Finnishness
My view on ”Finnishness” is made of my observations during my exchange. There were many finnish persons in Korea University and it was fun to notice the small differences in our cultures.
One of the biggest observations was that we Finns are really patriotic when we were in South Korea. Some of us were always comparing SK and Finland in everything we did. Whether it was about dining somewhere or how the school events were done, we were always saying how Finland was different. I know that sometimes it sounded a little arrogant but the Koreans didn’t mind, they thought it was fun to hear things from Finland.
One part of being a Finn is going to the sauna. Even in Korea, we had to find a sauna to sooth our minds (and hurting feets). We were supprised that Korean saunas are designed to be more of a time-consuming place than just a place to sit and relax. It didn’t take much time to figure out that Korean saunas were the best place to have a feel-good moment.
One last thing, part of being a Finn is to have a good tolerance to alcohol. This was something that our Korean friends were amazed of. Every week we were drinking with our orientation group and every time our friends failed at “drinking us under the table.” Korean alcohol just wasn’t strong enough for us.
VAK
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