As a Finn, working at an U.S. company, small talk is something I really struggled with and still don't fully understand. The people I interact with it seems like we have found sort of a middle ground, where people obviously still ask "How are you?", but people still feel comfortable to answer "Not so well, XYZ happened". Maybe I'm naive but I feel like that helps prevent issues from getting too big and offers a safe space to share how you feel and get compassion from your peers.
As an Estonian, I can relate to this. "How are you" and similar drivel gets me every time and borderline drives me mad.
There is a brilliant comic called Finnish Nightmares that covers many situations like this. For anyone not Finnish (or Estonian) it is probably an inside joke.
As a Norwegian who finds most Norwegians too chatty, my first experience with Americans saying "how are you?" as a greeting rather than a question still haunts me 15 years later.
Also explains why I enjoyed my (so far only) trip to Estonia so much.
The top comic is a bit odd, though? I know a lot of wonderful choral music from Finland (more than from most countries!) so they can't all be afraid of singing in public.
