Even tough I’m not Finnish, I lived here for most of my life, since childhood. And first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Finland is education.
Education
Finland provide high quality of education, which is also encourage kids to be independent individuals. Teacher viewed as almost a friend and called by a first name, which is often surprising for foreigners. Kids really are important for Finish society and they are surrounded by love and care from the government and people around from the early days.
Shyness
Despite that, Finns often grow up to be shy. Most of the Finnish people would shy away from conversations and “small talk”. It’s probably a rumored national mentality, and even I somehow assimilated it, living in Finland from childhood. My speculation about the reason might be that Finns don’t like empty talks. Talking should be useful: helping with some problem, for example. I always got help and friendly guidance from random people when I needed it.
I should mention one category of people, eager to start a conversation in buses and trains: elderly people :D. Sweet grandmothers just love to have a nice chatter, and I have no idea how it fits into the idea of an overall shy mentality :).
Nature
My most favorite part about Finland is it’s nature. For people who like warm summer days I have a joke: “Finnish summer is great, last time it was on Thursday”.
Of course Finnish summer is a bit longer than that – 3 months a year, and Finland being a land of a thousand lakes and islands offer lots of ways to enjoy hot and sunny days. But if you don’t like heat and love winters white from snow, that’s your country :). Finland in winter remind you of a childhood fairy tales. No wonder they say rumored Santa Claus lives here, in Lapland!
Finland have 4 seasons in total, and every single one of them have amazing coloring of sky and trees. You have especially good view on surrounding lakes, fields and sky since many Finns would prefer solitude houses away from the noisy neighbors, so Finland don’t have that many big cities to loom in the background (hint: it’s hard to live in Finland without a driver license, unless you live in big city).
Finns preserve their trees and animals. Along the roads you’ll see lots of trees and nets: to prevent animals from straying on the roads and to keep them in their natural habitat.
Language
In the end I want to add only one thing about Finnish Language:
We <3 Finland.
“All photos are clickable to the source.”
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