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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   16083 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022

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“ylpeä" (direct translation)

Just to double check: is this the same translation that the survey used? I’d think if the connotation is positive in English and negative in Finland, then that isn’t a direct translation.

But you do raise an interesting point: it seems like we should be taking surveys that cross language barriers with even more salt than we usually do, since translations and cultural contexts affect them so much.

Do you think in reality Finns aren’t so different? Or do your second two bullets override the translation problem?

I'm not sure what question was used, but this would be one potential explanation. I cannot think of another translation for "proud", actually, at least one that wouldn't have even more of a negative connotation.

Also, the fact that the direct translation of the word that might have positive connotations in other languages but more of a negative one in Finnish might tell of a cultural difference in itself.

Is there a plausible Finnish translation of "proud" that doesn't have a negative connotation? How do Finnish people describe how they feel when they've accomplished something praiseworthy?

Glib answer is "we don't".

Words that might translate to "glad" and "happy" might be used, and "omanarvontuntoinen" ("one who feels one's own worth") might be something like it.

Indeed the exact question is

Yksi elämäni päätavoitteista on ollut tehdä vanhempani ylpeiksi

Good sample size too of >1000 for each country.

Also:

The main mode in EVS 2017 is face-to-face (interviewer-administered). An alternative self-administered form was possible but as a parallel mixed mode, i.e. there was no choice for the respondent between modes: either s/he was assigned to face to face, either s/he was assigned to web or web/mail format. In all countries the EVS questionnaire was administered as a face-to-face interview (CAPI or/and PAPI); in Germany, Netherlands, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, and Latvia additionally self-administered mode (CAWI/Mail) was used.

Interviewer administered questionnaire would surely bias the subject towards more socially acceptable answers. A few countries (including Finland) had some people self-administer. So might we expect those countries to answer slightly more honestly? Perhaps they controlled for this somehow.

https://europeanvaluesstudy.eu/methodology-data-documentation/survey-2017/full-release-evs2017/

https://europeanvaluesstudy.eu/methodology-data-documentation/survey-2017/full-release-evs2017/participating-countries-and-country-information-survey-2017/

Yksi elämäni päätavoitteista on ollut tehdä vanhempani ylpeiksi

Yes, that's a fairly awkward literal translation and would definitely tend towards being understood, at least subliminally, as "make my parents arrogant and conceited". (Even "Yksi elämäni päätavoitteista on, että vanhempani voisivat olla ylpeitä siitä, miten elämäni on sujunut" or something like that would be more neutral.)

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