Conversation

Finnish people are known as quiet persons. With strangers, they don’t like to start a conversation, especially not in public. A Finnish compliment is passive, like respecting someone’s privacy. – for example, on a train or in a market, people want to give everyone their own privacy. But still every Finnish person likes open people who’ll start a proper conversation.

Some conversation topics should be avoided if you don’t know the person you are talking to. Some of these topics are: money issues, politics, religion and relationships. Usually Finnish people want to talk about things that affects many people, for example, the weather. The speed of conversation is usually pretty slow, and there might be breaks between statements.

It is said that Finnish people will talk only if they have something to say and they prefer more to act than speak. The Finnish “small-talk” is very ordinary. For example quietness and gestures may mean the same as that fast talking in other cultures. Usually quietness is not a negative thing, it could be a creative or concerned state.

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