Multicultarism - The Experience

After coming to Finland I have been encountering more and more people from different cultural backgrounds.

This seems mainly because they gather together in a tight knit group, they all know each other or know someone that does. There is the occasional Finn that infiltrates the group, but usually they are quickly spotted and fade away after a few interactions.

This is not from any intentional actions on party of the Multicultural group (let's call them MCs) but more that they seem to feel uncomfortable around the boisterious and loud group that isn't even intoxicated yet.

There are also Finns that have various MC backgrounds or have lived outside of Finland for a few years and absorbed different cultures in that time. They blend in magnificently.

It is interesting that all the MCs I meet have similar reactions to all non-MCs, be they from Finland, Canada, China, India, Africa or anywhere else. 

MCs find it difficult to view the world the same way non-MCs do. MCs often observe that non-mcs believe their cultures to be superior to others, (unconsciously for the most part) and often don't think of global perspectives. It is all local.

I guess it is hard to imagine the size of their world if you live on one street your whole life.

Not all people that travel are MCs. You have to actually live with people from a different culture and let it touch you. Take down the barriers and be willing to see through anothers eyes.

All this I hear again and again from people. I know people from single-cultural backgrounds might take offence, none is intended. I am not implying lack of intelligence, skill or anything else.

It is just a different perspective when you walk in anothers shoes.

I believe you can probably acquire it even in your home country if you go out of your town/village/city/state or province. Or simply living with a different family.

The thing is, and here I think is where it gets tricky, you have to OPEN yourself up to it.

Guest Post: Living in Hong Kong

A friend of mine told me about his experience in Hong Kong after reading my multicultural posts. I found it so interesting that I asked him to write a post!

And WEE he DID, so here it is! Enjoy.

Chinese-Canadian 

Living in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a place typically filled with a single culture population, ironic because the city is known for being international. You could walk around the street and you would see people of different skin colour, speaking in all different languages wherever you walk in different parts of the city.

 Hong Kong itself is a culture, its not a traditional Chinese culture, its not a British influenced colonial like culture, it’s a culture based on trend, NOT being outdated, following the leader kind of materialism.

 A lot of people love traveling, to different places whether it’s for sight seeing or anything, the more places the more you experience, especially for multicultural people they tend to be more open to visiting different countries. Here in Hong Kong whenever I ask any of my friends, 8/10 times they would like to go to Japan. I’ve been to Japan too myself, it’s a great country, polite people, yummy food etc … but personally, I wouldn’t want to spend all my holiday visiting the same country every time.

 I see this as being more of a trend than enjoyable personal experience, they have bought into the “greatness” of what the “great empire” brings. They believe that there will be nowhere else better in the world. It is all done though on a materialistic surface, if I were to ask them how much they understand about countries and particular culture they wouldn’t able to tell me anything.

 The typical Hong Kong population, in my wording I would describe as a flock of sheep.

 Fashion sense is influential to everyone, you and me included, to some extent at the very least. In Hong Kong though, it is not about how smart and neat you look when you dress, it’s about wearing the most fashionable things that doesn’t even fit you. Obviously these are my opinions and it’s not for me to judge peoples fashion sense. You remember seeing people wearing caps loosely on their head? When you’re 6 foot 2 the cap is just another 3 inches on top of your 6 foot frame. When your 4 foot 10 and you add another 3 inch on top of your head, it looks like your body is out of proportion, and you see people like that everywhere here. I remember 3 years ago when pink was the fashionable colour here, when a guy wears a pinkish dress shirt, it could look great, a pink t shirt great, but when you see a guy wearing a baby pink tank top alone (with pants of course) and not just one but a couple, you start to wonder do people think about how they dress or do they dress as they are just because it is THE colour of the year.

   When I go for food with my friends, it is always the same few Japanese restaurants or some sort of fusion cuisine (all of which serves pretty much the same things). I never really choose where to eat and I let them do that, but whenever I give some suggestions like “ hey I know there is a Spanish pub around that serves great food or have you been to that particular French restaurant?” they would start talking about something else. I do not know if it’s just me not fitting into their culture or do I just think differently. For them, life revolves around the same couple of things, I can’t say it’s boring but it’s too predictable.

 Sometimes I wonder if I should be judging them the way I have here. Maybe they are thinking of me in a similar way, who knows?

 

Response: Ramblings 9

Nice to see comments, and o you copycat Jane! Heh

Well I didn't meant to imply this behavior was just towards North America, that's just my immediate. And I get it, I really do, it's far away, Canada doesn't get much coverage and probably doesn't play as big a role in history books.

But it's done all over. I often hear negative comments about people from different countries, like Italians are lazy, wifebeaters, uneducated and never move out of the home. People from Africa are all criminals. And stuff like that. This is what I find appalling.

It's just that the Canada/USA thing strikes the closest to home.

And yes, it is partle ignorance and inexperience with other cultures. And what irks me a bit is that a lot of Finns consider themselves worldly, experienced, sophisticated and educated. And then they talk about peopl from other countries in such away!

A lot of Finns go on exchanges to different schools and universities when they are young. They talk about their experience frequently from their times in Finland.

But a lot of what I heard is that they didn't experience, sure they were there 4 years but they still see only stereotypes and make massive generalizations.

Yeah, I know we all do this from time to time. And not all Finns are like this, I've met a lot of great ones. But the fact that this attitude is in the Media, newspapers, television and what not kinda just shocks me.

And yes Henri, I totally get what you mean, it's like the Finns that went of exchanges and just didn't live it.

Next post I should say a little about the other Canadian I met here and his reaction to Finns!

My apologies to all the Finns that don't think at all like this.

And don't let this post turn you off visiting Finland. It's a lovely country. Finns love practicing their language skills on all the people they meet and taking you out to a bar or a party of some kind. And if you just step up and ask, they love to help and assist as well. Not all of course, but quite a lot.

I have had a lot of positive interactions with Finns. 

Also in recent years Finland has had an great increase in immigration, due to the EU and the wars. So they have two types of foreigners living with them, refugees and immigrants.

Finland has been for a very long time a humogenous country, so I can understand the struggle to adapt to the change. Canada and the USA pretty much grew up on immigration. European countries have not.

Older generations are much more likely to stereotype and have negative views whereas younger generations are much more relaxed, and many are open to getting to know the newcomers. 

Still the media needs a kick in the ass, since a lot of it is controlled by the older generations.

I guess a large part of my strong reaction comes from my cultural sensitivity. And as we know media doesn't always reflect the majority view.

Ramblings 9: Semi-Rant About MC

More on being Multicultural

I don’t want Finns to take too much offence, but I think you’re a bit snobbish in your world view.

Yes, Finland is a great place to live, great education, social structure, communications, transportation and what ever else I am forgetting. But your mindset towards “foreigners” really gets to me.

I come from Canada, I am a Finnish-Canadian, my parents were born and raised there. I am a mixture of both cultures.

Finns are highly educated, smart, practical people, they frequently go on student exchanges and visit with people from other cultures.

But for some reason a lot of Finns just use a very broad brush stroke and just label and categorize people in a way that has my job dropping to the floor.

It's not with cruel intent, it's not to be malicious or that they really think they are better than people from other countries. It's just how it comes across. This is not just individuals. I've seen this behavior on the News all over the media and about how people I meet talk about foreigners and immigrants.

I have the dubious honor of being both a Finn and also a foreigner. I can see it. I just don't understand the mass blindness.

For people that are so enlightened about most things I just can't understand that they can just be so... stereotyping.

So when I get called a “yank” or an American, I get a little insulted. I am Canadian, you can call me a Canuck but that’s a really outdated term. For people so educated I am astounded at the lack of consideration. Saying Canada should be shoved in with the USA is just… well insulting to me.

It would be like me saying “Oh you Europeans,” or “Scandinavians” and yeah I am aware how Finns can get outraged at the latter. Oh or better yet I will call you a Swede. Because hey you are neighbors, share the same culture and viewpoints right? Oh they might take offence!

I can get being called American, since Canada is in NORTH AMERICA, however when that American is meant to mean the United States of America, I get rather annoyed.

I have lived in the USA, but I have lived far longer in Canada, I was born and raised there.

I am very aware of the differences between the USA and Canada.

It may sound trite but it is exactly as we learned in school. USA = cultural melting pot and Canada = cultural mosaic.

What does that mean? Well if you want to be an AMERICAN (USA) then you need assimilate to the culture and have your own native culture take a back seat. So-called native born Americans dislike immigrants. Generally, though it is a bit broad, after all US is made of immigrants so they are more tolerant than other countries.

Now Canada, lets you keep your culture. It expects you to glory in it and share in it. And just come together as Canadians being from around the world. There are some 3^rd generation families or more that don’t call themselves Canadians they call themselves their native ethnicity. However, the second you take them out of Canada? Then they are Canadian.

Canada is pretty much the MOST successful country is realizing cultural diversity. How many countries are you comfortable living in where you feel you can wear your native dress? Speak your language, practice your own religion? (Of course there is hate, and it is not perfect but a large portion of it has been successful)

All Canada asks is that you accept others, tolerate them as well and to maybe, just maybe learn the English language so others can understand you. *You need to know a little to be able to pass the citizenship test!

Here is a quote that at first I thought was ridiculous, but latter on realized the truth of it.

Excuse me but I can’t recall the exact quote, but here is the gist:

“How’d you know she was Canadian?” “She was nice for no reason.”

I am not saying Canada is perfect, but it is a lot more accepting of people from other cultures and ethnicities. More aware. You have to be to live in Canada. Sure you have the stereotypes, biases and bigotry. But in the end most people end up learning about other cultures if not consciously, just by osmosis.

And yeah, Canada has a lot of stuff to work on, health care, education, communication etc etc. But at least we don’t put our noses in the air when we meet a foreigner.

Of course I should add that my sensitivity to all this is probably brought on by having lived in Canada for so long. We become very, very aware of others and about preconceive notions.

Sorry about the semi-rant but I don't like seeing this behavior.

And no, it wasn't directed at me.

Rambling Comments: Replies and Reactions

First thing I want to say is that I think it is a pile of awesome, yes a pile of awesome, that my friends that read this blog actually call me up to talk about it! Nothing pleases me more as a writer, other than the act of writing, is that my writing actually speaks to the person. People message me, call me and email me saying “you remember that post…?”

Anyway thanks to all those that read it, it really makes my day!

Now since we are on the subject, just today a friend messaged me and told me about his reaction to my post Single Vs Multi.

*By the way message me again if I have any of this wrong!*

He has been living in Hong Kong for the past year, and apparently after reading my post (apologies if I have this a little off, but the conversation wasn’t saved L) realized that there was a difference. He has lived now in both Canada and Hong Kong and says that people from a single culture don’t seem to have a certain openness to experience, and seem to lack some kind of perspective.

 He continued to observe also that; People from multicultural backgrounds seem to be able to accept new things more easily. And also that sometimes he feels like an alien, (like standing outside and looking in through a window).

Anyway it was an interesting conversation and I probably garbled it up a bit, but I thought it was great that my posting struck a chord with someone.

 

And last note, another friend of mine called me up yesterday just to tell me that my Sunday post made her laugh, and that she loved the line about how my brain goes on a holiday on the weekends.

I seriously love it when someone can relate to a post or causes a strong reaction. Ok so maybe I wouldn’t want someone yelling and pissed off at me over a post. But even then that could be cool that they disagreed so strongly…

Anyway back to giving the appearance of work!