Finnish from Afar Blog

The Finnish language has long words. Yeah, we know that. Indeed I have mentioned this many times before in this very blog, including here , ...

Stonehenge, the statues on Easter island, the Mayan pyramids... These monuments all have two things in common: they involve really big st...

Swearing is not big and it's not clever. However, it can be both therapeutic and amusing in any language. As it happens, rude words are ...

When I left my job recently, I was touched to discover that my Finnish co-workers had clubbed together to get me a present: a pair of Reino...

The Finns are often portrayed as taciturn, but this has not been my experience: most Finns I know are quite talkative. However, pockets of ...

This week, a particular viral picture caught my attention. The reason it caught my attention is because it provides a perfect illustration o...

When I was last in Helsinki, just over a week ago, the Finnish flag was flying from every building in town. It wasn't in honour of my v...

It's been nearly a month since the last post to this blog, mostly because it has been a rather eventful month for me workwise. But fret ...

What do you call an 80 year old always full of alcohol? Alko. Yes, the national alcoholic beverage retailing monopoly in Finland celebrate...