Swedish people are the most two-faced and anal-retentive people I have come across, and I have met a fair deal of people from other countries and cultures; China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mongolia, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Oman, Canada, the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland, Germany, Turkey, Nigeria, Mali.
Yes its a rather long list but I wish to show that I do in fact have a large set of people to compare against.

Maybe I'm just overly pi##ed-off at people today, but I have to get this out of my system, so someone needs to hear about it. Its hard being a pragmatic no-BS guy living in a country where everyone is a self-proclaimed diplomat and expert.

My planet is way,way out there so I can't compare anyone.

The fact that many people in the US are religious bigots and Christian extremists.

Can be a bit of a sensitive topic, no? I mean, most people have no issue pointing out fault with their own countries, but when someone else does it, it's found to be somewhat impolite and offensive :D.

Regardless, Pakistanis have absolutely no concept of time.
I think it has been a very very rare incident where I arrived to meet someone at the time specified (or even later) and didn't have to wait a bit.
I remember there was one function that I was supposed to attend that started at 6, and I got there late, around 6:30. I was a bit worried until I realised that absolutely nobody else had arrived yet. The staff where the event was being hosted thought I was there to inspect it, so they showed me around everywhere to "prove" that everything is good. Later the event hosts chided me for coming so early, saying "This is Pakistan!".
This is also very true for weddings. If a wedding invites you to come at 8pm, you'd be an incredible fool to show up before 10pm, and even then it'd be likely you'll have to wait an hour or so before the bride or groom show up. Thankfully, there have been regulations put in place that coincidentally happen to curb this- commercial areas with a certain power consumption (such as wedding/party halls) and are required to stop after a specific time (usually 12am or 10pm), so everyone has to hurry to finish before then.

Might be something ingrained in the culture...after all, the urdu word for "tomorrow" and the word for "yesterday" is the same :D.

probably wrestling with crocodiles and stingrays... shit's dangerous man

Finnish (partly stereotypes I think, but sometimes there's some truth to stereotypes too):

1. Credulity (ie. people like to think someone is not going to swindle them, as it would be shameful for someone to do that; but then the other party might feel someone who is that gullible should be swindled, and there is no shame in doing that).

Like there was lately a book published about the history of RIM (Research In Motion), where they e.g. reveal how they were able to trick the gullible Finnish managers working at Nokia with a fake co-operation project and a stream of empty promises, whose only target was to undermine Nokia's arrival to the US market in the 2000s. And they succeeded very well with it, for years. Much of the blame definitely goes to those managers which were not skeptical of their competitor's real intentions.

2. Shyness. Yes many Finns will appear shy and silent to Westerners (maybe not as much to many Asians which to me appear somewhat reserved as well), unless they are intoxicated. This is partly a good trait as well, why should someone keep talking if they don't really have anything to say.

3. Related to the earlier one, we are not that good at marketing the things that we excel at, as it is in general considered as unnecessary boast and self-conceit. Here it is considered as a good trait that you don't boast too much about your achievements and where you are good at (rather, you are supposed to belittle them), but that can be counter-productive in the globalized world. In other words, we are not necessarily that good at marketing (ourselves or our products), we want to believe that a good product sells itself.

4. Applies mostly to modern Finns: thinking that we are somehow entitled to our current/former level of living standard, even if we don't work for it (anymore). Some people shut their eyes thinking that we don't have to fight and work to keep our living standard in the globalized world. That even though it is nowadays the Chinese and Indians who do all the work, we should somehow be able to keep our living standards. I'd actually say this is more of an European trait than just a Finnish trait, maybe?

Yet at the same time, we like to envision ourselves as some kind of hard-working nation like there is no other. That might have had some credibility in the old times like when surviving and recovering from the WWII (e.g. in 1940-1960), but I'd say nowadays your normal Finn is rather lazy and feels entitled to their high living standard.


I left out the old stereotypes like "Finnish drink a lot of vodka ha ha ha", I feel Finns don't really have anything to be ashamed of there compared to Brits etc. Ok maybe being intoxicated in public is considered more normal (but still unpleasant) in Finland, which may seem odd to people from many other countries.

nvm

Every Finnish person I've spoken to on the interwebs was quite anti-Russian and would bring up the Winter War at least once. That said maybe I travel in the wrong circles.

Ive seen this aswell, but they meant it rather jokingly. I guess you do travel in the wrong circles. ^^

Nationalism. :P

Thanks, made my day. :`)

We are a very FESTIVE people. I know I have to go to sleep while my neighbours are partying with loud music :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou9ByOsDxU4
Isn't this inherited to all Iberian Penninsula descended peoples?

Absolutely not.
Here's a typical spanish señorita vs a common portuguese madame :P

Kiddin' bro, they're both pretty. But one is pretty on the inside. Only :P
Kiddin' x2, there are beauts and fugly people on both side, but I do remember a survey (yep, surveys...) where a ton of portuguese ladies declared themselves as "the ugliest on the planet", closely followed by peruvian and japanese (yes, japanese) ones.