It is probably just about the culture as the alcohol is a bit giggle giggle and naughty. I also know some older people, who put the curtains on, if they play cards with their neighbours. Coffee is the default drink, beer etc. comes later on, perhaps with the sauna, unless it is a drinking party to begin with.

Nice and Thoughtful blog.

Phil..I hear ya on this one. It is standard in the way I was raised to offer a refreshement when someone arrives.. Usually I say, “Would you care for something to drink?..Beer, Wine, Scotch…Coffee´?”….Maybe I am just a big lush though…

Ah yes the Sauna. I did go out and get some sausages. Will try them with beer this afternoon.

Its cold (63 DEG f) and wet today in Maryland. (lets have a Sauna thread)

Hmmm… I think you hit something. I distinctly remember my father saying that “America is a nation of drunkards” giving the example that you don’t see Finnish television shows people asking “do you want a drink” right when someone steps in. And the use of alcohol as well in tv-shows he commented on (J.R. Ewing of Dallas with his whisky glass all the time…) Whereas in say the Finnish tv-shows or even the German ones we got didn’t have it as much. Just something that passes in the cultural innuendo.

And Antti’s old folks have the curtains on and the bottle by the table leg

Exactly Hank, those old geezers with the bottles by the table leg were still around in my childhood. Later on, they got some money and bought that 70′s chipboard bookshelf for the TV, wedding bible, “Natural beauty of Finland” (Luonnonkaunis Suomi) by Reader’s Digest and shooting prizes. The bottles went to the little cupboard in the shelf, that could be locked.

The procedure with the bottle by the table leg was such that when the visitor arrived, the matron started to cook coffee and find some pulla’s. The guest discussed with the patron at the table and when the matron went out for something, the patron quickly poured a dash from his bottle to the coffee cups and hid the bottle again.

Heh, I was just commenting my wife a couple months ago, that they seem to be drinking all the time in “Kotikatu” show

4) Finns only drink to get totally wasted and the guy couldn’t do that when you asked.

Actually when arriving from Holland I had been accustomed to order ‘a round of beer’ for whatever group I arrived at the bar with. But it didn’t work that way in Finland. I soon learned that ordering 1 beer at the time was something nobody was ashamed of, that was new to me.

We actually visited the Helsinki Beer Festival this weekend and took some pictures, have a look if you’re interested:

http://oobio.tripod.com/helsinkitimes/index.blog?entry_id=1454026

Interesting, I’ve thought Americans (meaning the U.S. people) are very careful about when it’s proper to have alcohol. I’ve often been to conferences, seminars and other events where beer or wine has been offered with lunch or dinner. Guests usually attend these events (outside the U.S.) by taxis etc, so alchohol isn’t necessarily a problem.

But what I’ve noticed is that guests or organizers from the U.S. don’t usually have any beer or wine, but instead they ask for Coke, soda or just water if nothing else is available. I was just last week in a very business informal dinner, and guests from the U.S. didn’t have beer or wine, they were probably the only ones who didn’t drink anything alcoholic.

Is this some kind of a business or work-life culture thing? Or just a coincidence?

maybe they were alcoholics?

I didn’t mean just this single event, but instead I’ve attended tens of conferences and seminars with Americans (amongst other nationals) and the perception I’ve got is that Americans don’t usually have even wine with lunch. I could be totally wrong about this, so please correct me if necessary.

Tero – That’s due to something called liability. Aside from America’s rather schizoid attitudes about alcohol, businesses have to bear the litigation if someone gets drunk and drives into a school bus after drinking alcohol at the company party.

And, no, it’s very, very unusual to have alcohol at lunch or at any function during the work day and even functions after hours. I still boggle at the kalja at the office canteen and the massive amounts of beer and spirits provided by the company at company parties. The US is so anal about booze that even a Finnish company like Nokia changes its travel expense policy in the US with regard to booze, i.e. it will not be reimbursed.

Hank…your father’s comment is rather interesting. Americans often drink to be social which may be anathema to Finns who drink to get legless. It’s a good thing nobody gets too much Finnish TV outside of Finland as if people judged it to be reality as Finns seem so often to judge US TV to be, people would be pretty disturbed.

OObio – I think buying for yourself is called “going dutch”

winter – same weather here. for us its ‘hope the rest of the summer won’t be like this’

From TV one gets the impression that the custom is also part of business meetings. Wasn’t Larry Hagman cool as J.R. Ewing when he was sipping those drinks in between making tough decisions about the oil business?

This an interesting subject (though could we somehow work the rotten welfare state into it???) – I think in Finland we have quite a schizchofrenic attitude towards drinking. Partly we have this huge puritanical heritage (drinking as a very big SIN) and partially alcohol, very visibly, is a much loved part of the social life. So, we maybe don’t routinely offer drinks as a first thing when someone comes for a visit (I mean Phil if you are offering your guests one or two beers, what’s the point – give them a bottle of Kossu and they will naturally understand where you are coming from and what’s the purpose there) but as a nation of binge drinkers that’s maybe not a totally bad thing…

It’s a good thing nobody gets too much Finnish TV outside of Finland as if people judged it to be reality as Finns seem so often to judge US TV to be, people would be pretty disturbed.

ååååhhh, you don’t read the gossip column do you?

“Extreme Duudsonit, englantilaisittain The Dudesons, on saamassa suuren fanijoukon Yhdysvalloissa. Duudsonien hulluutta hipovat temput sisältävä tv-sarja nähdään USA:ssa kanavalla, jonka näkee ainakin teoriassa 90 miljoonaa amerikkalaista ja kanadalaista. Duudsonien huimia hölmöilyjä sisältävä tv-sarja nähdään Music Television -konserniin kuuluvalla Spike TV -kanavalla”

So theres ‘Finnish Tv’ allright

There’s no such thing as bad publicity. With Duudsonit setting the tone for Finnish TV and Lordi for music, the world is ready for conquering.

Well, Phil might have a differeing opinon about “too much publicity” re. his bandwidth/ISP hassle

Well, Phil might have a differeing opinon about “too much publicity” re. his bandwidth/ISP hassle

Since most readers most probably come from Finland, hosting the site in Finland instead of California might help. Just a suggestion. Don’t most ISPs differentiate between domestic and international traffic?

Google has just taken care of part of his bandwidth problem… FfF does not exist as far as google ios concerned…

Sad to find out, Phil, it’s not often that I feel sorry for being proven right

Say What?
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=finland+for+thought

it is not proper to drink during working hours in the u.s., unless it’s a company party or something similar. it’s not so much a liability issue, it’s just the culture. personally, i won’t drink a glass of wine/beer during lunch on workdays because it makes me not want to go back to work . anyway, it’s common for co-workers to go out to a bar after work together.

I see the cultural difference.
In the US and as well in south and central Europe people drink more regular and socially alcohol. Some times, but seldom at lunch and quite usually when people visit each other.

But people usually do not drink big amounts and stop before they feel anything from alcohol except perhaps in late evening.

In society it is totally not aceptable to show signs of beeing drunk. It is perhaps still aceptable if one gets during evening a bit more social and speaks more than usual. But anything more people do not like. If a guest is more than once showing to be drunk during a visit people might regard him as an alcoholic and they might not offer him any more alcoholic drinks or even do not invite him any more.

In Finland it is (almost) totally acepted that someone is drunk on weekend or at a party. Nobody tries to reduce drinking before he shows signs of beeing drunk. It is just opposite, people “proudly” scream out their drunkness.
Unfortunately for many Finns there is nothing between drinking nothing and being drunk.

rgds Tom

“We’re having company over in a bit and I was thinking about American’s tradition of asking their guests the moment they walk into the door, “What can I get you to drink?” Have any of you non-Americans noticed that in the movies or TV? Actually it’s, “Let me take your coats” then to the drinks. In Finland it goes shoes, then coats, then they fire up the coffee and tea. “What can I get you to drink?” is often an invitation for alcohol, so it’s perfectly okay to ask for beer, wine, cocktail. In fact it’s almost expected the men have a beer the second they walk in the door. I’ve done this with my Finnish guests in the past, “Hey Jussi, want a beer?” and I’ll often get some weird stares – Probably has to do with… 1) Higher price of alcohol 2) Alcohol problems in Finland 3) Stricter DWI laws.”

No.

It has to do with the fact that when guests sit at the dinner table or in the living room, they are all supposed to eat or drink the same stuff at the same time, e.g. wine with dinner. It sounds totally moronic to ask “What can I get you to drink?” because all other guests are going to drink wine with dinner anyway and you can’t drink e.g. coffee or whiskey with dinner.

If you ask this “What can I get you to drink?” question immediately when your guests come in through the door, it also sounds idiotic because the guests want to sit down first and say hello to the other guests etc.

You should ask this question when your guests are already sitting comfortably on living room sofas, and all the guests have said hello to each other (and have been introduced to each other if they have never met before). At this moment, a normal Finnish host would ask something like “Would you like a glass of champagne before dinner?” and then if the guests generally say yes, then champagne is served, but the host asks “What can I get you to drink?”, the guests won’t ASK for wine or champagne because they know one bottle equals six glasses and you can’t open a new bottle just to pour one glass.

If the host has lots of different kinds of hard liquor in the cupboard, the guests can answer the “What can I get you to drink?” question by asking for e.g. a gin&tonic or a Long Island ice tea or whatever. But this only when everybody is sitting comfortably in the living room, not when people are coming in through the door, wearing their overcoats etc.

Social life 101.

Typo:
“but the host asks”

should be:
“but if the host asks”