Escaping the Royal Wedding

This week, I travelled to Finland in a bid to escape the Royal Wedding fever that has gripped the UK.

Admittedly, my real motives for the trip have been professional, but the chance to escape was a welcome by-product. I was even prepared to exchange two Bank Holidays in the UK for two working days in Finland just to get away from it all!

Immigrant or Expatriate?

My parents came to visit last weekend, for Easter. We had a lovely time, and, as we often do, we put the world to right on many subjects...

At one point though, my mother asked: “what would you say is the difference between an immigrant and an expatriate?”

This was not the opening line of some inappropriate joke, but a genuine question. And a good one, too. And I have to admit that I was somewhat flummoxed by it: I had never thought about the difference and I wasn't too sure what it was.

Happy Easter

The Easter Bunny must have been cooking. Not literally, not in the oven... perish the thought! I mean, the Easter Bunny must have found it tough going as he (she?) delivered all those Easter eggs in the UK this morning, because it's been unusually hot for this time of the year...

YetMoreGiantWordFormations

A Finnish colleague of mine went on an English copywriting course in London a couple of weeks ago. Upon her return, she told me that she had been advised that to write good business English copy for an international audience, sentences should not contain words of over 3 syllables.

The thought immediately sprung to my mind that this would be impossible in her native language!

Yes folks, it's time for me to have another dig at the ridiculous length of Finnish words...

Speaking English

Bertolt Brecht once said the Finns were the only people in the world who were "silent in two languages".

That is grossly unfair as Finns are often pretty good at more than two languages!

An Unimpressive Story

A couple of years ago, I had a little misshap down an unlit country lane in the UK. It was a bit of an unpleasant experience, yet when I related this story to a Finnish friend shortly afterwards, I received no sympathy.

The story is as follows....

Mini-Post: Rubber Aunt

Talking to a Finnish friend the other day, instead of saying “sinä olet kummitäti” (“you are a god-mother”), I claimed “sinä olet kumitäti” (“you are a rubber aunt”).

That dropped "m" meant I had some explaining to do...