DIE Task

DIE Task

- Description:

It was the first week in Kokkola, we had just arrived after all the night in planes and waiting in airports around 9 in the morning. After I had left my stuff in the apartment, I went to visit the city with my Spanish friend, who came with me to study in Finland. Our goal was to try to find important things like a bicycle to move around Kokkola and things for the house. We were in the centre of the city and we saw few bicycles unlocked next to the shops, we were so surprised for that fact because in Spain it is so unusual to leave your bike without lock.

- Interpretation:

In Spain, you shouldn't let your bicycle unlocked because someone can (and will) steal it, sometimes even if you let your bike locked someone can take parts of the bicycle.

My first option to try to understand why they can let their bicycles unlocked is because they have trust in other people around them. In Kokkola there are less than 50.000 inhabitants and the city doesn't have a lot of immigrants, most of them are students in universities. This means that the people who live there are from Kokkola and they have been living there for a long time, which means they know each other or at least they know them for seeing them around.

My second option is thinking about the police, some Finnish people told me that the policemen are really strict and, like I said before, the city is little and they can control the bicycles rolling in the streets. So you don't want to have trouble with the police for a bike.

My last option is the economic point, my time in Finland and having a course like Finnish Society and Culture, made me learn that the government of Finland give a lot of help to students and young people and also the salaries in Finland are pretty high so the parents can buy bicycles for their children. It means that kids and young people, who are the most likely to steal a bike, they don't need to do it.

- Evaluation:

After that observation, I started to feel more confortable and safe in Kokkola, because in Spain I don't trust on unknown people and I wouldn't leave anything without being locked. After three months in Finland, I started to think like them and maybe I would leave my bicycle without lock if I need to buy something quickly in a store, because I would trust on other people or if my bike happened to be stolen I would trust on the police.