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Im a Brit living and studting in Finland, Im doing group work for one course for my masters degree with three girls, two Finns and a Kenian.
The two Finns have been rude to me from the very start and the Kenian turns up when she wants to.
So it goes like this:the Kenian says everyone is cranky this morning and I say yes it seems to be the natural order of things. One of the Finnish girls explodes and says if you want to say something about Finnish people a be racist then you are an idiot, then she says if you have something to say to me say it to my face. Jesus this is even I begin to start working on this project which is all I wanna do. Then the second Finn joins in and says I have an attitude problem and that I think Im special and Im acting up.
Im really pissed at this point and not knowing what just hit me. I kept my cool and said all I wanna do is do the work and I havent acted or said anything to offend anyone and left it at that.
Remember that this is group work, so it gets to the point where we do our bits at home, the girls ignoring the fact that we need to analyse the whole picture.
I try to help in the analysis but they just ignore my input, plus my efforts to correct bad grammer that lies within the text.
They then tell me that I have done a bad job and that they will send it to the teacher as they know English better than me, ( I must say here that this wasnt spoken aloud but the message nontheless was very clear).
Why oh why and wtf just happened? Im 36 and I just want my degree, could it just be that the age gap is too much for me, cause this drama is killing me. I still have to work with these girls on another paper any advise would be greatful as Im all out of ideas. I dont wanna be in the same room with these people.

Well, I think you have 3 variants:
1.Ignore them, be the boss, no matter what they say, enforce your opinion.
2.Try to get together with them, I mean you only work at the papers with the girls but you may try to go to the bar, spend a weekend, go the the club together.
3.Ask the teacher or whoever is the supervisor of the projet to change your group as you can't work with those people.
BTW, how old are those girls?

The girls are about 26 years old

OK, maybe you try cheating with one of them

Here's my end on all that.
Once about thirty years ago, me & Ol' What's 'er Name were arguing back and forth while her daddy was sittin' right there in a lawn chair. We were goin' at it, "Blah blah blah..." He says, "Mike." "Blah blah blah..." back & forth. "Mike." "Blah blah blah..." it was gettin' meaner & louder. "Mike," he said for the third time. I turned to him and said, "What!" he looked up and said in his oakie tone, "You ain't gonna win." He taught me alot that day.

This is pretty funny. Fortunately I haven't had any experiences quite like this, although I am in college and we do have to work in groups in some of our classes. I'm not married yet, and I don't even have a girl, but it's funny as hell because I've heard a few other men say that the only way a fight works out with a woman is if you just give up and tell her that you're wrong, even if you aren't. Good luck with the ladies bro

Have you tried asking them why they believe you have an attitude? The problem with being around a group of women and I apologize to any females who read this is that they are truly moody creatures. If one is having a bad day or not getting along with another they may choose to take it out on you. You seem to be their scape goat for some reason, it could be the whole girl power thing. Like I said I don't want to categorize anyone or piss anyone off but this is my opinion of the situation. I hope it works out well for you so you can get your masters.

t
Thanks Spunzo that cheered me up no end

Yeah you are on the right track I think its a bit like going to join in on a group of 14 year olds hobby, I dont know what its all about and in their eyes im just a nuisance, any step I make is the wrong one

I think it could be the fact that Finland is such a small country ,the girls being Finnish find it difficult to relax and let foreign people provide what input they may wish to add, the outcome of this is ridged control and a hesistancy to accept views and behaviours that are different as the sense of identity is threatened.
I havent had this with other groups, in fact it has been a delight to work with other Finns and nationalities, but these two girls have a reputation of being outspoken and shortsighted, I thought I could keep the situation under control but from the get go I knew I was going to lose.

Here's my simple two CC's worth.

THEY ARE WOMEN AND YOU, AS A MALE, WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THEM!!!!!!!

when i finally accepted this fact, my stress level dropped a whole lot.
hope this helps, bro.

Yep
sound advice!