Cultural differences

Here in Finland I met a lot of new people from all over the world, but also got to know some Finnish people. I also learned about their culture and I have noticed some cultural differences with the Netherlands. Finland and the Netherlands are not so different, but ofcourse there are some differences. I will tell you more about the differences between the Netherlands and Finland that I experienced. I will explain this with the 6-D model by Geert Hofstede. This model describes 6 dimensions of cultural values. These 6 dimensions are:

1. Power distance
2. Individualism vs. collectivism
3. Mascullinity vs. Femininity
4. Uncertainty avoidance 
5. Long term orientation vs. short term orientation
6. Indulgence vs. restraint.

As i said they are the same at some points, so I'm going to explain the things what I noticed what was different with the Netherlands. I found an website where they compared the dimensions. There are two dimensions more different or I noticed more cultural differences in those dimensions. 

The first one is power distance this is defined as 'the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally'. In Finland the power distance has a score of 33. This means that the rights of people are equal. It doesn't differ a lot with the Netherlands, they score 38. But in some things I can notice the difference. Here in school it is really common to call the teacher by the first name. In my school we always have to call them miss or mister. So it felt a bit weird to me to just call the teacher by their first name. 

The second one is longterm orientation this describes how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future. Finland scores 38 while the Netherlands score 67. That is a big difference. It means that in Finland they are normative in their thinking. They exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small propensity to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results.
The Netherlands have a high score in this dimension which means that it has a pragmatic nature. In societies with a pragmatic orientation, people believe that truth depends very much on the situation, context and time. They show an ability to easily adapt traditions to changed conditions, a strong propensity to save and invest, thriftiness and perseverance in achieving results.
In Finland they have some real old traditions what they are still doing, like the sauna. This tradition is already going on for 2000 years and I don't think that will change here. And I have to say it is not a bad tradition. In the Netherlands we still have some old traditions but you can also see a change.

In the other dimensions The Netherlands and Finland are kind of same. ofcourse there are more differences, like the language and the food etc. I wrote more about most of those differences in other post.

Puhua myöhemmin

Emma

Used links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede%27s_cultural_dimensions_theory

https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/finland,the-netherlands/