An American lecturer in the Turku School of Economics in Finland, Michael Berry, has written a book on how to cope with sensitive cultural issues. He is using the Finnish silence as an example of a situation that in many times leads to misunderstanding between the Finn and the non-Finn. He recognizes that silence can be regarded as comfortable or non-comfortable, and that most Finns feel absolutely comfortable when silent themselves or surrounded by silent people. This is a complete opposite to most cultures where silence is regarded as uncomfortable, a sign of something being wrong. 


                                                                                    


Berry states that in order to fight the "silence is ucomfortable" imperialism, the Finnish people need to take up an "aware silence". One must abandon the idea that communication is directly linked with talk, and silence is taken as non-communicative. Quite the opposite, actually, silence can be most communicative if one knows how to interpret it. With the help of his students, Berry is giving silence various attributes that can be placed on two axis: the active/passive, and the positive/negative line.

                                                                         
                                                                                 Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Helsingin Sanomat newspaper published these attributes on the two by two grid, with some useful insight. A positive, but passively silent person can be present, calm, peaceful, unhurried, modest. A negative, but passively silent is indifferent, bored, depressed, or reserved. Active negative is impolite, sulking, selfish or tong-tied, and finally, the active and positive silent person can be focused, listening, anticipating, pondering, respecful, interested, considerate or just giving space for others. (interestingly I had some trouble translating all of these attributes, it seems that there are more words for silence in Finnish than there are in English).

All of you planning a trip to Finland for the first time, I recommend reading the book or at least print this article. It may save you from some nerve-wrecking situations in business meetings where nothing is said for few minutes. It could well be the most active silent meeting you've ever experienced.