Describe, Interpret, Evaluate. Scotland.

There’s many things I would like to tell about Scotland from Irn Bru and the different accents to Balmorality or the clans, but something that you will encounter straight away alighting from the plane is as follows:

Walking toward the terminal you make eye contact with someone and they greet you. Someone is approaching you and you avoid toward the same direction and they instantly apologize. You go to a supermarket, and at the till the cashier will wait for you to pack your groceries and keep a small talk going until you’re finished packing. You hold door open for someone and will be thanked with ”Cheers!”. Be prepared for their wittiness and sarcasm as well – you will find that sometime their seemingly polite comment may be backhanded!

The politeness and small talk seemed quite foreign to me and I can still remember starting to tell about my day when I was asked ”How are you?” at the till. People will apologize about any inconvenience however small it is, and it catches on very quickly. British are often really indirect and if you happen to actually do something resentful, they most likely won’t say anything but ”give you the evils”, which is a kind of a resentful glance.

Apart from the last part, this avoids conflict and gives good impression of the encounter with a person, which must be the reason why people do it. It also makes the people appear more approachable. This small talk is the deal breaker, as with it you’re giving first impression what kind of person you are. Generally you should avoid anything personal while still talking about something that fits the situation. Maybe it comes from the idea of being more classy and formal by humouring your company.  

After a while and after getting used to it more, it’s easy to see when people just say tthings but don’t actually mean it. Sometimes the small talk can lead into quite awkward situations, if you’re not used to it, but after a while making small talk will feel normal. As a Finn I found it slightly exhausting and still do after my stay. I would rather have meaningful talk with people or not talk at all. Though, every so often I found it fun and pleasant. Overall I've mixed thoughts about it. 

Cultural bump

For me, very interesting and unusual situation was with rugby in the UK. I heard that people love this game in the UK but I didn’t expect that they are so crazy about this game, especially in Cardiff. They are so proud of their team. Fans are crazy; it was one moment in the university when the teacher said to us that “Rugby is a religion for us”. I was so shocked about this and firstly I didn’t believe but then when I visited the game of Wales’s vs Argentina, I saw that this is really a religion for them; the places at the stadium were all taken. 

For people, fans its very special day when they have games because at this moment they can relax, enjoy their time with a friend or with family, they unite and go together to watch a game. It’s very hard to describe what I am writing about. You should see it in a real life and during this moment you will have goosebumps. To compare with my culture, I have seen this before. We don’t have so much support at the stadiums but in the UK, you can see it with every team, it doesn’t matter what is the level of this team.

But on the other hand there are can be a lot of fight with a drunk people, you have to be very careful. There are a lot of people in the streets and you don’t know what to expect. Especially when they have SIX Nations, this is a very attractive tournament, there are thousands of people and each of them supports their team, they can fight or do stupid things.

From my point of view before going abroad you have to learn more about the host country and learn their cultural traditions. You should know what to say, what to do, what are the rules of the culture you have to follow. Communication with people from other culture is very important, you can explore new things and in some way, you can save your life or do you journey more attractive.

In conclusion, it’s difficult for me to talk about episodes that confused me because I always travel a lot and for me, it was not a new experience in an exchange program. The UK and my culture are pretty similar so I was in comfort zone but this experience was amazing, I achieve all my goals and I am so happy that I was there. Hope to do it again.

Cultural dimensions

First of all, I would like to say some words about my exchange experience in the UK. It was an amazing exchange for me, I spent almost 1 year in the UK from 2016-2017. My goal was to go to the UK and try to study there because the UK studying program is one of the best in the world. Also for me was very important to visit the UK and improve my English skills. I met a lot of people and we spent a great time there. I am really missing that time because this experience gave me new knowledge, new adventures, and new friends. One of the most difficult things for me was to get the visa because if you are not EU citizen it’s quite expensive to get the UK visa.

Speaking about culture dimensions I would like to mention Hofstede theory about the United Kingdom. In the UK individualism has a very high impact on your life. You have to be adaptable for everything and be ready for every situation. It means that you have to be a self-confident and communicative person if you want to live in the UK.  As for masculinity in the UK its around 66 points, it means that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success, with success being defined by the winner/best in field – a value system that starts in school and continues throughout organizational life. You have to “read between the line”- What is said is not always what is meant. To compare. Uncertainty avoidance is the next dimension which has 35 in the UK; this score can show that people are quite happy to wake up not knowing what the day brings. One of the most important things in high Individualist and curious nation is a high level of creativity and a strong need for innovation. Indulgence in the UK has a high score of 69 which means that people possess a positive attitude and have a tendency towards optimism.

These indicators of dimensions are different from my cultures, Russian culture. Power distance in Russian according to Hofstede theory is 93 points, I agree with that because the huge discrepancy between the less and the more powerful people leads to a great importance of status symbols. We don’t have a middle class in Russia, there are only two classes: poor and rich. It’s very difficult situation where people should survive.  Individualism is 39, in a Russian family, friends are extremely important to get along with everyday life’s challenges. You have to respect your family members because they can give you a lot of support.

Studying methods in the UK were very interesting and new to me. It was pretty hard to study there because they have very struggle rules. But there were some new courses for me which gave me a lot of useful information that I haven’t known before. As an example it's digital marketing, in Centria we don’t have this course. Right now I am writing diploma about digital marketing because it’s very exciting and modern area in business structure. It is very hard to find a teacher who can help me write about this field because in Finland it’s new and unexplored area. But all in all the main difference between studying is the level of English, you have to check all the time your grammar in the UK because for them it’s very important to have clear grammar.

Cardiff has surprised me with its “warm” environment; it’s so easy and interesting to live Cardiff. I really like this city, people, area. 

In the end, I would like to mention that this experience was great, this program gave me what I wanted.