It’s time for round 3 of my fun facts on Finland. This Christmas series is originally released as daily videos on my IGTV channel. Videos are in Italian language with English subs. If you want to watch the videos head there and make sure to follow my account too. If you missed the previous two batches, don’t worry. You can find the previous posts in this series here and here.

Day 13. Life in nature

You can’t talk about Finland without a mention of its nature. Over 75% of its surface is covered in forests. The most common trees are birches and conifers. Even urban areas are very green and rich in plants. Finland has 39 national parks.

People in Finland have a close connection to nature. For example, it’s very common to harvest food from the forest. In the summer, people pick up berries; in the fall, mushrooms fill the forest floor. It is very common to meet wild animals like elks, squirrels, hares, and more. Hiking is one of our favorite activities as a family!

Day 14. Meet Finnish language

Finnish language is complex, to the point of being considered one of the hardest languages to learn for an English-speaker. It belongs to the same language brach as Estonian, Lappish, and Hungarian. As a foreigner, there are few words that are easy to recognise and building a rich vocabulary takes a lot of work.

In Finnish language, suffixes are used instead of propositions. For example, to say “in the room”, you build the word “huoneessa” from the word “huone” (room) and the suffix “-ssa” (meaning inside). And yes, there’s a reason for the extra “e”: there are several rules and exceptions! Another peculiar aspect of Finnish language is the lack of gender in names or pronouns. There are no “she” and “he”, only a genderless third person pronoun “hän”.

Despite the adversities in studying it, Finnish is pleasant to the ears and very soul-calming. The writer Tolkien took inspiration from Finnish language to create one of the Elvish languages in his Lord of the Rings world.

Day 15. Weird Finnish expressions

One of the most rewarding things of learning a language is meeting its unique expressions. Here I’ll share four fun expressions you can use in Finnish.

Mustasukkainen – literally “person with black socks”. This word means “jealous”. It’s unclear why a jealous person should have black socks. One interpretation is that this word comes from a mistranslation of the Swedish expression for jealousy (“black sickness”) which sounds as the word “sock” in Finnish. However, in the Swedish-speaking region Ostrobothnia in West Finland, jealous people are said to walk with black socks (even in Swedish).

Siansaksa – literally “the German of pigs” – means gibberish. We guessed that the origin of this word relies somehow in the sound of German language being guttural like a pig grouching.

Vastarannan kiiski means “the fish on the other side”. It means Contrary Mary, that is someone who always wants to say or do the opposite of what they are told. Kiiski is the pope fish and it’s tricky to catch, when you try to pull it up, it changes direction to escape.

Kyykkyviini is “crouching wine”. Here in Finland alcohol beverages beyond 5.5% are sold in monopoly stores called Alko. Alko stores have always the same layout and cheaper bottles are on the lowest shelf, the one you have to crouch to reach. This is why kyykkyviini is a cheap wine.

Lastly, sinisilmäinen – blue-eyed. It is a term used (also in English, apparently) to mean naive. The term started to be used after the Romantic era, to tease the literary blond and blue-eyed heroes, who were such idealist to the point of being naive. Funny how this term is used in a country where most people have blue eyes, though!

Day 16. The Finnish essence

Have you ever heard of sisu? Sisu is a Finnish word that has no correct translation. It’s a concept that depicts resilience and tenacity against adversity, stoic determination. It’s one of the quintessential values of Finnish people and personally I believe it’s what makes them so resilient, brave, and even innovative in front of any threat. When I moved to Finland, I fell in love with how Finns didn’t appear scared of any societal issue and how they had devised fair and innovative solutions for many issues Italians had scratched their heads for decades. No society or country is perfect, but in Finland I have hope things can change for the better (the opposite of Italy where so many things remain stuck in the past ways, no matter how detrimental). After 10 years living here, I still think Finnish society has a lively potential to evolve, no matter what comes its way. Now I believe sisu is one of the keys to that.

Finland gave a huge show of sisu after WW2. As an ally of Germany, Finland was among the defeated and got one of the worst war debt. Finns worked hard to pay that debt – the only country to ever do so – and they grew to become one of the richest countries in Europe and now enjoy an internally renowned positive reputation.

Day 17. A love for books

Finns are avid readers. On average, every Finnish person buys 4 books a year and borrows 12 from the library. Every year, 20 million books are sold in Finland – 4 times in proportion compared to Italy.

Finnish libraries are a monument to Finns’ love for reading and culture. As a bilingual family, we are blessed by the foreign language collection of the capital area library network. I barely buy books from Italy for my kids. I have described their amazing services in this post, if you are curious.

In 2016, Finland ranked world’s most literate nation in the world by an international study.

Day 18. Personal space

In many countries, personal space doesn’t matter (or exist). However, in Finland giving space to others is an essential social rule. Take public transport: you can see a manifestation of Finns’ personal space already at the bus stop. No matter the weather (snow, rain), people always keep a distance while waiting for the bus, even if it means missing the cover of the bus shelter. On the bus, you may notice how Finns naturally sit away from each other. It’s normal even for a couple of friends not to sit next to each other. Sometime, people choose to stand instead of sitting down to a stranger.

Another way of Finns to give space to others is silence. They believe that if there’s nothing smart to say, it’s best to stay quiet. Silence is not awkward in Finland and in time you grow to appreciate it.

It is not socially acceptable to pop by a friend’s house unannounced, even if you find yourself in the neighbourhood. Casual home visits are not a thing!

Maybe this appreciation for the personal space is one of the reasons behind Finns’ talent for lines. You can snap a finger and Finns will arrange spontaneously into a perfect and orderly line. Useless to say, I have to unlearn this skill every time I visit Italy if I want to survive!
The only exception to these rules is sauna. In sauna it’s acceptable to sit next to a stranger or make small talk. I find it beyond ironic how it’s acceptable to be close to a stranger when you’re both naked but not if you wear clothes.

If you are curious about Finns’ social rules and where they feel awkward (which is usually activities the rest of the world finds neutral or pleasurable), you cannot miss to buy the Finnish Nightmares comic book.

How do you feel about Finland now? Did you learn something new from this post? Let me know in the comments below. And come back in a week for the final post, there are some great facts coming up!

Featured Image by pasja1000 from Pixabay.