I never got that good at small talk, although I think I would have gotten a passing grade already. Well, Therese Catanzariti explains the whole Finnish silence deal on Crikey in another entertaining and insightful article. I will now have to keep my own habits in check, to make sure I pass as a Finn again.
Fortunately I still feel comfortable with silence, but now I wonder if I might be making others uncomfortable by accidentally “switching on” small talk. Apparently I’m already shaking hands more than an average Finn would. Maybe it’s good that I never got a hang of the whole kiss-on-the-cheek custom…
I know I’m already expecting a response to my emails, rather than assuming success from silence. However, I don’t think this really comes from being Finnish, but from the fact that email is no longer a reliable means of communication. There are too many content filters (often disguised as spam prevention tools) that silently drop messages, so some kind of an acknowledgement really is necessary nowadays.