My experiences of Finnishness
Finnish people are often described as shy, hardworking and humble. We don’t tend to boast about ourselves. But when it comes to ice hockey we are extremly proud of our team and when we win we are best friends with all the stangers, which is not typical. It is funny when the covid restrictions came about keeping a distance up to two meters for us Finns it was more of that we should come closer to each other. We really do like our own space.
It is very true that we Finns love simplicity. We are extremely happy if we can just enjoy our own privacy and the nature. We love our own peace and it is not untypical if a Finnish family would spent their whole or a big chunk of their summer holiday at a summer cottage. The cottage can be really primitive and we Finns don’t mind. We are pleased as long as we can just relax and be in the nature. Big part of mökki, the cottage, life is the sauna and swimming whether it’s summer or not.
We Finns are tough and we have this this motivation in life called sisu and it’s best translation is perseverance. We have this saying “through a grey stone” meaning that if you have sisu there is nothing stopping you and even miracles can happen.
As I’ve traveled I’ve of course told everybody about our amazing school system if they did not know it yet. I always tell about our beautiful and rough land. Even though Finns won’t embrace you immidiately when we encounter you for the first time, we are still nice people that you should get to know.
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