- Nature
Everyone knows that Finland is defined by the forest and its lakes. And that the sun never sets in the summer if you are sufficiently far up north and never rises in the winter. But the one thing missing from that narrative are the rock formations any and everywhere. Churches have been built on, around or even inside them. Apartment buildings have been made to look like they are jutting in and out of the granite blocks they were not made from and if you can’t find a bench there is bound to be a good rock you can sit on merely a stone’s throw away.
- Society
Odd chatty friends aside, even the Finns living abroad (can) take being silent to a whole new level. The biggest surprise to the visitor in Finland is perhaps not so much that there are two official languages but that some Swedish teens have been overheard to have whole conversations in Swedish then switching to Finnish when swearing. Which is another factor, only the most extreme conservatively religious will bat an eye when it comes to swearing. Even politicians at very classy gatherings have been known to open the meeting with, “we need to get a grip on this ****** situation.” The word used being that part of the female anatomy Finns like to bandy about when it comes to expressing surprise or disgust or any emotion really. It would come as no surprise to anyone in the congregation if it was uttered in church, from the pulpit by the vicar.
- Architecture
“We value transparency,” has been the battle cry of the Finn, since mutterings could be heard about detaching from Russia around the beginning of the 19th century, but definitely since the mid-1850s. And looking at the media building in Helsinki strategically designed to be open and positioned kitty corner from the Parliament building, nothing could send a stronger / more potent message: look, we have an open building looking out over the place from which this country is governed. Look how it mirrors our ways of communication. The architecture in general is clean, no frills and functional but somehow works because it mirrors the elements so well or because there is some shamanistic communication that takes place when all around you there are trees and lakes and you need to make something out of that before the winter comes.
- Music
Metal, metal and metal with even more metal and – you got it – an added dash of metal. There might be a reason why everyone’s favorite style and color seems to be black on black with some black and a dash of black.
At some point some people decided that Finnish rap had its merits as well and started a whole new craze in a language nobody outside of a landmass between Sweden and Russia and parts of Minnesota is able to understand.
There is (slight) nod of appreciation towards what is known as world music, but only in a few select places, which marks them as special events. Of course when well-established acts come to the capital, it’s always a huge event and skills are not just appreciated but also recognized.
- Human interaction
The less we partake in it the better is the motto of the larger majority, swearing on the lives of their biggest rock idol that this is an incontestable fact. Sitting in silence for hours is one thing. Seeing a smile as an indication of flirtation is a whole other issue to wrap one’s head around.
The general way friendships are formed seems to be drinking together to get to know the other, going for a walk together when one is better acquainted (the women perhaps more than the men), then taking a sauna together so you can really bare your soul to the other.
- Attitudes Toward The Other
Finnish man good, foreign man bad seems to be the battle cry of many. Racial slurs still abound and the idea of an American is still stuck in Civil War times with the slang term derived from Yankee but spelled the way it is on a popular bubble gum packet, because well that’s just what you do in America, you chew gum and eat burgers (as has been alleged by teachers in Finnish schools as well).
People born and bred in Finland, who have helped put the place on the map, will still be referred to as “not quite Finnish” if they have a foreign parent. And that can even mean that parent being born here on the very soil you are presently treading. It is an attitude voiced openly and bandied about with the same ease as the racial slurs mentioned above.
No one gets hurt at a Pride parade, at least not significantly, and LGBTQ+ flags are everywhere, but a small boy can still insult another by yelling out “homo” and no one will admonish him or even bat an eyelash.
- Empathy
If you are stuck anywhere, people will come and help, more so if you are specific in what it is that you need. But ask them to identify with the plight of a person that doesn’t share their nationality or even their skin tone and things take a different turn.
Empathy ceases when the skin tone or nationality changes, and often the issue isn’t that the perpetrator is being deliberately evil but that the fact that someone who isn’t a Finn could be just as good or even better than them simply isn’t a concept they can entertain.
- Health care
Most people in this world try to live by the guideline that if you can’t say anything nice it’s better to say nothing at all. So in that vein, public health care exists, at least on paper.
- Education
Students are encouraged to ask questions and arrive at conclusions using their brains instead of just learning by rote. But in a country with two official languages it is astounding that being bilingual is not an accepted fact. Instead people are meant to declare one and only one mother tongue. Diplomas from abroad are not accepted easily and even Finns have stated that if they are educated abroad, they do not find employment easily upon their return.
- Food
Finland has great berries and many Finns who have traveled abroad try to extend memories made by creating eateries with the flavors they miss most from their regular haunts abroad. There is also quite a lot of appropriation of non-Finnish dishes, one such instance even covered on this very blog. Beware if you don’t like blue cheese or mayo, it’s the go to in pretty much everything that can be put on the table. In the most popular Finnish pizza chain, you have to really search the menu to find a pizza not made with blue cheese. And they are not the exception.
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