• Finnish cartoons Discover your inner Finn

YOU’LL LIKELY RECOGNISE YOURSELF IN FINNISH NIGHTMARES – A WRY CARTOON THAT’S FOSTERING CROSS- CULTURAL EMPATHY

Is there anything more quintessentially British than refusing the help from a shop assistant, even though you actually could do with it? Or perhaps feeling the awkwardness of sharing a lift with a stranger? But actually, when you take a look at the Finnish Nightmares cartoon, you’ll realise that these scenarios also happen to be quintessentially Finnish.

Devised by Karoliina Korhonen, the star of Finnish Nightmares is Matti: a stickman with the stereotypically Finnish national trait of being somewhat reserved. After all, this is the country that has the saying, “An introverted Finn looks at his shoes when talking to you; an extroverted Finn looks at your shoes.” But Matti’s anxieties will no doubt make you laugh in recognition and have struck a chord throughout the world – look on the Finnish Nightmares Facebook page and you’ll see comments from across the globe. In China, Matti has become something of a culture figure and it’s helped inspire a new buzzword, jingfen, or “spiritually Finnish”.

The appeal of Finnish Nightmares is that it offers a bit of reassurance for anyone who knows what it’s like to feel shy or socially anxious. At some point, most of us will be a little bit Matti. And, in a noisy world, when it can feel that everyone else is shouting about their achievements or opinions, there’s some comfort in recognising that, despite what the news or social media may imply, that there are millions of people around the world who feel precisely like you – and Matti – do.

Illustrations taken from Finnish Nightmares by Karoliina Korhonen (Atena); atena.fi.