Interview with a Finn

 

    The person that I interviewed was Eemil Helynen, originally from Finland, but is here in Moscow for the semester studying abroad. Eemil is a co-worker of mine within our stat crew for basketball. He did once live in Texas when he was young so he is a little biased compared to most students who are in the United States their first time. 

The first question that I asked Eemil was “What are key values or traits that are important in Finnish Culture?” He responded with honesty. Honesty is so important in their culture that you can have trust with anyone in the country. For example, one time he lost his wallet and someone gave it to him a week later. I then asked in further detail, “how do Finns handle conflict?” and he responded with only confrontation when necessary, most of the time just keeping to themselves. They are a very individualistic country so they can handle things themselves. 

I then changed the subject with Eemil and asked how the social life is in Finland. He said that Finns are very hard to crack and will hardly speak to you at all, but if you actually speak their language or are from there they will open up completely and become super social. Continuing that I had him elaborate on if he had any culture shock in the United States and he has already been here before so his answer is a little biased, but he said “it was really strange when the grocery store clerk was exchanging small talk with me because that is something that is never seen back home.”

We continued our conservation and I asked what surprised him most in America. He brought up the long distances between states and how one country could possibly be so large and spread apart with so many different cultures. I then asked him what he missed about home and he mentioned public transportation. In Finland, there is public transportation that ranges through all the large cities, but here in Moscow you can’t even get to Pullman without a car. 

Since Eemil isn’t going to be here long term, I asked him what it would be like for a tourist in Finland and what you would need to know. He really emphasized the fact that they will ignore you to avoid small talk and respect private space, but you cannot take it in a rude way because it’s part of their culture. I then shifted into the last subject which was education. In Finland, around 90 percent of students finish high school. There are two different kinds of high school with the standard high schools and then what we would call trade school as the other option. Once you finish, you can either go to a University or work. If you do neither, the government will still take care of you and pay for all your housing and bills. This is only frowned upon if someone is abusing it because they are too lazy to work.