Reaction Paper #4 Finland

We had to give a presentation about a culture so I decided to present about Finland which is the fifth-largest country in Western Europe. People may not know but there are lots of interesting facts about this country. Let´s start with their identity, most Finns are very proud of their achievements regardless of the field, for instance, they want you to know at least about the sports careers of Paavo Nurmi and Lasse Viren who were two or their famous runners. During the 1920s, Nurmi was the best middle and long distance runner in the world, setting world records at distances between 1500 m and 20 km and Lasse Viren was the winner of four gold medals at the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics. Also, that Nokia was invented by a Finn as well that Linus Torvalds, the inventor of Linux.

 

Most Finns belong to the Evangelical-Lutheran Church while another part of them belongs to the Orthodox Church. Something that caught my attention was the fact that chauvinistic attitudes towards women are generally considered unacceptable.

The  Finns’ mother tongue is either Finnish, Swedish or Saami. They are very good at listening, so, words are taken seriously and interrupting is considered rude. Also when introducing themselves, they will say their first name followed by their last name. They rarely mention their titles for example Dr. Adams but they are expected to be addressed that way in their professional or in official contexts. When greeting, they shake hands and make eye contact, children are greeted that way too, and kissing on the cheek is very unusual.

Finland is the country where coffee is consumed the most and the average of alcohol consumed is close to the European average. Tipping is like here in Costa Rica, service is already included in the bill. Unlike Costa Rican, Finns are very punctual; if you are late you must apologize and give a brief explanation. The Sauna is something completely natural to Finns, and you can do it for the first time in the company of a Finn friend.

"Take a man by his words and a bull by its horns," says a Finnish proverb. Remember that Finns take words seriously and if you visit their country, this might be a good advice. Always try to be very punctual and apologize if you are late.  We all know that all cultures are different and that is why it is a good idea to learn about all the traditions, manners and etiquettes from the Finns before traveling to Finland.

Reaction Paper #3 Song

One of the assignments for my culture II course was to present a song related to culture. At the beginning I had no idea what song to present. I thought about a few and I asked my professor about it. I had no success; they were not closely related to culture or maybe I did not know how to explain their relation with it. 

Then, I remembered about a song that one of my professors presented in the class two years ago. The problem was that I did not remember who the singer was not even the name of the song. One day, while I was watching Cartoon Network, one song that was being played on TV, caught my attention. The singer´s voice was familiar to me and guess what, it was Jack Johnson, the one that I was looking for. 

Now you know who the singer of the song I presented is. The name of the song is “Taylor”, Jack Johnson wrote this song about a girl named Taylor. The song tells the story of three characters: Taylor, Peter Patrick and Sunny. In the song, Taylor works the night shift, passing out tickets but it does not say where, and she is dreaming about a better place; where sadness is unknown, and if she finds a place like that, she will run away. The second character is Peter Patrick who is in love with Taylor, but in the song they do not say how they met. But I believe it was probably while she was wandering in the streets. 

One day, when Patrick is out of his house, he finds out that is locked out of it. He pitter-patters on his window, but, Sunny who is Peter´s wife will not let him in, because somehow she knows where Peter Patrick has been going to, he has been with Taylor. He realizes about his mistake and thinks that going to church every Sunday will make things right again.

For me, the song is related to culture because each character has a particular lifestyle. Many people live like any of this characters and it can have many consequences in life. These lifestyles many times are passed from generation to generation. People around the world tend to believe that is the best way you live because that is what they have learned from their parents.