Tom Bielik, CREATE for STEM

Finnish people don’t smile when they walk past each other. That was the first thing I noticed upon arriving in Helsinki on a sunny and windy August day. Several of the Finnish teachers we worked with later confirmed this. It appears that Finnish people are much more ‘slow to melt’ (in their own words), and they appreciate keeping their personal space clear and minimizing their communication with other people. From my experiences later on, I could also add that they tend not to ask too many questions when in large groups, and also fail to provide any feedback unless strongly pushed to do so. This, however, greatly changes when you start interacting with them on a personal level.