
A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between Finnish Quietude and Japanese Tranquility - wslh
https://www.academia.edu/19764499/Beyond_Silence._A_Cross-Cultural_Comparison_between_Finnish_Quietude_and_Japanese_Tranquility
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bemmu
As a Finn living in Japan, our preference for silence is certainly very
compatible. I have never lived in one of those "small talk" cultures, which
makes it hard to compare.

I do recall having a visitor (couchsurfer) over from US and having the bus
driver get angry at us because we kept talking loudly in the crowded bus.

In Finland I feel like my signal-to-noise ratio is being judged. If I kept
talking when I had nothing important to say, people might start taking me less
seriously. I recall my dad commenting on someone "you should really listen to
that person, when he speaks it is always something important".

Finnish IRC channels get pretty funny, as they often become idleness contests
when no-one wants to break the silence with something insignificant.

I've noticed the "backchanneling" when speaking in Japan. I often need to make
a conscious effort to keep saying "hai" periodically when talking, otherwise
it may be assumed that I have either stopped listening or don't understand
what the other person is saying.

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lohengramm
In Brazil we have the exact opposite "loud" culture. It seems like people try
to make as much noise as they can in an effort to get attention. Really
annoying.

Did this bus story happen in Japan or Finland?

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jacobush
Bus story was in Japan, no doubt. (Knowing Finland to some extent.)

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allochthon
People should take a look at vixra.org for distributing PDFs if they don't
want to go through the filters at arxiv.org and similar places. At vixra.org,
the person downloading the paper does not need to give any auth permissions
and log in.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
Do you mean "uploading"? Also as a reader, something being on vixra is an
extremely negative signal as to its quality.

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laarc
Not really. Readers here tend to judge by merit rather than origin.

I was hoping to read this, but the encumbered download process prevented that.

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PhasmaFelis
You can also just scroll down and read the article on the page.

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laarc
Thank you. Apparently I'm blind.

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PhasmaFelis
Well, it is really non-obvious, to the point that I think they're clearly
trying to hide it. The white space expands to push the start of the paper
below the fold no matter how large your window is, and the "READ PAPER" text
is light grey on white.

