On: How the Finnish survive without small talk (2018)

[Mister_X]

The small US town I live in has many Finns and Norwegians who arrived here in the mid/late 1800's to work in the logging industry.

When I got here 30 years ago it was my first experience "interacting" with Finns and I always thought it was a problem with me (3rd gen Californian).

Thankfully, a long time local Norwegian friend told me a joke that cleared it all up.

Q: "How can you tell when a Finn is an extrovert?"

A: "They stare at your shoes instead of their own."

I asked my 3rd gen Finnish acquaintances about that, and they heartily agreed.

[zwaps → Mister_X]

If they arrived in the 1800's, would they not be dead by now?

[culopatin → zwaps]

Hard to tell if they are dead or just quiet so they just let them be.