Enthusiastic Bull or the Art of Finnish Palindromes

This week, I found out that, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the Finnish language holds the world record for the longest palindromic word in "every day use" with "saippuakivikauppias" (19 letters). That magnificent specimen of a word means a "dealer in caustic soda", which does beg the question as to how much daily use that word actually gets. But hey, if Guinness says it is in daily use, then it must be.

Heavy Metal for Kids

Q: What do you call a band of dinosaurs playing heavy metal?
A: Hevisaurus!

No, really. This is not a joke. Not in Finland at least.

Matti Nykänen Quotes

In in recent weeks, I have made references on a couple of occasions to the legendary Finnish ski-jumper and bon-viveur Matti Nykänen. In particular, I have mentioned that he was the source of classic, mostly unintentional, humourous quotes.

However, it has come to my notice that only very few of the great man's perls of wisdom have actually been translated into English. That is clearly a shocking omission!

Melancholy Season

This week marked the official start of melancholy season in Finland, aka November.

November is the time of year where the weather in Finland is garanteed to be miserable. It is also noticibly darker, and the snow has not yet arrived to bring a bit of luminosity.

Finnish Mnemonics

It's a tautology to say that you can't speak a language if you don't know the words. That is my biggest problem with Finnish.

I have documented on many occasions before my struggle with Finnish vocabulary. The trouble for me is that most Finnish words are not related to their equivalent in the Latin or Germanic languages that I know. This is compounded by me having a goldfish-like memory.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

It is often said that “out of the mouth of babes comes the truth”.

Sometimes that truth can be painful though.

Matti Nykänen

Last Monday, former ski-jumping champion Matti Nykänen started a 16 month prison sentence in Kupio for aggravated assault on his on-off wife Mervi Tapola in 2009.

This is just the most recent twist in the “car crash” life Nykänen has led since retiring from top-flight (fortuitous pun) ski-jumping in the late 1980s.

Review: How to Marry a Finnish Girl

This weekend I read a newly published book called “How to Marry a Finnish Girl”, by Phil Schwarzmann.

I have to admit, I was quite excited about reading it. How could I not be? After all the subtitle of the book is: “Everything You Want to Know About Finland, That Finns Won’t Tell You” and the back-cover also warns: “DON’T LET FINNS READ THIS BOOK!”

Finnish Jokes About Drinking

Drinking is a very important part of Finnish life. So it's no surprise that Finns have many jokes involving drinking.

I mentioned a couple of short drinking jokes in an earlier post, but now's the time to tackle this subject in earnest.