Russian girl in Finnish world

Each culture has its own system how to use time, which is extremely important to mind for intercultural communication. According to Edward Hall, American anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher, cultures can be divided in terms of how this certain culture use time into two opposite types: monochronic, in which time is distributed in such a way that only one kind of activity can be performed in the same period of time and polychronic, in which several types of activity can be performed in the same period of time...

There are more than 200 countries in the world and even more nations. The world is open now and at your work, during your business trips and studies or just through the Internet you can be involves in the multicultural communication. Someone thinks that for efficient conversation good communicational skills and language proficiency (usually, in English) are enough. However, it's not is easy. Knowing and minding the specificity of another culture is very important and in this case the Lewis model comes in handy...

“The fictional world of my Moomins is a world that every one of us probably longs for in our hearts,” - Tove Marika Jansson wrote about her heroes and being here in Turku give you a possibility to wholly immerse in this world because in Naantali, which is16km from Turku, there is the Moon-world. Today Moomin-world is one of the best theme parks for children in the whole world. Back then in 2005, The British Independent Newspaper included the Moomin Country in Naantali in the list of the 10 best children's theme parks in the world...

I had to create a bank account here in Finland so I had a chance to compare Russian bank system and Finnish one. First issue I ran into was that I cannot just come to the bank an open a bank account. I should make an appointment. It seemed strange a bit because in my home country to open a bank account you only need to come to the bank, take a queue number and wait for your turn. Second point. I came to the bank in an appointed day and it took not less than 30 minutes to open a bank account. In my home-bank it takes around 15 minutes and you're done...

Movies in Russian movie theatres are always dubbed. We are used to coming to cinema and just watching the movie we have been waiting for so long. Here, in Finland the situation is opposite. Nearly all the films that are shown both in movie theatres or on TV go with subtitles, only cartoons for children are dubbed. It surprised me, so I asked my tutors why films in Finland aren't dubbed. The answer was simple. There are not a lot of people in the country, 5 millions (my city has the same number of...

Here in Finland people try to do everything to save environment. The first approach in this activity I run into was waste sorting. Firstly I thought that Finns separate rubbish in organic waste and non-organic waste only, but Finns go further and now you can see trash cans separately for paper, cardboards, glass, plastics, organic wastes and so on. I wonder, how many rubbish bins should be at home to sort all the wastes? I think that waste sorting is really good way to save environment. There are...

In my country 24-hours grocery shops and malls that work from 10:00 till 23:00 everyday is common thing, and when I first came to Finland, I thought that here it's the same, but I made a mistake. Again. Clothes shop work from 10:00 till 20:00-21:00 from Monday to Friday and on Saturday and Sunday they have shortened days and work till around 19:00 on Saturday and till 16:00 on Sundays. Grocery shops can start working from 7-8:00 and end at 22:00. There are no 24-hours shops anywhere. The same schedule is applied to the restaurants...

In Finland, how it's turned out, there are a lot of really strange competitions, which, nevertheless, are getting more popular every year. Here I will show you some of them :) Wife-carrying Every summer this event takes place in Sonkajärvi, 100 km north of Kuopio. It's dated back in 1992 and during its existence the competition has reached an international level. Today it gathers over 6,000 spectators from different countries. According to legend, this “sport” has existed since 19th century, when...

I have already had an idea about the prices on the cosmetics and some bathroom accessories (shampoo, micellar water, shavers and so on) here in Finland, so I brought everything I need from my home, and when I saw prices here, I was glad that I decided to do so. Nearly all the cosmetics at stores cost 1,5-2 times more expensive than in Russia, and it applies to everything - from mass market brands to the most expensive ones. I don't understand the reason, because the items that are sold in two countries are the same, then why the same mascara in Russia costs 8 euros and in Finland -14 euros...

Here, in Turku buses lines are well developed. Using them, you can get to any destination you want and they go pretty often, so it's a really nice way to get somewhere in Turku. I thought buses are the same regardless of the country, but I made a mistake. Yes, they are all public transport and their task is to get people from station A to station B, but there is a difference in how they do it in different countries. Here I will give you a small comparison of St.Petersburg's buses and Turku's buses...

During my course "Get Finternational" I have visited a workshop called "Fun the languages', which is implied that some students will teach others their native language. I have already been to the same workshop, but I liked it so much that I wanted to attend it again, because it was really fun to know some phrases in foreign languages, but this time everything was completely different. There were only 8 of us who came, so we decided not to divide in groups and to try to pay attention to every language we had...

Here I should say "OK, nothing new", because we have this fast food restaurants chain in my city, but they are considered a bit expensive, so the most popular fast food restaurants chains are McDonald's, KFC and Burger King, but, nevertheless, I want to tell something I noticed about this restaurant. First of all, it's the cheapest fast food restaurant in Turku (and in Finland, I believe). Here you can buy a small chickenburger, small fries and small coke for 4 euros, isn't it fantastic? (It isn't...