What would you do if someone told you to “smile a little less American?” This is what Tytti Tulianen’s grandmother told her to do when she was taking her high school graduation photos. While Tytti (pronounced TOO-tee) was born in Finland, she moved to the United States when she was nine years old and spent the majority of her childhood living everywhere from Wisconsin to New York to South Carolina. To Tytti, her smile didn’t feel “American;” it just felt like her natural smile.
It wasn’t until Tytti moved back to Finland after high school that she understood the full extent of how “American” she had become. Although Tytti originally believed that moving back to Finland would feel like moving home, she was unprepared for the extreme reverse culture shock she would experience upon returning. While she is Finnish in origin, she had spent the majority of her formative years in the states...so where did she fit in?
Join host Rosanna Gill for a conversation with Tytti about her struggles with reverse culture shock and her journey towards accepting her unique background. Learn about Tytti’s experience assimilating to US culture, the challenges she faced upon returning to Finland (i.e. relearning how to pronounce “Big Mac”!), and how she has now made a hobby out of documenting her continued travels. If you have ever had difficulty answering the question “Where are you from?”, then you won’t want to miss out on this week’s episode of Breaking Labels!
Quotes
• “Some Americans are so used to just seeing the typical American names that then when they get a strange-looking name, they almost get this mental block that they’re like, ‘Ok, I can’t possibly understand this name, and I can’t possibly say it right.’ They almost give up before they even try.” (8:46-9:06)
• “I had the biggest culture shock moving back to Finland. For the longest time in the US….I always thought, ‘Ok, when I move back to Finland, it’ll be easier because I’ll be in my home country, I’ll be back with the other Finns.’ And not until I moved back did I realize how American I was. I wasn’t Finnish anymore.” (24:51-25:32)
• “I have this trigger question of ‘Where are you from?’. I felt like I had to justify to people that, ‘Yeah, I’m from Finland, BUT know that I’ve also spent a significant part of my life in the US.” (30:01-30:11)
• “It was really this balancing act for a long time for me to learn when I could use English without it being bragging and when I should ‘Finnishize’ the English words that I was using.” (33:10-33:20)
• “It helps to surround yourself with other people who have that same kind of background….If you’re really struggling, try to find other people who have similar experiences because you can really learn a lot from them and that might open your eyes like it did for me.” (56:54-57:55)
Links
Connect with Tytti:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7szJmP7QcG0nRKxlmkb0iA
https://www.instagram.com/travelingfinnishgirl/
Schedule a consultation for aligners with Candid and get $250 off your aligners:
http://cnd.co/v/rosanna_2
Connect with host Rosanna Gill:
Instagram: @BreakingLabelsPodcast // @rosanna.e.gill
Email: rosanna@breakinglabelspodcast.com
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing