Communicating across an ocean and nearly 5000 miles of distance, about 15 people participated in a videoconference Wednesday morning with a handful of Finnish students at the University of Helsinki.
The videoconference was orchestrated on the Ball State side by assistant English professor Mai Kuha and the Video Network Information Center was held in room 200 of the Ball Communications Building. It was intended to help participants learn more about cross-cultural issues, particularly the gender-neutral nature of the Finnish language.
In Finnish, there is one pronoun "hän" that is used in place of the English "he" or "she." Participants discussed the ability to talk about a person in Finnish without once referencing his or her gender, and what this lingual neutrality may say about its speakers' society and culture.
Kahu said that while Finland is a nation with a history of a female political leadership and a place where maternity leave is lengthy and extended to both men and women, there are still non-gender-neutral parts of the Finnish language. There are words that mean "male doctor" or "male scientist," just as in English there are words such as "fireman" and "congressman" which, at least in the U.S. in recent years, have been sometimes altered to "firefighter" or "congressperson" to preserve gender neutrality.
"We really don't have a reason to believe that speaking a language that has less gender in it makes much of a difference at all," Kuha said after the videoconference. "You do see Finnish people telling sexist jokes, for example. And it's clear that some people in Finland do believe in gender stereotypes just as people elsewhere do."
Participants in the videoconference also discussed more frivolous topics, such as Finnish candy and colloquial phrases. One graduate student studying sociology who attended the videoconference told the Helsinki students she had a tattoo of the Finnish lion and said she'd decided to participate because she spent 360 days living in Finland in high school.
The videoconference was arranged by Kuha in partnership with a University of Helsinki professor who Kuha said attended Ball State for graduate school. She said the conferences are held every one to two years, usually in conjunction with a class one of the professors are teaching. This semester's exchange was the first since 2010 and related to Kuha's English 328: Language and Gender course.
Read More
The eyes and ears of the David Owsley Museum of Art
By Madelyn Bracken / 5 days agoThe David Owsley Museum of Art (DOMA) doesn’t only house art. For many Ball State University students, it houses opportunity. Graduate and social media assistant, and former DOMA intern and guard, Taylor Hamblin spent the past two years working at the museum surrounded with possibilities to further her career while at Ball State.
Center for Peace offers academic opportunities
By Meghan Braddy and Grayson Joslin / 6 days agoOver the years, the center has offered a peace studies minor, conflict resolution training and grant funding.
AP: New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction
By Staff Reports / 6 days agoNew York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with “egregious” improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case, according to the Associated Press (AP).
