Question for Finns

[Tiny Prancer]

Part of the reason for everyone being emotional on american tv is emotional melodrama sells really well here, especially when combined with the idea of someone trying to follow their dreams or live their life the way they want. Because nothing will tell you you're supposed to care like someone crying and talking about following their dreams. It's a pretty good explanation as to why there are so many "talent discovery" shows, along with reality tv shows. Emotional intensity in media is something that carries over to advertising a lot too, it's not unusual for advertisements to sell themselves by using cues that you're supposed to get worked up in some way or other about what they're selling.

Same thing with heterosexual sexual tension, basically if a male and female character are alone together at any time on a drama show it becomes about the "will they or won't they" aspect of their relationship, because no, they can never be just friends. Americans are both really obsessed with and really scared of sex at the same time. Blame the puritans I guess.

[Fanzay]

Well, if we're talking stereotypes there are a few depending on various things. There is a youth culture thing where USA is the holy land of all popular culture. Teens and Preteens especially embrace American music, TV and even fast food culture. On the other hand, among adults the stereotypes are sadly a bit more negative. "Stupid" is usually the first word when people talk about you good folk, along with "noisy" and "warmongering". Gun issues don't really get that much attention here aside from major incidents, since we have a quite rich hunting tradition and many people in rural parts have guns as heirlooms from the wars. On a more personal scale, the word that gets thrown around my small circle of friends is "melodramatic". In Finland public displays of emotion are usually frowned upon and considered something only drunks do, so your Jerry Springers and TV evangelists are really strange for us culturally speaking. Likewise, personally I don't really get the hysteria exhibited by people in shows like American Idol. Everyone is crying and screaming all the time, even the adults. Of course, I don't expect that real life in USA is like the TV shows, but even in Finnish TV there are things people just won't do. This is why Finnish versions of American format shows usually flop, or end after one of two seasons.

Still, at least you're not Russians.

WHAT THE FUCK
love from a concerned neighboring country.
(emphasis mine, obviously)

Otherwise it's pretty the same view as most Norwegians have on Americans, as well as most people here think Americans are the most courteous people in the world (we don't do small talk either), somehow.

[Bobalay]

Is there a stigma against people who choose to go to vocational schools? Here in America, tech/vocational schools are viewed as "you need to get a good four-year degree so you DON'T have to go to a tech school to get a job," which has landed us a shortage of skilled welders, electricians, etc.

[Admiral Cavindash]

Well, if we're talking stereotypes there are a few depending on various things. There is a youth culture thing where USA is the holy land of all popular culture. Teens and Preteens especially embrace American music, TV and even fast food culture. On the other hand, among adults the stereotypes are sadly a bit more negative. "Stupid" is usually the first word when people talk about you good folk, along with "noisy" and "warmongering". Gun issues don't really get that much attention here aside from major incidents, since we have a quite rich hunting tradition and many people in rural parts have guns as heirlooms from the wars. On a more personal scale, the word that gets thrown around my small circle of friends is "melodramatic".

...

Still, at least you're not Russians.

Yea but Americans say that about Americans.  I've literally had to say to 3 people on the bus today, "At least you're not Russians".  What do you REALLY think?

[montrith]

The youth culture thing is mostly teenagers going "Finland sucks, I want to live in America where everyone drives fast cars and mom never tells them to shovel the snow out of the driveway."

I don't think there's a big stigma when it comes to vocational schools. People are leaning more and more towards university education, but that's at least party because the opportunity of putting off deciding what you really want to study, at least for 3 three years. There's also the thing that many high paying professions have a lot of competition going on for available jobs, so you'll need at least a master's degree in order to have a shot at getting in. My own family is about half and half university and vocational school, so it's not an issue at least as far as I've seen. Of course, family does play an important role when it comes to education (every person in my family with university educated parents has also gone to do a degree), but it's not like my psychiatrist aunt will refuse to have a beer with my nurse cousin.

I'd answer Admiral Cavindash, but I don't know what you're really asking. Are you asking for my personal opinion? If so, the USA is pretty much like every other country: There are some shit people, there are some good people. I can't say I think you're doing everything right, but I can't say that about my own country either.

[Tiny Prancer]

mom never tells them to shovel the snow out of the driveway."

ahahahahohoho oh those fools

[Psammetichus]

Here's my question: Who are traditionally seen as Finland's geo-political or cultural "friends"?

To clarify, many countries seem to have a historical affinity, like the USA and UK (Special Relationship) or Russia and Serbia, or Hungary and Poland (Wikipedia sez: Relations between the two states date back to the Middle Ages, with the two peoples enjoying a traditional close friendship.)

So who are Finland's traditional friends? Do Finns see Hungary or Estonia as natural friends since all three Uralic languages?

And speaking of Uralic languages, is Finnish mutually intelligible with Estonian or Hungarian? Is Finnish mutually intelligible with local non-Uralic languages like Swedish or Norwegian or Danish?

[montrith]

I think most people think Sweden as our most natural ally. We may have a rivalry thing going on and make fun of each other all the time, but it's more like a sibling rivalry than any kind of real feud. Even though Sweden stayed neutral during WWII lots of Swedish men fought in Finland as volunteers. Even today our armies do practice battles together and collaborate on defense plans. Estonia is considered an ally too, but more like your cousin that's good for partying and holiday fun, but should never be relied on in a crisis.

Finnish is not really mutually intelligible with anything, though Estonian would be the closest in terms of vocabulary. If you speak Estonian you could ostensibly make sense of some Finnish, though this would be much like trying to read Japanese kanji with only working knowledge of traditional Chinese. There's also much room for misunderstanding, since there are some words that are used in both languages but with different meanings. For example, Estonian for "Where is the bathroom?" is "Kus on WC?", which in turn is Finnish for "Piss is the toilet". Likewise, "I have lost my bag" in Estonian is "Ma kaotasin oma koti", which a Finn would interpret as "I've misplaced my home". Hungarian, on the other hand, is almost completely different apart from some root words that maintain phonetic similarity. This also applies for Scandinavian languages such as Swedish, with the exception of a dialect speech near the Swedish border and slang speech in the capital region. The so-called "stading slangi", or "capital slang", is a weird mixture of mangled Swedish and Finnish. For example, here we have the sentence "Close the door so it won't blow in" first in (rough) Swedish, then Finnish and finally in slang.

Stäng dörren så att den inte kommer att blåsa in

Pane ovi kiinni ettei puhalla sisään

Pane döre kine ettei blosa ine

Note: This is an older example of slang. As language is constantly developing, I cannot guarantee you won't look like an idiot if you try this in 2014.

[Runic]

Now I've heard that Swedish and Danish are mutually intelligible, is that true?

[montrith]

All Scandinavian languages are to a point, some more than others. Nevertheless, you're not going to be fluent in Swedish if you only speak Norwegian. The phonetic side is different too. I know some Swedish, but I can barely make out some Norwegian based on that.

[Runic]

On a tangentially related note, what part of your country does the rest of your country look down on? Here in America people crack jokes at the expense of places like Florida, New Jersey, Alabama, and California with varying levels of justification and actual malice. Up in Canada I am told they like to make fun of Newfies. Is there any Finnish equivalent? Some area that is, according to national lore, full of inbreed hicks or just crazy motherfuckers?

[montrith]

There are stereotypes for all regions, but nothing really about rednecks or hicks. People from Häme are supposedly slow (as in speed, not stupid), people from Pohjanmaa are violent ("It's not a wedding if nobody dies"), Savonians are talkative and glib. Those are the types of things people joke about when it comes to different areas, though these days people move around so much the old stereotypes don't really get brought up that much. Many jokes are still made based on a supposedly old feud between the cities of Turku and Tampere, where they take turns trying to make the people of the other city seem as dumb as possible. There are also lots of jokes made about Hölmöläiset and Laihialaiset. Hölmöläiset are the supposedly the people of a village called Hölmölä (Dumbville), which is located in an unspecified part of Finland. They're featured in old folk tales describing the folly of mob mentality and human stupidity in general. Laihia, on the other hand, is an actual place whose people have somehow acquired the reputation of being extremely stingy, kind of like the Scotland of Finland. This is likely due to the fact that the name of the place roughly translates to "skinny", but can also be interpreted as "having lean times".

Anyway, most of the Finland was still extremely rural right up to the 20th century, so if we'd started making redneck jokes it'd just been like making fun of your own family.

[Down10]

I found this. I figured Montrith would appreciate it.

[montrith]

Fun fact, Finnish for "user friendly" is käyttäjäystävällinen, which is not a very user friendly word.

[Goose Goose Honk At Me Now]

Is the "-laiset" suffix at all a part of surnames, or is it just how people refer to each other in terms of where they're from? Like, are there guys named John Q. City-over-there-laiset, or is it just "oh, John Q. Public is a City-over-there-laiset"?