Thread: Finnish Culture Shock

Immigrants view on Finland:
Helsingin Sanomat - International Edition - People

I don't understand what the problem is to talk longer than 2 minutes on the phone?

To try to make it more clear for you. I live in the United States. Its because in US, girls are VERY chatty on the phone so if a guy is too chatty on the phone, he will be made fun of for being gay because thats what girls do here. I know it doesn't make sense but thats just the way it is down here. Basically anything a girl does, if a guy does it, everyone will assume their gay. Personally the 2 minute phone calls are extreme even to me.

Originally Posted by Ivy09

Basically anything a girl does, if a guy does it, everyone will assume their gay. Personally the 2 minute phone calls are extreme even to me.

Wow that's a pretty conservative, immature analogy on life. I mean the 'generalisation', not you personally... funny because I spent 16 hours on the phone to my ex girlfriend more than once. That seemed like a long time but we often talked for 4 hours.. to spend less than 3 minutes on the phone to me seems like a total waste of a phone call... why bother calling and wasting money if you wont talk about something worthwhile for a lengthy amount of time. Phone calls in Finland cost like 0.06¢ /minute to any provider/handle. I talk for 15 minutes at a time.. in Australia it was more like 0.38¢ a minute and I still talked for like 10 minutes.

Originally Posted by Ali

People never get angry

they do,but they're master at hiding it:P

Yeah its crazy. I'm a American but that doesn't mean I agree with it. Then again Americans would label me, "The chatty girl," so my opinion wouldn't matter because I'm a girl. Psh... << I'm not at all like that in person. Just over the phone or over the internet. I wish our country was more mature towards this situation. Its perfectly normal to have long conversations with your family and friends...

Well whoever started that chain of immaturity should be shot.. phones are for calling people. It's a waste of money to make every call just 2 minutes long. Find a nice warm place and go hide there with your phone maybe

yes, true, in Finland phonecalls are REALLY cheap. I had my prepaid phone this summer, I could call my boyfriend in Canada and speak for 30 minutes without even worrying

The plans that aren't prepaid are even cheaper than the prepaid ones. It's like 0,05c a minute. It's like 0,25c to Australia lol. It's 0,88c to Finland from Australia. My home country is a joke for phonecalls..

Actually it's just a joke in general hahaha!

yeah, but I think DNA is the only company offering some cellphones with plans for people who don't have credit history in Finland.
It's even more cheaper, true, but yeah, I wasn't staying long enough to get a plan :]

Cellphone cost a fortune in Canada.
it's 0.15$ per text messages (with plans), you have some limits for calls, I think anything over your time limit is 0.35$ per exta minutes, and it's even more expensive for calling abroad.

That's still half as expensive as Australia. I got my plan on my fiancé's credit history. No problems there. I never have to feel guilty here sending a text message lol.