Mormegil wrote:Stealth wrote:Mormegil wrote:I seriously think Finland should officially be made part of Scandinavia. Reason: everyone (except the Finns and Scandinavians) think they are part of it anyway, so it would just make things easier for everyone.
I don't think they are, and I'm neither Finnish nor Scandinavian. As I was trying to say in a previous post before I screwed up the editing, after I finish my Master's I would like to do a Ph.D. maybe on Finnish national identity, identity construction, and Finns' perception of immigrants (in Finland, obviously).
I may not know anything about Finns, but they are definitely not Scandinavians, although some Finns describe themselves as such and like to be viewed as such by outsiders.
Huh? I was merely suggesting that to make things easier for everyone, nothing to do with pride or anything. Another way would be to just teach kids at schools about history of Northern Europe, but how many of them would be interested enough to pay attention?
Finnish genes and especially language are very different from our neighbours, Russians and Scandinavians, so Finns really are just... Finns.
Oh don't get me wrong. I never said anything about pride. I agree with you. I'm just saying that some Finns do describe themselves as Scandinavians, but I'm not saying that it necessarily has anything to do with pride. If anything, it probably has more to do with a sense of belonging. In any case, I don't think that making Finland "officially" a part of Scandinavia would be too wise if the only reason for doing that is so that the label "Scandinavian" can also be applied to Finns. I mean, label or no label, the fact still remains that Finns are not originally Scandinavians, and a new label would do more damage than good, as it would hide the fact that Finns have a different origin.
Let me put it this way: I'm from Argentina (even though I don't live there). Most people from outside the Spanish-speaking world think that most Argentineans are ethnically either Amerindians or a mixture of indigenous people with Spaniards. That's not the case, and adopting a new label to satisfy people who believe that's the case would not be very smart.
Just a comment, I'm not criticizing you!
Still, Finns are probably fairly similar to their Scandinavian neighbours socially, so it would make sense to call them Scandinavians when referring to their lifestyle. I'm mostly talking about ethnicity though.
If irony were made of strawberries, we'd all be drinking a lot of smoothies right now.
:luv3: 
