Cultural differences between Bulgaria and Finland

Vegetarium is very international place where you can easily meet people from all over the world. It’s nice but sometimes I feel that I would like to see more of the “real Bulgaria” and that’s why its good to visit to other places as well. During my time in Vegetarium, I have seen at least that much of Bulgaria and Bulgarian people that I have noticed some differences between Bulgarian and Finnish culture. However, these are just my observations after spending two months in Bulgaria and presented with a respect for the both countries.

At first, I found it funny, how much time we used for deciding the time when we would start to do something, but every time ended up starting it later. Once I got used to it, I learned not to take the agreed time so literally and also in a way I learned to appreciate Bulgarians relaxed attitude to time. Also a lot of things here are done at the last minute. For example when we were expecting guest for lunch, we started cleaning and preparing the summer kitchen for them in the morning of the same day.

Something I knew before I came here was that in Bulgaria, nodding means no and shaking the head means yes which sounded a little bit difficult for me because I consider nodding my head to be my most common way of communicating in Finland. Here I noticed that nodding or shaking the head are actually less common.

I general, I found Bulgarian people more talkative than Finnish people, but sill less than many other countries. Some funny particularity is also that even when Bulgarians realize that you don’t speak Bulgarian, they can still keep speaking it to you. Older people in particular do this, usually also illustrating things at the same time. It was also interesting to see that when we were watching a concert, it was normal and expected to say a little bit of something between to shows. Sometimes, I can also see that Bulgarians can have a long conversation about something very simple.

At their best, I found Bulgarians warmer than Finns. Often even though we didn’t share a language, people wanted to show that they care. For example, twice on a night train, two different older women covered me up with a blanket. This would be weird in Finland. Bulgarians speak louder and are more expressing which sometimes also means free expressing of aggressive emotions.

I think that because of how meaningful the village is for many Bulgarians, communality is more self-evident for them than it’s for Finns. I always admired that kind of the “family” that was created by all the people who had come to the same place at the same time, regardless of other things. I find meaningful the times when I had the opportunity to feel that and I hope that I can take a little bit of that to the Finland with me.

Juulia