I have been in Cali, Colombia, for three months now. During these three months I’ve learned quite a few things about locals in Cali and about the Colombian culture in general. Here are ten such curiosities which have caught my attention and have once again proved that cultural differences still do exist! (Gladly!) (more…)
Category: Customs & culture
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10 TRUTHS ABOUT THE FINNISH EDUCATION SYSTEM
The Finnish education system is a surprisingly well-known topic in Latin America. It’s everywhere; it’s on the newspapers, it’s on tv, it’s on social media and it’s been on documentaries. Just by googling the Spanish words “Sistema educativo de Finlandia” you get 784 000 hits, and by changing the order of the words a bit, the amount doubles. In fact, after hearing that I’m from Finland and after asking me all the basic questions, many people want to know the following: “Sissi, what’s so great about your education system?” Here’s what. (more…)
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META-ANTHROPOLOGY IN FORMOSA: LOCALS OBSERVING LOCALS
I find anthropology fascinating. To study of human life in different societies is one of the things I most love to do. So, imagine my double-layered enthusiasm when taken to an introductory class of anthropology and social systems in a culture, which already in itself is somewhat new to me. In other words, getting the opportunity to observe people observing people. Yep, that’s what I’ve done in Formosa, Northern Argentina, (more…)
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UNDERSTANDING MY CULTURE: WHAT IS FINNISHNESS?
When speaking about intercultural communication, it’s often repeated by scholars in the field that it’s impossible to examine other cultures and their relations, without first taking a closer look at your own inherited culture and its influence on how we perceive the world. We are part of our culture and thus tend to act and expect others to act in a way that we have learned as “normal”. (more…)
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STAR WARS GO LATIN: “USE THE ONDA!”
If there’s one word that can really confuse you in Latin America, it’s la onda. Just try to look for a direct equivalent for it in any other language or ask locals to translate it for you and you’ll just end up even more confused. Although your English dictionary will tell you it’s a ripple, a wave or a waveform, that won’t get you far. Why? Because in every expression in which la onda is applied, its translation is slightly different. (more…)
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PARAGUAY: 10 QUESTIONS TO A PARAGUAYAN
You know those brief moments in a different culture where you go: “say whaaaat?!”. The small little details which just make you wonder…Take sweet avocado for example. Brazilians and Paraguayans (and probably many other Latin Americans) mash avocado up and mix it together with milk, lime and sugar. So imagine the looks on my hosts’ faces, when I cut my avocado into cubes and put it into a salad with salt. In the discipline of intercultural communication, this would be called a critical incident. (more…)
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CYCLING TO A BRAZILIAN WEDDING
Cycling and couchsurfing are two things which will most certainly take you to unexpected places. Why? Because both of them take you where locals are. And unless you are equipped with an amazingly good imagination, staying with locals will always have some surprises in store for you. And why is that? (more…)
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SOCIOCULTURAL LINGUISTICS: A WORLD SHAPED BY LANGUAGES
I’m one of those people who believe that language, whether written or sign language, shapes our world. Our mother tongue gives us the basis to our thinking and after that, additional learnt languages expand our worldview. (more…)