Global and Multicultural Activity Interview

For my interview for the Global and Multicultural Activities group assignment in VOC II, I asked Anna Pesonen-Smith a series of questions about what it was like to study in India as a Finn. In the Hofstede Dimendion comparison, the key differences centred around equality and gender issues, so I focused on that:

1. Did you notice differences between Finland and India in terms of power distance between people?

Yes, I would first point out that according to the Hofstede Centre the percentage of India's power distance is as high as 71, whereas Finland's is 24. This means, and I observed the same, that there's a huge gap between the rich and the poor, the people in higher positions and lower positions and different castes.

I noticed this at my university, where I was calling my professors sirs (unlike in Finland) or more locally and comfortably with an ending -da. This refers to dada, as in big brother, in Bengali. Similarly older women can be called as didi, big sister for talking politely yet not being overtly formal. Sir can be also shri in India, this is more formal way.

In Kolkata lots of people live on the streets. The situation is not the same in Finland. In India the caste system is illegal by law but it's a living thing in people's everyday. I heard an example some time back that a doctor may not want to touch straight the skin of a person from a lower caste, therefore s/he would place fabric in between her/his own hand and the skin of a lower caste patient - to mention just one small example.

In work places every person has a specific task to do, however small it is. In principle a person in a higher position doesn't touch to the tasks of a lower position and the other way round. In Finland one person can take care of many different tasks more often than in India. This has to do with hierarchy and also the fact that in India there are so many people - it's hard to find everyone a thing to do.

2. What about the roles of men and women in society compared to Finland?

Basically men dominate the public sphere, whereas women dominate the domestic sphere. There are still, of course, exceptions to this.

I needed to internalise new rules of being in India as a woman that I hadn't needed to follow in Finland: if alone, don't be out very late (the darkness comes at 6pm, so after that slowly women disappear from the streets for their safety and comfort), preferably cover your shoulders and knees and dress up the local way, let taxi drivers and others on the streets to know that you're not alone by for example talking to the phone when travelling, asking someone local on the phone to give the taxi driver directions to follow to their place, expressing that you know the routes and the habits, and maybe most importantly just observe around and understand that you will not make a change in a minute, therefore respect the guide lines in local buses and metro, where there are separate compartments for ladies and elsewhere. With the experience of 14 years travelling and living a couple of years in the country, you do as fine as you could with a smooth respect and understanding. (Of course if having a proper chance sometime to express different opinions, use those chances.)

In Finland women are more free than in India but it's a false belief that women would be as free as men in Finland. Strong women in both countries can do a lot.

What's funny and combining thing between Finland and India concerning the role of women, is in both countries women started to work historically early. But this is because of farming in both countries, so actually working of women has to be measured from the time women started to work outside their homes, in the public sphere.

3. Or any other intercultural differences?

 Way of expressing for example anger in some formal offices is different in Finland and in India. In India it was normal that one needed to go to offices to shout for getting her/his things (for example visa extension or university certificate) done. Third time you go and start really demanding, and then it may work. After you and the person in the office have shouted to each other heads red for five minutes, there's silence and then you both agree and laugh, shake hands and wish all the best and if anything, let's be more in touch. Of course.

This doesn't quite go like this in Finland, where you might get angry but don't express that aloud so often.

Sometimes you notice that when for example asking for directions on the street or even at the airport, people don't like to say that they don't know the place you're asking. They would many times rather just show you some direction. So you should ask from three-four persons and count the average. In this kind of things people are more straight in Finland.

4. Has any of this impacted your experience of India?

At times I have found it tiresome to fight and demand things there (when it's about opening your own internet account with fifteen attachments to give about your stay, home and university, bothering some ten people with the matter), or at times be so alert, when in Finland it would all be so easy. Of course, it's always different to do things at your home or anywhere abroad. First I feared in India (in 2000), because the traffic seemed so chaotic and there were numeral chances to get killed each day. When getting over the fear, the love-hate relationship (that's mostly still love) with India was established and it was a long-term set-up. I love India, because it's so alive and there I feel so alive. I guess I'm then fine with the challenges in India, I know some would dislike them too much.

5. Did you receive any kind of tutoring for intercultural awareness issues when you moved to India?

Some official tutoring no. I have lived in India two times, first in 2000 for a short period of a couple of months and after that in 2007-2009 two years (otherwise have been travelling there all together maybe about a year, during 2004-2006 and 2010-2013) and those times just taught me slowly all that I know. It was more like advice from neighbours, contact person at work, later class mates... And then rest of the learning has come when moving around among the local.

6. Did your school take multicultural issues into account in its teaching?

I guess not very much, when I did my first degree of culture production in Turku 1998-2002, except we had courses on Swedish (in Sweden) and sami culture. Even later degrees not so much. In India (first MA) we studied other colonised countries' films and globalisation. In Finland (second MA) some of the studies were in English and in international contexts. I think most of my multicultural issues learning, anyway, has come through my own choices in studies and life.