Culture shock in Finland for Indian

Vol no 25, issue no 7, 4 November 2022

Well, in the world there are many nations, where mostly have their own culture. My name is Anjali Rani. I am from India, here I would like to share my experienced culture shock when I moved India to Finland two month ago. Actually, I was totally surprised when I got the information about the differences between India and Finland cultures. I did not prepare myself for it in advance. That is the biggest mistake of myself.

Language – language is the biggest culture shock for me in Finland. I remember when I was in India, I think that there are two languages in Finland which are communicate by Finnish people. Like English and Finnish. So, I thought that I won’t have many problems in language, because I can speak English fluent. But when I reached here, I came to know that Finnish people speak more Finnish language than English. I was very difficulty for me to communicate with them. Nowadays, I am trying to learn Finnish language and also use translate whenever I have to communicate with Finns.

Social norms – the second culture shock that I got social norms. I remember when I reached in Finland, I did not see many people in the area where I have to stay. I was started crying because I feel very alone. Afterwards, with the passing of time I came to get information that Finns are not considered the most outgoing of people. They don’t like to talk much with anyone. Finland is like a peaceful place. Most of Finns in Finland look like a silent person. It is very difficult to adjust here. Like in India people cannot feel loneliness by talking with and living with frankly people.

Food and ingredients – if I talk about the Finnish traditional food which is mostly based on some dairy products. They mostly prefer to eat different kind of breads, fish and meats. I remembered one day I was try Finnish food, that was good, but it was not much spicy. Apart from this, I got culture shock when I was gone to market to buy ingredients, but in Finnish market I did not get all important ingredient for cooking a food. Moreover, I have to go another city of Finland to buy all necessary ingredients. So, it is the also culture shock for me.

Alcohol consumption and smoking habits – it was the also biggest part of culture shock which make me disappointed. Finn’s people prefer to drink more alcohol and smoking is also famous among not only by both genders, but also by young generation. When I saw that I was feel disguised because in India these two things smoking, and alcohol are notice to be bad things for health. No doubt some people have habits of smoking and drinking but, most of Indian people don’t like alcohol and smoking. Furthermore, Indian ladies and young generations don’t like have alcohol as well as smoking. So, it was the reason of culture shock for me here.