HC/LC - theory of Hofstede

I am attending the course "English professional skills" at the university in Finland where we learn a lot about the welfare system in Finland as well as improving our english skills.

One huge topic we came across was the HC/LC (high context and low context) which deals about the people in different countries, their characters and their behaviours. We discussed about the definition of HC and LC in class and evaluated if the Finnish are more HC or LC.

HC/LC definition

If a person is low context orientated he or she would rather prefer a dialague than a monologue. A high context orientated person on the other side would take the more indirect way of talking and listens carefully while not interrupting the others by asking questions. This person would also focus on the speaker by giving feedback afterwards. A low context person would be the complete opposite who thinks aloud, asks questions and calls things and persons by name.

When thinking of the Finnish population I found out that they would be rather high context orientated than low context orientated. In my point of view Switzerland or Austria would be more in the middle but also not that low context orientated as an American would be.

The reason why a Finnish person can be defined as a more high context orientated person is in my point of view their shyness. They rather listen to you than interruping and are also very wellcoming to help. There is also a trend to a more open-minded generations, e.x. the students at university, who got into contact with the exchange students whenever we had to do any projects with them. Therefore, I think the Finnish are also changing more to low context but are still not that talkative.

The curve of culture shock

In one of our modules called “Get Finternational” the time of reflection began. During this course our teacher was talking about culture shock which I personally found extremely interesting as our teacher explained that culture shock is a natural learning process in which we adapt to other cultures. She told us about the culture shock curve which describes the phases we can go through when being in a foreign country. We learnt that the curve usually begins with the “Honeymoon phase” when everything seems new and exciting and you are really looking forward to your time in this foreign country. But soon this phase is followed by the “rejection phase” when people get frustrated about the differences between the home country and the foreign country. The third phase is called “recession phase” where people start feeling lonely and depressed which is also known as homesickness. Once adaptations and strategies are found out to cope with all the differences, you move into the “recovery phase” when everything starts to get better again and you begin to like the new culture and in order to this don’t want to go home anymore. During this phase you normally have made new friends and new habits have got somehow part of your daily routine. In addition to the curve, we also had a look on the different areas you have to adapt when staying in a new culture of country such as physical, emotional, communication and social adaptations. I personally find the communication area the most difficult to adapt to as it is completely different from where I am from. Unless at home, people won’t greet you on the street or in a shop, they could probably just nod or say nothing. I have learnt that this must not be interpreted as being a term of being impolite but rather accepting it as a different behaviour.

Even though I had been away for several times and had to cope with homesickness when I spent 3 months in Ireland for a practical training, my feelings of culture shock haven’t felt that strongly this time.

culture shock curve: http://international.missouristate.edu/assets/studyaway/W-Curve_Re-Entry_Shock.jpg

Turku cathedral and the castle

My first impression of Turku was being rather small than a big city but on the second sight I soon realised that the city is even bigger than it seemed in the beginning. I really like the atmosphere in Turku and the Aura river that goes through the city. In Turku there are a few sights people can visit when coming here.

The cathedral

Next to the city centre there is the Turku cathedral. This immense buildung is the mother church of the Lutheran Church of Finland, and the country’s national shrine. (https://www.turunseurakunnat.fi/

portal/en/turku_cathedral/, 24.3.15) The church can be visited from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The church is worth a visit because the inside is huge and very beautiful. Our tutor teacher from university told us that there is even a lot of history behind and a lot of tombs in the subsurface of the cathedral.

Turku castle

I once also took the bus to the harbour to visit the Turku Castle. I was told that you can also get there when walking along the river towards the harbour of Turku.

“The history of Turku Castle stretches right back to the 1280’s. The Castle has played many roles, from defensive bastion, luxurious palace and the seat of government, to a prison, warehouse and a barracks. Today the Castle is a hugely significant historical monument and a must-see tourist destination” (http://www.visitturku.fi/en/turku-castle, 23.3.15). In the knights hall children can dress as a knight or a maiden. Moreover, the Fatabur Museum shop sells souvenirs, gifts or accessoires for the little knight or maiden.

Besides that, I found the frontage of the building the most impressive as it is made out of stones and is still in good preservation.

Turku - Where it is

The city I am studying is called Turku and therefore I want to tell some general facts about this city. Turku is situated on the west southern part of Finland and is known as the oldest city in Finland. Further north the next biggest city is Tampere. Helsinki, which is Finland’s capital city, is located more in the southeast of Finland and is about 2 hours away by train or bus.

Map of Finland

Turku once used to be the capital city of Finland as it was very close to Sweden. At this point I have to add that Finland and Sweden belonged together and this is the reason why there are still a lot of Swedish speaking persons living in Turku nowadays. At the moment Turku still has a Swedish speaking university called Abo academy and all pupils have to learn Swedish in school. I have already met a swedisch speaking Finn from Aland which is a little Island next to Turku and she told me that even though Finns learn Swedish in school she sometimes faces difficulties when trying to speak Swedish with Finns living in Turku.

As I have already told before, Turku has a lot of university and therefore lots of students are living in this city. Most of them moved to Turku from another village or town near Turku and are renting apartments at the Student village or have a room in any of the TYS (Turun Ylioppilaskyläsäätiö) apartments which are situated all over the city. TYS is an organisation which offers housing for students. I chose this housing opportunity as an exchange students because it is affordable and the apartments can be rent with furniture.

Because Turku was the oldest city, it quickly became the most important one and this retained the status for hundreds of years. After Finland became part of the Russian Empire in 1809 and the capital was moved to Helsinki. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turku, 22.3.15)

The name Turku has his origin in an Old East Slavic word, tǔrgǔ and means "market place".

Turku university of applied sciences

Being back to Finland after this whole week of travelling to the Baltic cities I soon went back to daily life in Finland and with it back to university where we had to prepare our presentations and the final reports for the projects.

I am studying at the Turku university of applied sciences in Turku. 

In Finnish the university is called Turun ammattikorkeakoulu.

There are different locations within Turku for example the ICT building (at Joukahaisenkatu), Lemminkäisenkatu campus or the Ruiskatu campus where I am studying. The Ruiskatu campus is located a little bit outside the city centre but you can easily get there by bus. Buses with the number 18 or 61 go there or take you back to the city centre. Bus 12 or 99 pick me up from Varissuo and take me then to university or back home. From both, Varissuo and the city centre it takes about 15-20 minutes to get there. In the buildings at Ruiskatu there are different degrees dealing with health and well-being. My degree is called social services. The social service degree includes services for elderly people, children and adults. After this studies students can become kindergarten teachers or work in the social service sector.

Ruiskatu campus (http://www.tuas.fi/en/about-us/faculties-and-campuses/ruiskatu/)

But not only social and health degrees are offered at the Turku university of applied sciences but also for example Business or technical degrees at the ICT building. For more information check also the website: http://www.tuas.fi/en/

ICT campus (http://www.tuas.fi/en/about-us/faculties-and-campuses/ict-building-joukahaisenkatu/)

The Baltic cities – Vilnius (Lithuania)

This city trip was the most action-packed trip as we had to walk 1 and a half hour to get to our hostel first. Walking through some narrow streets with old and damaged buildings we did not feel safe at all. That is why, we spontaneously decided to book another hostel in the city centre and spend our time there.

We had been disappointed as the hostel we would have taken before was recommended by tripadvisor.

Even though I had to take a completely icing shower in the second hostel as it took about half an hour to heat up the water, the room was nice and the location more close to the city centre.

The next day we visited the Trakai castle which looks more like a fairy tale castle for a princess. Inside the castle they showed some parts of the castle and how it was built.

The Trakai castle

The chocolate factory in Trakai is also worth a visit and taking some tea or coffee or even a hot chocolate with liquid chocolate. Moreover, they serve quite a lot of different pastries such as cakes.

After the visit in Trakai we did some sightseeing in Vilnius and went up the Gediminas tower where we had a wonderful view over the city.

the tower

view from the tower

In the evening we had dinner in a Lithuanian restaurant in the old town of the city where I had some traditional Raviolis with meat balls. Because of the fact that Vilnius was our last stop on our journey, we travelled back to Tallinn the next day and took the ferry to Helsinki the day after.

The trip to the Baltic was extremely beautiful and informative. I was able to get a lot of new experiences and impressions from those cities and would not have liked to miss them.

The Baltic cities – Siauliai (Lithuania)

Visiting Latvia was not enough for us, so we decided to continue our trip to Lithuania. One place you should visit when being in Lithuania is the hill of crosses, which is situated in Siauliai. “Siauliai is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 133,900. 1994 to 2010 it was the capital of Siauliai County. Unofficially, the city is the capital of Northern Lithuania” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Šiauliai, 23.3.15)

There is a bus from the market hall in Riga which goes directly to the “city centre” of Siauliai. In Siauliai there is another bus which goes near the hill of crosses place. The bus drivers all know when to get off as it is a quite touristic place. Having arrived at the bus stop there is about a 10-15 minutes’ walk to the hill of crosses.

It was overwhelming to see the hill with all those crosses on it. There had been both, huge and massive and also tiny and delicate crosses. The hill have had some tracks to walk through and marvel at all the crosses. The atmosphere of this place and with it the silence was astonishing. It felt quite spiritual because the sky was dark and cloudy and at this time not a lot of visitors came there as it was during the week and a stormy and cold weather.

After this day, marked with lots of new impressions and spirits we took the 2 hours bus ride back to Riga and went for dinner afterwards. I tried the traditional potato pancakes which are a typical Lithuanian food but for my taste they had been too greasy. In Lithuania they would serve different kinds of potato pancakes for example with herbs, salt or sugar.

impressions of the hill of crosses

walking towards the hill

The Baltic cities – Riga (Latvia)

The next stop on our journey was Riga in Latvia and because of this we took the bus “Luxexpress”. Taking a walk through the city first, we had a break at a bakery in the city centre where we drank coffee and ate some cake. When going to Latvia and especially to Riga you have to make sure that you will see “the house of the blackheads”.

The house of the blackheads

Riga is full of sightseeing places, such as churches and historical buildings as you can see on the pictures below. In addition, I recognised while arriving in Riga that this city is nothing like I suspected it to be. I thought Riga is more a poor city than a city with so many sights and colours and especially because the sun was shining the city looked even brighter. After the city tour, we went on walking along the river and stopped at the market hall. There had been different halls with different kinds of food, e.g. one hall with vegetables and fruits, another one with seafood, with clothes and the last one with a huge variety of pastry, bread and milk products. It was amazing how much food they sold there.

walk along the river in Riga

The market hall in Riga

At the end of the day we went for dinner to on Irish pub because I was travelling with two Northern Irish girls. The food they served in there was really good but I was also quite disappointed that it is highly difficult to find a traditional Latvian restaurant in Riga. They would rather have fast food restaurant where they serve burgers, pizza and kebap.

This is something I found out in Finland too. No matter where you go, there will be a pizza&kebap restaurant in every wee village.

The Baltic cities – Tallinn (Estonia)

Because of the reason that Finland is very close to the Baltic cities and especially Tallinn I have visited them during the winter break.

We had one week off from university and therefore I decided to take the ferry to Tallinn. During this week I was travelling with 3 friends of mine.

Because of booking in advance we got a ferry for approximately 20 euros which is a real bargain.

Having arrived in Tallinn we were showed around the city of a person living in Tallinn. He was really nice and told us a few places where I was able to take some wonderful pictures of the city. The weather on this day was extremely lovely, blue sky and sun shine. He guided us through the old town and took us to a sightseeing platform near the Parliament.

The old hansa

the old town - square

Reindeer soup

Peppersack restaurant in the old town



Together with my friends and this guy who is actually from Switzerland but has been living there for a while now, we had a break in a lovely café a little bit outside the city centre.

And oh dear, the crème brûlée with the rhubarb ice cream and the cup of coffee was so delicious.

During another walk through the city on our own we stopped at a little medieval restaurant which served reindeer soup. The soup was utterly tasty and even though we were not allowed to eat with a spoon we enjoyed the atmosphere and the food in this tiny restaurant.

Have not had enough, as they just served soup and bread, we went for dinner a bit later in a restaurant called “Peppersack”, which is located in the old town of Tallinn. There they served traditional Estonian meals and therefore we were able to get a slight impression about the Estonian kitchen and food.

Varissuo and the surroundings

I have already told you some facts about my practical placement in Varissuo. Due to the fact that my placement is situated in Varissuo, I am now going to tell a little bit more about the surroundings of my apartment and explain some facts and write about different places in Varissuo.

The area we live in seems really nice and well connected to the city centre. I really appreciate having a K-market just next to us where I can do some grocery shopping. Besides that, there is also a Stockmann which serves dishes, clothes and other stuff, a pole playing place, a bar, a bakery, a kiosk (‘Kioski’) and a post office next to the supermarket.

Next to the area there is also a lake where I have already gone for a walk a couple of times. The lake was totally frozen when I first visited it and there was even someone doing ice fishing on the lake. I tried to walk on the ice but after a few meters I got to scarred and turned back. A Finn told me that walking on the ice is a very popular way of dying in Finland. Luckily, I got back safe. 

 



Ice fishing on the lake

The area itself has quite a bad reputation and you could sometimes see a police car but if you do not court, Varissuo seems quite safe when staying around your area.

If you want to go out some time, you can easily get a taxi from the city centre to Varissuo which you can always find somewhere around the Kauppatori. It takes you about 15 minutes and costs about 20 Euros to get from the city centre to Varissuo. When I went out I was able to share a taxi with other students because there are a couple of other exchange students living here as well. On Saturday there is even a night bus until 2.30 am. 

My practical placement

One and a half month ago I started my practical placement in a youth house in Varissuo. The youth house is about 10 minutes away from where I live. It is a place for young people to meet others and spend time together. The youngster’s ages range from 6 to 24 years. These youngsters all have different backgrounds and therefore it is very interesting to work with them as everyone has his or her own character. The younger children would spend their afternoon at the youth house and play games, do their homework or handcrafts there. They are also given the opportunity to play with others. Most of the children are quite active but really nice. I had also been able to talk to some of them in English but sometimes they did not understand anything and as a result I tried to get into contact with them via body language which was working quite well.

After 4 pm the elderly youngsters are coming to spend their leisure time at the youth house. They are offered to play pole, table tennis, board games, any kind of handcrafts or just talk to each other. Moreover, there are some events being organised every now and then, for example a pole playing competition, a disco night, … In addition, the youngsters can also play football during some times of the week.

I have done some wall paintings and some finnish backing so far which you can see on the pictures below . We painted the walls to make the building look more accessible for youngsters and more colourful.

Furthermore, I participated in the events we have had so far and tried to get into contact with the youngsters. There are some board games and a lot of materials for doing handcrafts.

Paintings on the wall

Tiikerikakku

Stockholm (Sweden)

While being in Finland I went travelling to Stockholm for two days. We took the ferry and got a very good offer for 34 euros only from and to the capital city of Sweden.

Stockholm by night

The ferries that travel to Sweden are huge and there are hundreds of cabins on the ferry where you can find lots of people travelling or enjoying a drink and partying. Lots of Finns go on ferries to Stockholm or Tallinn to buy alcohol due to the fact that it is much cheaper to buy alcohol than in a regular shop in Finland. The alcohol in Finland has an extremely high amount of taxes on the price. For a cider or beer in a grocery store you can easily spent around 2-4 Euros and in bars or pubs they are even more expensive which means for the same cider you would have to spend about 7-10 Euros.

Having said this, I have to add here that in Finland you are only able to buy wine and cider in a normal grocery store as the Finnish law bans the sale of alcohol in grocery shops. Nevertheless, you can see the “Alko” stores all over Finland where they sell all kinds of alcohol.

In Stockholm we walked around the city and visited the royal palace, the parliament, the shopping street and different churches. Stockholm is a lovely city which is in my point of view a bit more colourful than Turku. The people in Sweden had also been very friendly and helpful. Of course, we also enjoyed a coffee in a nice café in the city centre at Starbucks. Next time when I will go back to Sweden I want to rent a car and travel more up to the North of Sweden. I really liked the opportunity to go to Sweden as it is so close to Turku and Finland. 

Stockholm

Furthermore, in the old town called “Gamla stan” you can easily just go for a walk and have a closer look at the old buildings you pass. Unlike in Turku you can see lots of old buildings as they haven’t been affected by any fire. I was told that there aren’t that many old buildings in Turku and other cities like Helsinki in Finland because most of them had been burned down and therefore people had to rebuild them. 

Gamla stan in Stockholm

coming back to Helsinki