Finding out about Finland

Viewing 8 posts - 16 through 23 (of 23 total)
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  • #39364

    CP19182
    Participant
    I know very little about Finland. The images that come to mind are: cold, reindeer, saunas, Lapps.

    User Detail :  

    Name : CP19182, Gender : F, Age : 22, City : Montreal, Quebec, State : NA Country : Canada, 
    #16842

    Nelson A.
    Participant
    Finland, to most people here in Venezuela (and I'm sure in Latin America) means Mika Hakkinnen, your flag (thanks to the Formula 1 fans), a lot of snow and a vodka called 'Finlandia' (Finland in Spanish). Most people, though, make the mistake of thinking you are Viking-type Norsemen (along with the people of Sweden, Denmark, etc). I recently heard you are not the same people and that your ethnic mix extends very far back to the slavs, far-wandering Mongols and others (I haven't checked that yet, though).

    User Detail :  

    Name : Nelson A., Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 30, City : Caracas, State : NA Country : Venezuela, Occupation : Lawyer/Business, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    #46539

    Alex29062
    Participant
    While not typical of Americans, my view of Finland is this: Much like Canada, in regard to standard of living, Westernized country, without American BS. Cold winters and hot summers. Fauna mostly trees (I think of evergreens). Probably mixed central-European and Russian culture.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Alex29062, Gender : M, City : Elkins Park, State : PA Country : United States, 
    #15613

    Marko Pajunen
    Participant
    I think Finns are sort of 'on/off' people: funny and great company, or gloomy and depressed; totally drunk, or absolutely sober. The nature of a Finn is a cocktail of Nordic and Russian elements; does thiks then make us so popular nowadays?

    User Detail :  

    Name : Marko Pajunen, Gender : M, City : Helsinki, State : NA Country : Finland, 
    #31037

    Thomas
    Participant
    You are partially right. We have very distinctive seasons. During the winter it is, or can be, rather cold, and in the summers it might be even hot. As Finland is situated on the northern part of the Northern Hemisphere, there are great differences between the southern and the northern parts of the country. The north seems to be what most people outside of Finland know something about. Yes, there they have reindeer and Lapps, but it's also very sparsely inhabited. It's wildlife from Taiga to Tundra. A quarter of the population of Finland (total is 5.5 millon) live in the southern surroundings of our capital Helsinki. It's a mid-size European town as any other. The climate in the south is not as harsh as in Lappland (north). Finns usually speak English quite well. We are a trilingual country, with the majority (94 percent) Finnish-speaking, around 5 percent Swedish-speaking and a very small minority of Lapps that speak same. Finland is a democracy and our president is a woman. Some people out there might have heard or seen something like a Nokia mobile phone. Nokia is a Finnish company. The economy of Finland is rather equally based between information technology exports and forest- and pulp-related products.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Thomas, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 37, City : Helsinki, State : NA Country : Finland, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 
    #14449

    Mikke
    Participant
    Well southern and western coasts of Finland shared viking culture among other scandinavian countries...Most of finns are blue eyed and blond haired, and that mongolians stuff is disinformation, sounds really odd to me, finns are original european folk mixed with indo-europeans, those who wandered to north. Let's put it that way, Icelanders were mostly norwegians when Iceland got inhabited. But nowadays icelanders are genetically more closer to finns than norwegians...so there can't be big difference in us. *i choose my country as sweden but i am finnish (it didn't allow Finland) weeeeird*

    User Detail :  

    Name : Mikke, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 19, City : Hellsinki, State : NA Country : Sweden, Occupation : student, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 
    #14669

    Babette
    Participant
    It's really nice to hear that people connect Finland with good design and music. I've heard amazing stories about foreign people (especially Americans - no offense) who think the most amazing things about our country. Most people have absolutely no clue where Finland is, and I've heard unbelievable comments concerning us, like 'do you have cats/bananas/stars(!!) in Finland?' And of course there is always the myth about polar bears...

    User Detail :  

    Name : Babette, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 22, City : Helsinki, State : NA Country : Finland, Occupation : Office worker, Education level : High School Diploma, 
    #22505

    Paula19818
    Participant
    Hello all you from Finland! I would like to remind you that the question was aimed to people other than Finns concerning their views of Finland. This is not the forum for us to correct any misconceptions they may have.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Paula19818, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Lutheran, Age : 21, City : Helsinki, State : NA Country : Finland, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Lower middle class, 
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