands eat for dinner. At the home of my Finnish family I’m served a three course meal for lunch every time I go there. They also eat very early. Lunch is normally between 11:00 and 13:00 and dinner between 16:00 and 18:00. They eat a lot of potatoes and they have a lot of rye bread. Besides they drink mostly fat free milk and have a lot of lactose free products. As a Dutch person, this big lunch is quite difficult to get used to. A full meal in the middle of the day is a little bit too much for my stomach and I’m sometimes longing to my own lunch that I bring to university containing just bread with cheese.

The last point I will mention in this blog is the strictness of the Finns. Since I’m a strict person myself I don’t have any difficulties with that and I kind of like it. Lectures start on time and they don’t like to end late. If a lecture ends late (even if it’s only for 30 seconds) the lecturer even apologizes! They have many small rules and they want them to be very clear. They sometimes also give a lot of unnecessary information. For example for one course we have the lecture every time in a different room. The lecturer has made a schedule of this and it is in the slides that you can find on the internet. However, he has been mentioning in and explained it in detail during three lectures already instead of saying ‘just check the schedule in the internet’. I guess they just want to be very clear, helpful and want to avoid misunderstandings. Another point of strictness is the alcohol selling. You have to be 18 and if one person buys something the whole group has to show their ID’s. For me this is also a bit unnecessary because if you would be part of the group and younger than 18 you would just not go into the shop.

It has been quite a long story but it hopefully gave you a good view of Finland. In general the differences with the Netherlands are not big. Finns are just more detailed in explaining and want to be very clear. They are very helpful and want to avoid misunderstandings. It is not difficult to get used to it and many things here in Finland I like much better than in the Netherlands. For example people are much more respectful to people and other people’s belongings. That’s one of the main reasons why I very much like to live here.