Angry Birds Take Over The World!

Angry Birds have come from nowhere, to become the best-selling mobile game of all time, in the process making it one of Finland's most high profile export of recent years.

Language Oddity #3 (Update)

In a previous post, I mentioned how Finns don't have the verb "to have", and instead use a convoluted construction to get around that problem.

In my rush though, I over-simplified things! Silly me, this is about the Finnish language after all!

Spring has Sprung

I have just returned from a lovely weekend at a mökki (summer cottage) on the river Kokemäenjoki, some 200km (120 miles) West of Helsinki.

And it was springtime! Apparently.

Sick Cucumbers

This weekend, I learnt a couple of things about Finnish illnesses, which made me smile.

Language Oddity #3: To Have Or Have Not

French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon claimed “property is theft” (“la propriété, c'est le vol!”). It seems the Finns agree, as they have no property. In fact they have nothing, because there is no such verb as “to have” in Finnish!

Mini-Post: Cameras

Yesterday, I asked a Finn: "How do you say camera in Finnish? Is it elokuvakone [film machine]?". The Finn looked at me with a smile and answered: "Err, no... it's kamera!"

Sometimes, I make Finnish just a little harder work than it actually is!

There's No Business Like Snow Business

The winter is coming to an end in the UK, and so goes the threat of snow – thank goodness!

Having lived all my life in Western-European countries with fairly temperate climates, I always associate snow with chaos.