Category Archives: in english

in english

Learning Finnish swearwords

Surgeon general warning: if you get easily offended please skip this post. Move along.

I guess it is true that one of the first things people want to learn when starting a new language is the profanity… which in my case caused a couple of hilarious situations, as I came to Finland being able to utter only "kiitos" (thanks) and "perkele" (a general swearword of very strong intensity).

One of my first encounters with other vocabulary was in the public transport.  I used to live in a rather bad area (for the standards here) of east Helsinki and for a long time I would hear teenagers finishing their sentences with something that sounded like "tu".  Something like "Yadda yadda yadda tu, yadda tu. Tu, tu, tu".  Further down the line I understood that they meant "vittu" (cunt, but used as the local alternative to fuck).

Then came the summer, and a game called mölkky.  The problem was that I had some difficulty with Finnish frontal vowels (ä, ö, y), which led to me referring to it as mulkku (prick).  Hilarity ensued.

in english

The kind of foreigners I know in Finland

1 Comment

Well, I'm still not very happy about the police doing spot checks on people who look or sound foreign, since it assumes that we are all in some way or other breaking the law just because we don't look like the mainstream and happen to live here.  Of course, the most ironic thing of it all is that this activity is financed with my taxes.

Since in the news you only hear about those foreigners who are breaking the law, I wanted to show plenty of examples of those of us who aren't and are not exactly of Caucasian origin.

  • A, Turkish, male, works as a consultant, has two masters degrees.  Is married to a Finn.
  • B, Mexican, female, works as a designer, also has a masters degree.
  • C, Indian, male, works as a computer engineer.  Married to an Indian.
  • D, Malay, female, works in marketing.
  • E, Thai, female, is an IT specialist.
  • F, Venezuelan, male, is finishing his studies doing his thesis in an IT company.  Is married to a Finn.
  • G, Mexican, female, works in finance.  Is married to a Spaniard.
  • H, Japanese, female, works in finance.
  • I, Pakistani, male, also an IT specialist.  Is married to a Pakistani.
  • J, Turkish, male, owns and runs his barbershop.  Married to a Finn.  Has Finnish citizenship.
  • K, Nigerian, male, is an IT specialist.
  • L, Chinese, female, works as a strategist.
  • M, British of South Asian origin, male, works in business development.
  • N, American of Central American origin, male, works as a consultant.
  • O, German with African roots, male, works in a media-facing role.

I have plenty more, but I guess you get my drift.

I feel like I should be wearing a T-shirt reading "Olen ulkomaalainen.  Mitä sitten?" (I'm a foreigner.  So what?).  Who's with me?

in english

WTF?!?!

Finnish police is now spot-checking foreigners to find those without residence permit (myös suomeksi). Is racial profiling making its way here?  This, and the fact that I have to renew my residence permit again (after 7 years altogether living in Finland) and have to tell the authorities how I met my wife for the third or fourth time shows how welcome foreigners are over here, even when we contribute to society and pay our taxes just like everybody else.

I'm sorry if I sound rude, but I find this just insane.

in english

The importance of the Spanish language in the United States

2 Comments
Se habla español
Se habla español
I had heard about the "Latin wave", but I hadn't experienced it until my last trip.  All over the city I heard people speaking Spanish, and at many places was indeed served even better when I spoke Spanish.
However, on the other hand, when watching TV at my hotel, of 40 channels none of them was in Spanish.  They didn't even have Telemundo or Univisión.  Nevermind international channels, in Spanish or otherwise.