Interest in a subject often begins almost unnoticed. In the middle of the 1980s, when I was a research assistant for Professor Auli Hakulinen, I was transcribing some conversations from groups of men. At some point I started paying attention to some short sounds on the tapes: now “mm” (‘um’), now “joo” (‘yeah’) or “niin” (‘so’ or ‘well’). This led me to research the similarities and differences in the response words (response particles) “joo” and “niin” all the way to my doctoral dissertation. That also led me to study various conversation functions and conversation structures, since “joo” and “niin” can be used to respond to many different kinds of utterance.

At the beginning of my studies in Joensuu, perhaps the two most fascinating courses were dialects and sociolinguistics – the regional and social variation of language. Yet the lure of interaction studies proved stronger. In the 1980s there was still a deep gulf between the basic premises of sociolinguistics and conversation analysis. The sociolinguistic conception of language usage and the social identities of people appeared static, while conversation analytic research didn’t seem to extend to wider society; sociolinguists were tabulating phonetic and morphological features from large corpora, conversation analysts were going over short conversation excerpts with a fine-toothed comb.

Institutional interaction is informed by the purpose of visiting the institution, and interaction practices may be highly formalised. Many institutions aim to improve their customer service by working on their customer interaction, and interaction studies can aid institutions in their development.

I began studying at the University of Helsinki in the late 1970s when I transferred from the then University of Joensuu to Helsinki, to the big wide world. In Helsinki you could attend philosophy lectures, delve into the Finnish history archives and study news photography. In my major, Finnish, I learnt about the history of place names while behind the window snowflakes gently fell in Senate Square.

To have time. Time for unhurried contemplation and for long-term fieldwork.