Finnish Mosquitoes Suck

Ah, Finland. The land of a thousand lakes. Actually, the land of a billion trillion zillion quillion mosquitoes.

In the summer, behind every idyllic Finnish countryside setting, there lurks an army if those evil creatures ready to ruin your enjoyment of it.

Show Me the Way to a Place with a Very Long Name

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

But what hadn't occurred to me until very recently is what a challenge it might be for road-signs.

Rolling Stones, Finnish Style

Stonehenge, the statues on Easter island, the Mayan pyramids... These monuments all have two things in common: they involve really big stones and elicit awe of the "wow, how did they do that?" kind.

Finland has its very own stone-based monuments to human achievement, perseverance and ingenuity. Yet they are largely unknown or at least unsung.

Why I Know So Many Rude Finnish Words...

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 one of my specialist subjects in Finnish! I'm not proud if it, but it is.

My Cool Reino Slippers

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 slippers filled with Finnish Fazer milk chocolates.

Now, I understood clearly the significance of Fazerin Sininen, as I could never resist those chocolates when they were in the vicinity. But the Reino slippers? I wasn't leaving to retire, so why?

The Taciturn Finns

The Finns are often portrayed as taciturn, but this has not been my experience: most Finns I know are quite talkative. However, pockets of "taciturness" do remain in Finland, especially amongst older Finns - as illustrated by the following annecdote.

Running Around Aimlessly

This week, a particular viral picture caught my attention. The reason it caught my attention is because it provides a perfect illustration of why Finnish is such a tricky language.

In other words, this single picture is a neat summary of this whole blog, no less.

Flying the Flag for Finland

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 visit though, even if that would have been a rather nice gesture given that it was my last for quite a while...

Normal Service

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 not, for normal service will resume shortly.