The word “rusifitsirovat” can have different meanings, according to linguist Bulin Maria (Maria Bylin, SvD, 25.03.2014). In General, we are talking about social construction, in which the person is associated with a defined characteristic stereotypes because of its origin.
In Finland do not need to have, for example, African roots, to become a victim of the “ratifikatsii”. Before Talaba (Sephora Ikalaba), born in Nigeria and recently became Miss Helsinki, probably have a lot to endure, but the Russian-born Victoria Sinyakova, which was among the finalists of the contest “Miss Finland” in 2010, has been under attack on social networks.
Even if we forget about racism, in society there is the phenomenon that literary Maimon Agne-Soro (Maïmouna Jagne-Soreau) has called “love some of the exotic” (Ny Tid, 11.03.2016).
During a literary evening in which I participate, one of my colleagues offers to read the text, which is entirely composed of cliches description a Russian prostitute. In the pauses he lets me compliments and rewards such views, which hardly would refer compatriot. Although I don’t like it, I prefer not to spoil the mood of others.
But what to do in such unpleasant situations?
“I learned early on that the least painful option is to answer what you want to hear, rather than trying to explain to people that their questions are sometimes badly hurt, especially if they really mean only good things,” writes Agni-Soro.
People don’t mean anything bad. In fact the problem. This phenomenon is called curiosity. When it comes to little kids, all right, but adults should be smarter.
Good intentions, combined with the awkwardness is hard. When we lived in ethnically homogenous Japan, our Finnish-Swedish-Russian family had been constantly “ratifikatsii” quite friendly people.
“Why the girls in kindergarten want to touch my hair?” — asked my son. When we showed a group photo of the kindergarten our Japanese friends, and my son explained that “it is the third on the left”, they laughed a lot. Generally, few Japanese understand what is multiculturalism. In 2015, Miss Japan was Miyamoto Ariana (Ariana Miyamoto), whose mother is Japanese and father African — American. Japanese to her native language. However, she was accused that she is not Japanese.
In my experience I know that sometimes in Finland to be a bit exotic even pleasant. But often it is painful. Some people think I drink vodka with every meal, and experience great frustration when they hear that I’ve tasted it four times in my entire life. And kissing on the cheek is not so common in Russia, as many think. I can imagine only two situations in which I would be kissed: when meeting with relatives or close friends or in the Church at Easter.
Well how do I explain that friendly to the Finns, who began to use against me this form of greeting even in the 1990-ies? Perhaps it is now too late to make excuses. It only remains to perceive all with humor. In the end, Kekkonen many years kept kissing Brezhnev.
