If you visit a country you should not only want to check out landmarks and the landscape, but you should also want get to know the country’s people.
The people in Finland is well known for being quiet and shy. But are they really like that, considering what you hear in movies, on TV or social media? We wanted to know, and because we also had German students with us, we went to the bus-station here in Vantaa and asked people for their opinion about Finnish and German stereotypes. Unfortunately nobody agreed that we would take them on record or picture.
As we asked many people, it became apparent that many Finnish people think of themselves as very quiet and not so open, and not so social when it comes to meeting new people. As we asked them for examples, most people said that nobody wants to sit next to each other while on the bus.
But when it comes to Germans, Finnish people are very clear that they think of them as punctual and orderly folks, who despite their harsh language are very hospitable. And of course Germans are associated with beer, sausage and leather trousers, traits that would really only fit to Bavarians.
So all in all we weren’t really surprised, because we were talking about stereotypes that would fit to ourselves before. But on the other hand we were glad to see that so many people wanted to share their experiences or thoughts with us. And that shows, that Finnish people are not as shy as you first would think :).
Research method
We interviewed two women and three men, who were on their way to work. We believed them to be somewhere between the ages of 25 and 45. We arrived at the station on October 28th 2017 at around 7:55 and left with the train that departs at 8:09.
Paul, Emil, Nico, Nicklas
