Communicating Finnish Cultural Richness
Every culture has its cultural richness. Reference to cultural richness means social presence that works in a positive social way. This richness is often taken-for-granted and rarely explained to people from other cultures.
For more than two decades English courses have been developed for cooperation with and integration into international business courses. This website offers examples of how Finnish students become aware of better ways to discover and communicate positive active Finnish silence and rather unique Finnish autonomy. When Finnish and exchange students are turned into teacher-learners of each other, they learn via experience. Teachers can develop a better learning environment and also analyze what has become rather common in the learning environment. All the articles and posters are based on examples created by students. Discussions with Finnish business managers and consultants have confirmed extensive overlap with issues related to Finnish silence and autonomy.
- Discovery of positive Finnish silence (poster)
- Introducing positive Finnish silence in 5 languages (poster)
- What's up with the Finnish silence?
- Finnish silence can be golden (Yle News)
- Communicating the cultural richness of Finnish hiljaisuus (silence) (pdf)
Further reading
- Michael Berry, Donal Carbaugh, Caecilia Innreiter-Moser, Marjatta Nurmikari-Berry & Walter Oetsch (2009): That's Not Me Learning to Cope with Sensitive Cultural Issues
- Michael Berry (2011): Response Able - Where is the Cultural Richness in Finnish Silence and Autonomy?
ISBN: 978-952-93-1096-8
Contact
Michael Berry
The Centre for Language and Communication Studies
Adjunct professor of ‘Intercultural relations’ at Turku School of Economics
michael.berry@utu.fi