Finland has 2 official languages Finnish and Swedish. Most people think that Finnish is similar like Swedish but it’s not true. Finnish belongs to Finno-Ugrian languages. The latter also includes Hungarian, Estonian, and Sámi (spoken by the indigenous people of northern Finland, Sweden, Norway and north-western Russia). The Finno-Ugrian languages share enough common lexical and grammatical features to prove a common origin. Also Finnish language can affect communication in many cases:
- Absence of gender (instead of he and she – they use pronoun hän)
- Absence of articles (a and the in English)
- No equivalent of the verb to have
- Absence of word please
The conception that Finns are a reserved and taciturn lot is the past, certainly not with the younger generations. It is fair to say that Finns have a special attitude to words and speech: words are taken seriously and people are held to what they say. Finns tend to speak openly and without decoration. Yes means "yes!" and no means no! ".
Finns rarely enter into conversation with strangers, unless a particularly strong impulse prompts it. Finns are curiously silent in the metro, the bus or the tram. However, a visitor clutching a map will have no trouble in getting advice on a street corner or in any other public place. Finns are better at listening than at talking, and interrupting another speaker is considered impolite. Finns usually speak unhurriedly.
"Small Talk" is harmless and even helpful. Initial content of a harmless conversation are weather conditions, Finnish sauna, holidays and trips and of course activities in different seasons. Shared hobbies are topic for conversation and exchange of opinions as elsewhere and it can be easy to strike up a lively conversation with a Finn about culture and the arts and also about sports (especially ice-hockey). But sometimes Ice-hockey like good content of conversation can be bad choice. Most Finns are fanatical ice-hockey fans and if you bring the subject up, you will be bored to death; rest of Finns hate ice-hockey. One subject to avoid when you are talking to Finnish men is the army. Other topic which is better to avoid are salary, taxes, religion, political views, marriage and alcohol problems or personal issues.
Resources:
http://www.finland.fi/Public/default.aspx?contentid=160036&nodeid=41797&culture=en-US
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/finland-country-profile.html
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