Stereotyping Finnish - German Culture

stereotypes are basic processes for categorization. A stereotype simplifies the view and thus enables quick decisions. It is easier for us humans to assess the first contact with a foreign person if we can put them in a category. For example, southerners (Italians) are hearty, open-minded people and usually less punctual. But this is not always true because every person is different and especially nowadays many things are very international. I was allowed to test this experiment myself in the 2 semesters and I have to admit that some of the stereotypes are true and some are not. We had a course GetFinternational in which we had a lot of contact with exchange students from different cultures and talked about different customs and stereotypes and behaviors. It was very interesting to see the partly huge differences between the cultures. Nevertheless we are all international students and usually a little bit more open especially here in Turku the students were all open and helpful until now.

Typical Finnish Stereotypes 

• good school systems 
• Finns love their Sauna 
• good foreign language skills (almost perfect English and further languages like Russian or Swedish, German even older people)
• Shy - they like their personal space until they get comfortable with a person
• no smalltalk
• awkward silents is not a thing in Finland - there is no need to talk about irrelevant stuff, they prefer the silents 
• punctual
• widespread love for heavy metal music 
• passion for ice-hockey, skiing 
• love rules 

Typical German Stereotypes 

• Germans love their beer (definelty true)
• bake good bread
• come of direct and sometimes rude in conversations - as they are very goal oriented in conversations. They want to get right to the point
• overly punctual 
• know-it-alls 
• good cars 
• passion for soccer
• love rules and organization

To clear things up, what I have experienced is that the Finnish school systems are very good and actually encourage students to grow and I can also agree on the love for Sauna. As well as the good foreign language skills even if we ask an older person something on the street their English is enough to help us out. The Finns I met so far were sometimes shy at the beginning but for the most part they were open and if not after alcohol they all become talkative and very open. A big shock to me was the awkward silents in between conversations in Germany we get uncomfortable and stressed if there is a conversation gap and we rather talk nonsense than to remain silent- but in Finland it is the other way round. I got used to the silents though and I think it makes much more sense there is nothing wrong with silents but still if the silents stays to long I get stressed.. Finland has a lot of known heavy metal bands but music taste is always controversial so I would not agree on this stereotype. The similarities to Germany is the punctuality and their love for rules and organization and the passion for sports even though different ones. The cultures are similar but I can still tell the differences between those Germans are more harsh and direct in conversations and sometimes have a weird humor (or none at all). Finns are more helpful but more distanced than Germans. But these are my personal overall feelings everyone is different and everyone feels different. I Just have to say that our tutors and friends took good care of us and helped us as much as they could. I could not have imagined it better.