My Canadian SO is the comic relief of my blog, and he's at it again. This post by Alex is a window to his Canadian mind, experiencing Finland as an outsider. Stereotypes confirmed, stereotypes broken? How do Finland and Finns seem for someone from the Great White North?
Hi there, Alex here.
As you may know if you have been reading this blog for a while now, this is my second contribution
other than the anthology St. Pumps joke from the IKEA post. My previous text,
the seminal text aptly titled
His story: the Canadian behind the scenes is available
HERE.
This time, I was asked to write about my impressions of Finland as a Canadian who has had
the chance of going to Finland thrice.
Before meeting Melissa, I had always kinda pictured Finland as some kind of permafrost
land where Saku Koivu had grown up riding reindeer and dog-sleigh to go to free
and great university. And I was 100% right as you can see.
Finland was far, close to Russia (therefore very, very alien to me as a North American) and
I never expected it would be one of the countries I’d end up knowing the most
about. It looked cold, barren and unwelcoming on the maps with all this northernness
and I don’t think I would have decided to go by myself, Canada has given me my
fair share of cold. Happily, Mel warmed me up to the idea.
One of the things I expected to be really important to do is learn Finnish. No need, they all
speak English well, and some could be mistaken for native speakers to someone
who hasn’t heard as many Finns speak English. Still, Finnish is the sound of
Finland, a chesty language that makes it so that all men sound to me like they
should be muscular giants to have that voice, but still a very musical and
weirdly soft and flowing one. Finnish also happens to be one of the hardest
languages to learn and I look back in envy on myself trying to learn how to
introduce myself back in Leicester, all naïve and optimistic that I would speak
Finnish reasonably within a year and a half. Nowadays, Finnish sounds to me
like a song I sorta know but can’t remember enough to sing it outside of the
chorus, I understand some words and expressions, just enough to guess what
people are talking about 60% of the time and to have a blank and terrified face
when people address me expecting an answer in Finnish. Finland also has
interesting music, and I’m not talking about metal, I don’t care much for
metal. I may not understand, but Finnish singing is very beautiful, and some of
their artists have extremely catchy songs, as in they get stuck in your head
forever (looking at you Elastinen). Finally, Finnish is extremely entertaining
when comments and statuses are bing translated on Facebook, one little slang
word and you might know someone who does slave trade.
Finland is a tech and design hub so everything is cool, stylish and very modern. Helsinki
is said to have the best public transport in the world, and while me carrying
my 20kg luggage over my head because the snow blocks the wheels while running
to catch the bus about 2 km away from Mel’s place would not agree, you can
really get anywhere fast an easy. It could be because almost every Finn I know
except for 2, I’ve met through Mel and she is like that, but it also seems like
everyone is really into design and fashion (well women at least, guys don’t
seem to care all that much), everyone owns those Iittala plates and cups
(especially the Moomins ones) and have very cool looking houses.
Now Finns.
Where do I start. There is this stereotype that Finns are shy and silent to the
point of being rude. It does throw one off if it doesn’t come with
understanding. Sure, I have mocked Mel quite a bit about how much she stresses
in situations that seem really mundane to me, and I have been somewhat shocked
by the utter lack of interest people seem to have for one another, but it all
becomes logical when you understand that this is how they picture politeness.
They give much more importance to privacy and personal space and they feel like
not talking or looking at you in the eye is just the best way they can respect
your space and privacy. They treat bus seats like urinals in the sense that you
should not use one that is right next to a taken one, unless you really must.
What I don’t quite understand still is how you are supposed to meet new people
when every attempt to talk to a stranger is perceived as an invasion.
Once you
know Finns, they are just as cheerful, fun and enjoyable as anyone else, but it
might be hard to try to go to Finland to make friends without knowing any first
to be your ambassador.
Finland is also not as cold and barren as I thought. Canada is actually about as cold on
most winter days, but is more likely to get colder. Sure Finland also doesn’t
have a really nice and hot summer that we have in Canada, but almost everyone I
have talked to about this seems to disagree that 30 is great anyway. Finland is
barren in terms of people, it’s a gigantic space with about the same population
as Ireland. A lot of the culture is based around the cottage, a secondary
house, usually by one of the 168 000 lakes (actual number). Nowhere can
you have as much personal space as by a lake in the middle of the vey lush and
definitely not barren forest. This is where you can do nothing, drink beer,
long drink, vodka, go to the sauna and jump into previously mentioned lake.
Bonus point if no clothes are involved at any point in this process. I have to
say not much is more relaxing.
Finland is not very renowned for its cuisine, Berlusconi and Chirac both mentioning
Finnish food as an example of terrible, Chirac going as far as calling it
second worst after Britain’s. While Britain indeed has terrible food, Finland
is one of those places I would go to get fat without any ragrets. While I’m not
overly fond of rye bread which is too hard, dry and bitter for my taste, it is
mostly extremely enjoyable. I really like fish and it is a very big part of
their diet. But the thing I love the most is the reindeer. We went to a Saami
buffet, and I have eaten enough to make any vegan sick (and myself too to be
honest) and it is just so delicious, the tastiest meat I’ve ever eaten. KotiPizza
even made a pizza with it, ironically named Berlusconi, and it is one of the
best chain pizza I’ve ever had. Finland has even found a way to make black liquorice
tolerable to me.
However, I have a few disappointments. First and foremost, Aurora Borealis are nowhere as
beautiful as I had envisioned. They basically look like clouds and without a
camera, you can’t see the colours. Then again, I was told that they are more
colourful the further up north so I will leave my final judgement for later.
Reindeers are absolutely adorable looking, and look super soft, but they are so
small, there is no way only eight of them can pull a huge sleigh through the sky.
I just came back from Finland a week ago, it was as lovely as ever and I will probably find
a reason to pop by again this year for their 100 years’ celebration.
Congratulations Finland, may you celebrate more centuries, you are awesome,
beautiful, and too unknown for the world’s own good. Torille!
Have you ever been to Finland? Do you have similar experiences? Or are you a Finn - do you agree with Alex? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
