Silent and Slow Estonians, Emotional and Fast Russians

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Piret Pappel

What happens when an Estonian and a Russian meet? The Estonian remains silent and listens to the Russian, no matter whether the latter comes from Tallinn or Saint Petersburg. Still, both Estonians and Russians value wisdom, amiability, and sociability in their conversation partners.

These are the stereotypes Estonians, as well as Russians of both Estonia and Russia, have about communication, as shown by a study conducted at the University of Tartu Institute of Psychology by Luule Mizera, Tiia Tulviste, Kätlin Konstabel and Enel Lausa.

Russian hospitality

A warm Russian welcome with music, vodka, bread, and salt in Petropavlovsk. Image credit: Austronesian Expeditions / Flickr Creative Commons

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My Enchanting Semester in Tartu

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Chloe Davidson

Chloe is a third-year student of Economics, Finance, and International Business at the University of Nebraska of Omaha. She spent her spring semester of 2013 as an exchange student in Tartu.

I had always wanted to study abroad, so I made an appointment at my home university, the University of Nebraska of Omaha, to meet with my advisor and look at options. Two days later, I was applying for a passport and making travel arrangements to spend the upcoming semester in Estonia. Throughout the next two months everyone asked me, “Why Estonia?” or even more commonly, “Where is Estonia?” and sometimes even, “What is an ‘estonia’?”

After arriving to Tartu and talking with some of the other international students, most of us had the same answer for why we chose Estonia… Which was, “Why not?” If I had to come up with a reason, I would say that no one from my university had studied in Estonia before me and I wanted to go someplace where I had no expectations. That being said, I couldn’t have chosen a better place than Estonia.

At first, I was very anxious. After I arrived, it was such a shock to be in a place where the signs were all in a foreign language. I remember on the bus from Tallinn to Tartu, I immediately decided that the first Estonian phrase I needed to know would be: “I don’t speak Estonian.” After arriving to the bus station and meeting my tutor, Heilika, I was reassured that I would survive in Estonia.

Chloe at Tallinn airport

At Tallinn airport.

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Environment on Your Lunch Plate

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Mirjam Burget

Mirjam Burget is a public outreach specialist at the University of Tartu’s Natural History Museum.

Did you know that food is one of the three main culprits in the pollution of the environment, apart from housing and traffic? We are what we eat, and what we eat influences both our health and the well-being of the whole planet.

What does your usual lunch consist of? Have you ever thought about the environmental impacts of your everyday food choice? When determining environmental impacts of various foods, we need to take into consideration how the food is produced and processed, including cultivation, fertilising, harvesting and preparation methods.

It is not possible to control the entire process of food production, but it is possible to control your everyday choices. Here are some hints for taking care both of your health and the planet.

pizza

Pizza has a relatively high environmental impact: The carbon footprint is 2.68 kg CO2e/kg and phosphorous contamination of 2.75 kg PO4e/kg. Image credit: Teppo Johansson.

Use the plate model for guidance

The plate model is a guide to determine what you should be eating, but it also helps to eat in an environmentally friendly way. To best take the environment into account, fill your plate with vegetables that are in season, and add only moderate amounts of dairy products, meat or fish.
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Latvian Students Find Their Way to Tartu

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Sigrid Rajalo

Sigrid Rajalo is a PhD student of economics at the University of Tartu. She worked as the editor of the Estonian-language university magazine for five years until August 2013.

A bunch of young Latvian students interested in space live in Tartu, and they really appreciate the chance to participate in ESTCube-1, the student satellite project.

Latvians in Tartu

From left to right: Kārlis Zālite, Gatis Šteinbergs, Kaspars Laizāns (on the sofa), Andris Slavinskis and Jānis Mucenieks around the table at their Tammelinn home. Photo by Merilyn Merisalu.

Kārlis Zālite, a second-year doctoral student of physics at UT and a junior researcher at the Tartu Observatory, ended up in Tartu two years ago following an invitation by Mart Noorma, one of the leaders of the Estonian student satellite project. “We came to the physics summer school and met Mart Noorma again, and he told Kaspars and me to come study, Kaspars for the master’s and I for the PhD”.

In addition to Kārlis and Kaspars Laizāns, many other Latvian students have found their way to Tartu, with interest in space and science the common denominator. At least for the time being, many of these southern guests are residing in a house in Tartu’s Tammelinn, surrounded by green, that they are renting together. The students say the house has become a meeting place for many Latvian students. Most of them have been involved with the Estonian student satellite project. Continue reading →

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(Dis)honesty in Management: How Beneficial Is It?

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Tiia Vissak

Tiia Vissak is a senior researcher of international business at the UT Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. Her research interests include internationalisation processes, networks, emerging economies, case studies and management issues.

Island

People protesting on Austurvöllur in reaction to the economic crisis in Iceland in November 2008. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Haukurth.

Did Iceland’s government deceive people during the economic crisis? Why have many Baltic companies decided to avoid paying taxes? Why is corruption relatively high in the Czech Republic? How do African managers feel about giving gifts and employing relatives? Are corporate community initiatives in Sri Lanka ‘honest’? How was trust established between US and Chinese negotiators and what caused Chinese partners’ dishonesty in selling products copied from their partners in China or abroad without informing them?

Which acts are justified and which are not? To answer these questions, we also need to understand what dishonesty is.

Honesty can be defined as the refusal to pretend that facts of reality are other than what they are, while dishonesty – including lying, stealing, cheating, distortion, concealing important information, failing to fulfill promises, and abruptly abandoning a business relationship – presents its opposite.  Still, the phenomenon is even more complex than it would seem from this definition. Continue reading →

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Deceleration

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Inga Külmoja

Inga Külmoja is the editor of this blog and works at the University of Tartu as a Senior Specialist for International Communication.

Saialill, my favourite bakery in Tartu, reopened from summer vacation a few days ago. Good news, right? Kind of, but I admit having mixed feelings about it. Luckily, Tartu Jazz Club, UT Student Council, and many others still keep their doors closed. When they all reopen, summer will slip through my fingers, and life will become business as usual.

Tartu Jazz Club: vacation noteSome say that July in Estonia is a ‘dead month’: nothing really happens, everyone is on vacation, and newspapers have a hard time inventing news. That’s when boredom takes over, cities become abandoned, and days feel too long to end.

For me, July is the month of deceleration par excellence.

When summer is over, ‘business as usual’ will pick up speed, with greater volumes of data being produced, gathered, and transmitted faster than ever before. You will eat your fast food, buy your quick fashion, get your mass education, and share all of this on the go with your numerous friends and followers (the more the merrier, who cares that you barely know most of them). Before you even notice, you will be tricked into buying more stuff, a newer car, a bigger home, and can easily find yourself deep in debt — usually not without the ‘help’ of fast loans.

So it helps to keep in mind the values and lifestyles that counter the superficial flow and oftentimes pointless speed of the mainstream.

s l o w  f o o d

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Street Art of Tartu

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Kadri Lind

Kadri Lind wrote her bachelor’s thesis about Tartu’s street artists in 2012. She is currently busy organising city festival UIT and street art festival Sõnum Seinal (‘Message on the Wall‘). Kadri is also one of the initiators of the Uus Õu project in Tartu.

In the middle of the 1980s, Ülo Kiple was the first person to use public space for communication. His mission was to spread the message “haiguste ravi, kontrollitud” (‘treatment of diseases – checked‘) all over Estonia, but unfortunately he ended up in a psychiatric hospital and soon committed suicide. He is now an influential figure in popular culture, although only hints of his work are to be seen today.

2006 was the birth of the street art scene in Tartu as we know it now. This was the year when MinaJaLydia, TAF and Edward von Lõngus discovered stencil technique and started their night shifts. Since then, many other artists have emerged: Sorro, müra2000, Satinka, Hapnik, Rododendronism, Ruudu Rahumaru, Von Bomb and most recently Kairo, who has named her technique acryliti (acryl + graffiti). Stencil is still very popular, but more and more artists are intrigued by free hand graffiti.

Tartu street art

More recent work by MinaJaLydia.

Tartu has been very open-minded when it comes to street art; the city even supports the street art festival Stencibility. In 2010 Stencibility was planned to be a stencil art festival, but it keeps growing and widening: This year was a special one, because Stencibility hosted its first foreign street artist, Kashink from Paris. Kashink is known for her enormous free-hand characters and she is the author of the mural on Võru Street. Continue reading →

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