A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between Finnish Quietude and Japanese Tranquility

https://www.academia.edu/19764499/Beyond_Silence._A_Cross-Cultural_Comparison_between_Finnish_Quietude_and_Japanese_Tranquility

by wslh • 11 years ago

64 12 11 years ago

academia.edu

bemmu• 11 years ago

As a Finn living in Japan, our preference for silence is certainly very compatible. I have never lived in one of those "small talk" cultures, which makes it hard to compare.

I do recall having a visitor (couchsurfer) over from US and having the bus driver get angry at us because we kept talking loudly in the crowded bus.

In Finland I feel like my signal-to-noise ratio is being judged. If I kept talking when I had nothing important to say, people might start taking me less seriously. I recall my dad commenting on someone "you should really listen to that person, when he speaks it is always something important".

Finnish IRC channels get pretty funny, as they often become idleness contests when no-one wants to break the silence with something insignificant.

I've noticed the "backchanneling" when speaking in Japan. I often need to make a conscious effort to keep saying "hai" periodically when talking, otherwise it may be assumed that I have either stopped listening or don't understand what the other person is saying.

lohengramm• 11 years ago

In Brazil we have the exact opposite "loud" culture. It seems like people try to make as much noise as they can in an effort to get attention. Really annoying.

Did this bus story happen in Japan or Finland?

jacobush• 11 years ago

Bus story was in Japan, no doubt. (Knowing Finland to some extent.)

allochthon• 11 years ago

People should take a look at vixra.org for distributing PDFs if they don't want to go through the filters at arxiv.org and similar places. At vixra.org, the person downloading the paper does not need to give any auth permissions and log in.

GFK_of_xmaspast2• 11 years ago

Do you mean "uploading"? Also as a reader, something being on vixra is an extremely negative signal as to its quality.

laarc2• 11 years ago

Not really. Readers here tend to judge by merit rather than origin.

I was hoping to read this, but the encumbered download process prevented that.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between Finnish Quietude and Japanese Tranquility

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