Talk:Culture of Finland
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[edit] Old talk:stereotypes
This page needs to be edited to take out whole-country stereotypes. Some of the statements seem quite biased and not culturally-aware.
This page definitely needs to be edited. It's mostly based on travelling-guide-type of stereotypes, and doesn't really tell anything about the CULTURE. The links only are not informative enough.
Finnish people aren't made of stone. The stereotypes are all wrong.
As a person livining in Finland for 16 years I can say that the claims in the article are totally true.
-As a finn i would say exactly those things about ourselves I was the author of this article. Howewer, I concur that the standard is not up to Oxford-level: It seems a bit juvenile and edgy, but nonetheless quite true.
-This was terrible. Especially after reading through the page about Japanese Popular Culture (which was an excellent page with loads of information, links, references...), I feel completely embarrassed that this is the image that perhaps thousands of foreigners get of Finland. It's full of stereotypes as has been pointed out, and it hardly provides any information about the culture, only some generalizations about Finns. I sure hope someone re-writes this, I am appalled, and hope the whole article was a joke to begin with.
[edit] Culture of Finland.
It is a generalizing article but definitely accurate. As a Finn I totally agree with its contents. Maybe there could be more links to some scientific articles for the more specific readers?
[edit] The article is not about culture
This is by far the worst article I have seen for quite a while. It seems as if it was written by someone who has no idea what the word culture means; there is no information whatsoever on Finnish culture, just ridiculous cliches about Finnish melancholy, "sisu", alcohol use, etc. I think the best thing one could do is to delete and rewrite from scratch.--AAikio 06:30, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Largely True But Superficial
- I have lived in Finland for over a year and I think that what has been written is largely true, but of course these generalizations don't apply to everyone. This article is pretty superficial - it could go a lot deeper. For instance, it could discuss cultural aspects like modern design; Alvar Aalto; Sibelius; sauna culture; summer cottage traditions; holiday traditions; the impact on the culture of long days in the summer/short days in the winter; government spending to support and promote Finnish artists; impact of the welfare state on society/individuals; health care system, successful rapid development of Finland from agrarian based economy to industrial/high tech economy. Regarding people, the article could talk more about why Finns are reserved among strangers; xeonophobia and low immigration; how to approach social or business dealings with Finns as a foreigner; how Finns have the capacity to be very warm after you get to know them and show genuine interest (rather than superficial interest or socialization); reserved pride in Finnish culture; relationship with Russia and Russians; among other things.
- I'm glad that someone else comments on this as well; it seems that no one has really been paying attention to this article. As you say it is very superficial. The topics you listed should be covered, among other things. But I can't agree with you on that "what has been written is largely true". The main problem with the current version is that it based on someone's subjective impressions and stereotypes of what Finns are supposedly like. My impressions are not similar. But most important, this kind of writing breaks the Wikipedia policy of verifiable sources. Subjective impressions are not verifiable sources. Because of this, I still think most of the text should be simply deleted. (And also, please sign your comments, so it is easier for others to figure out where one comment ends and the next one starts) --AAikio 08:49, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Rewrite
I gave the page a full rewrite, because I think we can all agree that the previous version essentially sucked. Now it's more or less in line with the way Culture of Sweden is. This one probably still could use some expansion, but at least now it's something that could conceivably be expanded.
[edit] Reliable sources for "Russian influences"
In travel guides and even in this article, there's the idea that Finnish culture is somehow a mixture of Swedish and Russian cultures. Obviously all are originally North European and as such, similar to each other, but this doesn't mean it's a mixture. It is not disputed that Finnish culture is indigenous and strongly affected by Swedish culture, but list the Russian influences and elaborate on them why they're Russian, not of Finnish origin. I want to see reliable sources (not travel guides or something else produced by Stetson's method, i.e. by pulling out of hat). (Also, please leave the "national identity" issue out. Nationalism as we know it wasn't even invented before the 1800's, so referring to the allegiances of the Finnish people toward pre-nationalist imperial monarchs is pointless. Finnish culture existed before and during the Swedish rule, starting from the fact that Finnish language was retained.) --Vuo 13:46, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
