There hasn't been anything very notable for me to write about this week. Everything's been very normal and quite calm. Finally! We're having a housewarming party on Saturday, and the anti-social member of the household decided to stay at her mother's house that night. I can't think of many 21 year olds who'd rather hang out with their mother than go to a party, but each to their own.
Lately I've noticed some things that make me laugh about some Finnish people, so I'm writing about that intead.
1.) Accents. Most Finnish people obviously have a Finnish/Scandinavian accent when they speak English. However, I've met a lot of people who also have perfect American accents! I went to the bank on Tuesday, and the very nice man who served me had this accent, and if I had only heard him speak English and didn't know he was from Finland I definitely would have assumed he was from America. One of my flatmates also has a very American accent, another one of them sounds slightly American, and on one occasion in the post office I was also served by a man with a strong American accent. It's strange, and my only guess about why this is is that maybe people pick up bits of English from watching TV. Foreign shows on television have subtitles, not dubbing, so maybe they watch American shows, copy what they hear there, and end up with American accents. A couple of weeks after I came here I spoke to a barman who had a really Irish accent, he asked which country I thought he was from and I said Ireland before Finland! He said it was because he'd lived in France as a child and there were lots of Irish people, so when he first started to speak English he heard lots of Irish accents, and it stuck. It's still a bit of a surprise when someone goes from sounding very Finnish to very American in a split second.
2.) Sweden. What is the deal with Finnish people and Sweden? Several different people, on different occasions, have been telling me how much they hate Sweden, Swedish people, and the Swedish language, and then invite me to go to Stockholm because "it's such a nice place, we'll have a really good time." Then they complain that they go to Sweden and have to speak Swedish. I'm confused, although I would really like to go to Stockholm. I even know a Swedish speaking Finn, who also expressed hatred towards Sweden, in his case because "it's too nice. Everyone in Sweden is so nice and very good-looking, and it makes me sick." Maybe Swedish people are genuinely better than the rest of us, like the Dutch people. I've been to Holland twice, and it's lovely, but you can't help but notice how everyone is taller than you, better looking than you, more intelligent than you, and speaks more languages than you.
3.) Military service. I've been told some stories about the military service that men have to do here, and this is the first time I've heard about it because my ex boyfriend didn't want to do it, so he pretended to be crazy. It sounds so horrible, and a bit harsh considering that Finland doesn't seem to be that into joining wars, certainly not in comparison to my country or America. I have been told there are some Finnish soldiers in Afghanistan, and I hope they get some credit for what they're doing, just as British and American soldiers do. However, I'm very glad Finland can't ever enlist me for their army, because camping in a forest in -30 isn't very appealing. With 5 hours sleep in the whole week. No thanks. I want to go to Rovaniemi, find this forest and rescue those poor men. However, I do like hearing about men being in the army. Makes them seem a bit more manly.
On that subject, I hven't really been reading English news whilst I've been here, but I've heard they're sending people to Libya, and I think it's very sad. I understand something needs to be done but it would be nice if the British government stopped thinking that getting into wars is the answer to everything.
Haha, yeah I don´t really get the thing between Finns and Swedes either, I think it´s just ridicilous, maybe because I´m a swedishspeaking finn. Sweden is our archrival, but there is still some type of "brotherhood" between our countries and we always tease each other. But in the end, if someone messes with sweden they mess with us and vice versa. So I wouldn´t take it too seriously when ppl talk about how much they hate sweden/finland :) I mean, it´s kinda the same thing between USA and Canada...
ReplyDeleteRegarding the compulsory military service I rekon it´s a pretty good thing, i don´t know if the guys LEARN that much, but it teaches them diciplin. My brother is in the army now and sometimes they don´t really do anything, and sometimes they have a lot of stuff going on. He´s got many new friends now over there and they seem to have a good time, according to him.
My husband has a distinctly American accent too, to such an extent that when he visits me in the states, my family wonders why his Finnish accent is so slight! I have always assumed it was the constant exposure to American media, like you said. He loves old Hollywood films and a lot of American rock music, so it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, reading about your Finland experience has been quite helpful to me; I'm moving to Lappeenranta in August! :)
Everyone who's told me about their time in the army said they enjoyed doing it, and at least they have a good experience, but I guess that's not what you're thinking of when you're sitting in a tent in Lapland in the middle of winter.
ReplyDeleteGood luck in Lappeenranta! I don't know anything about that area as it's on the other side of the country but I'm sure it'll be a really good experience. At least in August the weather will be a lot nicer whilst you get adjusted to lower temperatures, I came in winter and it was a bit of a shock
If you look back to the ancient times, you'll find how terrible Swedes have been toward Finns. Not just terrible, but at first behaving kind and then suddenly turning evil. Just read about Forest Finns and how some of they were finally forced to move to America almost as enslaved by Swedes.
ReplyDeleteThen you might enjoy the Swedish Race Knowledge (Svensk Raskunskap)and books like Finska Kranier written by Gustav Retzius. Then you can continue to facts about Finnish War Children whom Swedes wanted to save and yet how cruelly those kids were abused sexually and physically.
If you think you can continue to get to known swedish-finnish relations, read about how Finns were treated after moving to work in Sweden. Finnish Yle has made a series Kansakunnan kuokkavieraat about that.
So... Isnt it amusing how Finns think about Swedes? What would you do if you were a Finn?
Finland/Sweden relationship goes back centuries, starting from when we were under Sweden's influence. We were basically balled around between Russia and Sweden. But nowadays Sweden-Finland is really big and little brothery bickering at each other. We love and don't want anything to bad to happen at each other, but love teasing and stuff.
ReplyDeleteFinnish military exists solely because of the lovely neighbor stalking our eastern boarder. I myself enjoyed military a lot, and constantly keep in touch with the NCO friends I made in there (being one myself, too).
I think that the "funny" Finglish (Finnish-English) accent comes from the fact that in Finnish we pronounce everything just as it is written, which can't be found in many languages.