10 CULTURE SHOCKS | FINLAND PART 2 | SURPRISE GUEST
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10 Culture Shocks of Finland PART 2! I have a surprise guest for you in this video. I am a Texan girl who lived in Finland for 4 years. In this video I share 10 things that were either a shock to me or was challenging to adjust to.
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About the emotional distance: I think some of that might also stem from the security nets we have here.
Once you move on your own, you can get benefits for housing, paying the bills, and food. Almost every university student is living on their own and paying for everything by themselves. A lot of people work a few months in the summer, and don't have to take any loans to graduate - I was one of these. Saved up 2k during the summer, stretched that out for the winter months, graduated after 7 years (got some personal issues that through a wrench in the works) with zero debt and an engineering degree.
Finland also has a pretty expansive pension plan for everyone. A part of your taxes go to your national pension that you'll start receiving once you retire. On top of that you can take out a separate pension plan. So the elderly aren't dependent on their kids to survive.
New parents (both of them) get months(yes, MONTHS) of paid vacation to take care of the baby. That's by law. Then there's the maternity kits and usually very little focus on getting branded crap for babies, so the clothing is relatively cheap too.
As a result, we don't necessarily at any point in our lives need the support, assuming nothing goes terribly wrong. So once people come of age, they move out and generally start living on their own.
There are differences in how closely knit some families are. I know from anecdotes that ours is relatively sparse in our communications. Last time I saw my parents was about two months ago, and prior to that, Christmas. My sister I've seen twice in the past year. When my sister was in uni, people compared their contact-frequencies with their parents. Some were calling once a week, some daily. But most of the women were shocked when my sister said the last time was three months ago. When asked why has it been that long: "We didn't have anything important to talk about".
Daealis Awesome comment! You explained this so well. It really makes sense. Thank you!
how do guys and girls 'get together' without much small talk? dating? sex life?
@@Affordablebath_remodel Alcohol. Lots of alcohol.
Pensions aren't taken from taxes but mandatory fees that you pay in addition.
@@WildwoodVagabond hey lady
Whaaaat? Children riding a public bus is a culture shock? Man, I feel sorry for American children. In Slovakia, most of the children use the public bus to get to school.
Phoboska511 Yeah, we have school buses here that pick up and drop off children at school. But never ever would you want your child to go alone on a city public bus!
@@WildwoodVagabond Jeeez, can't imagine not taking the public bus to school. I was riding the bus alone since 7. It's so common thing here. I think I just faced a first culture shock regarding public transportation in US.
Phoboska511 haha
@@WildwoodVagabond Yeah this is one the weirdest things in the US. Kids are not free nor independent, they are totally helicoptered by their parents whereas in Europe kids get quite independent when they go to first grade. I.e. their parents might wake up before them and leave to work, and the 7-year-old has an alarm clock on, wakes up, does breakfast and then takes public transportation to school. And the same happens in the afternoon, the kid gets home alone, takes a snack, might go out with the friends or stay at home alone as parents will probably come from work a few hours later.
It is also much much safer in European countries :) don't know how I would feel sending kids to school if I lived in the US, of course depending on the state/area. In Finland at least, there rarely is any shootings or such.
As a Finn, I don’t mind beeing naked around people I don’t know, as long as I don’t have to talk with them.
jessejones1102 haha 😄
So true! That said though, I’ve occasionally had some interesting conversations in public swimming hall saunas, like when some old guys would talk about the history of the city and what it used to look like before the building booms. The culture of how much you talk to strangers varies around the country, too. People talk more in the eastern and northern parts of the country.
"as long as I don't have to talk with them" is such a finnish thing.
Yeah. Nakedness just kinda... happens. Nobody I know is really bothered by being naked or seeing naked people (I mean if it's in public you'll still question what that person's doing, but in a sauna, or in a lake by a summer cottage, etc...).
being naked in the park fountain is the peak summer moment.
Fun fact, finland has the smallest police force per capita in europe but also the most effective police force per capita
Well, it's not fun since the force is underfunded and the country is huge.
@@sket179 Yeah, definitely not fun. People know there are too few police officers, politicians know there are too few, the police themselves most certainly know it. Only criminals think the amount is just right. In practice you can spend hours driving around a city and not see any officers or only see one patrol briefly. That doesn't discourage crime. Not to mention great many minor offences aren't investigated at all but only fill statistics.
Finland might be safer than many other countries, but everything is relative and especially subjective to the people living in the country permanently or for a longer time.
Well , Finnish have defense forces
Fun fact... it is modelled after Okhrana. They will crack your skull if you mess with them.
They do have very brutal police force I've seen them kicking War veterans in the head
Well, not having a car is a thing in southern Finland and bigger cities. But in the northern Finland and countryside basically everyone has a car, cause the distances are long and theres not really that much public transportation.
In Helsinki or in other "big cities" where could we park... there's not so much space here and in Helsinki every parking places are almost always full.
Yeah, Helsinki an the rest of Finland are sometimes like two different worlds
In northern Finland and countriside there's basically not that much people any more, so... it's a diminishing minority.
@@McSlobo Ok xD
I live in Savonlinna and here everyone has cars.
Sauna is the most equalitifying (is that even word) thing in the world. Kings and queens, poor and rich are the same in sauna. No social hierachies exist in sauna.
No Fame xD im from finland
"SAUNA" is probably the only word borrowed from Finnish language to all languages. One country, and ONLY ONE COUNTRY, calls it "bastu".
@@kareem8533 sweden is selling "real" saunas all over the world, they dont know how to use one even in sweden. Finland have done saunas only last 10000 years
Leka 72, It's true not everyone in Sweden knows how to use a sauna, but, there's a pretty strong sauna culture in Sweden too. Hint: they have their own name for it. ;) I'd know, I'm a Swedish Finn. What many Swedes sadly have forgotten is that we used to be one country. And Kareem, "hammam" is pretty close to sauna I'd say.
@@leka7236 I know, a Tylö "sauna" is nothing else but a toaster put in a refridgerator.
I legit thought you were 21. I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING.
I agree, my shock here was that she has a daughter that is over five years old.
Agreed!
Haha... well this makes my day 💁🏼♀️☺️ thank you everyone
Me too, im stunned by your looks.
U cant be even thirty.
Same! When you said she's your daughter I was sure you were kidding because no way you could have a grown up daughter! Thought you were 25 max 30 ☀️
Here's a funny fact about Sauna. Finnish troops that took part in peace keeping in the various countries in the middle east build sauna tent's almost immediately after getting there. The hot sauna made the middle eastern weather feel more bearable, because it felt almost cold compared to the temperatures in sauna.
Quite common. My parents' single family home was built the traditional way, not from elements that come from some factory, but each brick was laid and plank nailed there and then. My dad built the sauna first too, we lived there while building the main building.
I imagine they might also wash there. If there's enough water left after throwing löyly :)
Indeed, if a group of finns migrate to anywhere outside finland, the first paper on a planning table is the floor plan of a sauna.
My brother was in the The Finnish Rapid Deployment Force in Eritrea and the first thing they did was build a sauna
The sauna is one part of Finnish culture I’ll never partake of. I remember being young and going into one and thinking: so it’s a torture chamber basically. I also don’t get into hot tubs/jacuzzis - same reason: torture. When I visit up north in the winter the only complaint I have is that they keep it too hot inside the houses.
I don't know where you've been eating during your stay but I can confirm that Finnish people surely don't eat just fish all the time :D They tend to have fish on the menu every week at a public school, that is true, but wouldn't say it's a very common everyday dish for most people otherwise.
Thats right!
Yeah fish is so expensive too. So it is chicken, pork or cow that we eat~
Akabanesun well,,, it should be for everyone
Its Turku. They are messed up there ;P
Yeah
So... You have the money to go out and eat, but you shouldn't do that because you only have the money to buy the food itself?
Tipping in America is such a stupid system. Working without surviving on your wage is pretty much slavery in my mind.
Lornext ..... in your mind? Maybe expand your mind a bit...learn something about another culture
@@drainmonkeys385 Oh, I learned alot alright, I learned that the system is crap and that Americans are even more stupid than I previously realised, since they are obviously defending this horrible "tradition".
Lornext .... ahhhh. I’m betting you are one of those commie socialist idiots that needs government to take care of you, because you can’t take care of yourself... right.
@@drainmonkeys385 or he maybe just want to know what to pay in advance, without fear of ripping of staff as is bussines in croceries
@@drainmonkeys385 How about paying your waiters an actual wage instead of solely basing it off tipping LOL? God forbid I wanna look at the menu, eat something, pay for it and walk out.
You eat what you order, if you don't like it: it is your fault you ordered something you don't like. If there is something wrong with it, that is different thing but you can't return food just because you don't like it. You order another meal and pay for that and behave like an adult. That is the local way, it starts from home, carries to school and is there all your life. It makes you think what you really want before we use resources of actually making it. It is the difference between imaginary and real, before it is made it is imaginary and changing your mind then wastes nothing. After it is made, we can't turn back the clock.
That being said, it is very common to get at least a discount meal in a restaurant if you try something exotic and didn't like it. Don't expect it as a certainty but a good customer service will do it here too. If you have worked in restaurant business, it pretty much guarantees you get a returning customer.
It is not fair to expect a discount if you didn't like the food you ordered but there was actually nothing wrong with it. Sadly nowadays in Finland people have started to complain more without a reason and expecting compensation for anything. Often feels like they are just trying to get discounts or free meals.
Even if you get Terrible food you still pay for it. Shit food? Never come back. thats the Finnish restaurant culture
@@PerformanceY indeed, people tend to vote with their feet here.
And here is a lot picky eaters too, like me example. But just didn´t order anything I don´t eat :) I tend to pick one meal on menu with each restaurant and always order same dish ;)
Well...i will not comment on food culturein the US. In Finland Kids are taught to appreciate what they are given. If you go to a restaurant unless you pork is undercooked or they made a mistake in the preparation of the meals then you are responsible for your own choices. We will NOT throw away food because of picky eaters.
About public transportation. Thank god for that. I was in the US and there was a lane for car pooling...and car pooling was for cars that had 2 people or more in it...yes 2 people is considered car pooling. Finns are VERY environmental aware.
main reason for me for not having a dryer is that they consume a lot of electricity. It´s really not a problem for me, my family or any of my friends for not having a dryer, you just have to plan ahead ;)
Using a dryer all the time isn't good for textiles anyway, they get used faster
I actually do have a dryer. Its one of the modern heat-pump ones, making it very energy efficient. Sometimes I even use it! :)
We have dryer but we rarely use it. It's for the days when you wake up for school and realize that your fav shirt is wet in washing machine😣 Usually we just put the clothes there, leave the door open and wait
Also the washing machines in Europe take a longer time because there are regulations that demand them to use less water so that is the reason, they just have longer programs as a result. But what would you not do for the environment, right? :)
i’m from Finland and everybody who i know have a dryer
Wow. The previous video was the first of yours I ever saw, so I really knew nothing of your history. I thought you were, like, freshly back from going to college in Finland or something. When you said your daughter was coming on, I expected a 4-year-old, tops, not a college student! You've got some good genes and/or beauty regimen there, girl! I'm envious! 😂
Same here! The first thought was that "how the *ll can she have a college aged daughter".
Felice LoL!! Thanks haha ... good genes I guess? And I try to live holistically. Thanks for watching!! ☺️❤️
Cage80 LoL!! People think we’re sisters all the time. 😁 Thanks for watching!
I was amazed too. 😄 You look so young.
Yep, you do look super young. I could have swore you were in your early-to-mid twenties, like 25 or so. 😊👍
It’s pretty common to dry your laundry outdoors, too. They dry really quickly on a sunny and windy day like today, and smell nice and fresh afterwards.
About tipping, in finland you pay everything in that total sum in restaurant. Everyone working for restaurant have salary. For me seem sad that people doing this important job are for charity of customers
And rest of Europe you do have to tip. As Finn it´s sometimes hard to remember, cause here you basically just tip what you feel like when getting super good service.
no you don't , don't talk shit you don't know about.
@@Aurinkohelmi wrong. You dont have to tip in a lot of european countries. There are a few countries like spain where tipping is a thing.
@@justacasualguy13 Tipping is a thing in Spain, but it's a completely voluntary thing and the tips are usually very small.
@@BelaPuma Yes, you do. In most Eastern European countries, tipping is still a common expectation. Although, tippig culture has changed there as well in the past 10 years (it is more voluntary nowadays), but f you want to be on the safe side, you should leave 10% of the meal price as a tip.
And number 7 is wrong, true is that when don't show our emotions, but if someone would mess with your family, silent kill and a shallow grave... That's the Finnish way...
Terottelen jo kirvestä..
Exactly, we trust and love our families but we don't say it. We just know it.
swamp grave is more traditional.
Yeah
@@turbojuudas sorry, no swap here. I use stones and lakes
I come from Finland and I think that everybody thinks, that Finland has snow all the time. BUT WE DON'T
@AAMN13 Ei ole totta. Jokasessa maassa missä sataa lunta niin on suunnilleen 1/3 vuodesta lunta.
@AAMN13 Mä sanoin jokaisessa maassa (MISSÄ) sataalunta niin lumenpeitteen kesto on suunnilleen sama. Etelä-Jenkeissä on osavaltioita missä sataalunta lunta harvoin ja joskus vielä harvemmin.
Ja Etelä-Afrikassa sataa lunta vain vuorilla. Pohjois ja Keski-Afrikassa ei sada ollenkaan yleensä lunta ja se johtuu siitä että ne on lähempänä päiväntasaajaa minne paistaa aurinko kaikista kookkaimmin ja on ainalämmintä.
Toisinkuin Etelä-Afrikka on viileämpi paikka.
in Canada we have 6 months of snow, oof
@Aamn only in lapland, southern finland only gets snow for month or two if were Lucky
I’m living in Japan and all the things that you said(in both videos) besides the laundry facts, it’s really same here.
I think I could move to Finland❤️
(The cold weather depends where you living, but in the north of Japan, specifically in Hokkaido, there’s some places that goes -20cº! And the sauna, which here is hot baths, is normal to go in the winter and summer too!)
Nikita Nika
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing. So interesting! I’d LOVE to visit Japan! Thanks for watching!!❤️ Greetings from Texas!
Wildwood Vagabond Let’s have a coffee if you come! How can I send my contacts to you? I’m living in Tokyo btw!
@@nikitanika1000: There are differences as well. Here's a perspective from a Japanese guy with a Finnish girlfriend.
th-cam.com/video/YtiVmh7UKOw/w-d-xo.html
Nikita Nika Yes! Please do! You can either email it to me or send through Instagram. My email is in my “about” section of my channel. Thanks for the link btw!
Just don't use the white facecover like 99% of asian tourists do, locals think you are crazy. (Also if you smile too much = you are Simple, Drunk or Crazy)
I think one part of the (understandably) perceived "emotional distance" in families is that familial affection and love is more or less understood in finnish culture instead of outright expressed. I think generally it is assumed that family members care deeply for one another and expressing it, while occasionally warranted, can feel awkward or "too much" since it's something completely obvious to each party that comes across from simply talking normally to one another or spending time with each other; it doesn't need to be said as everyone already knows it.
Thanks for pointing out interesting things about Finland (yes, I'm a Finn), as you probably also heard we Finns are very interested in what people think about us. :) I like the positivity!
Heidi L. You’re welcome! Thank you for watching. Greetings from Texas!
In Finland tipping means you got very good service.
What, you don't eat parsley if it is as a garnish on your plate? It is super good and super healthy! A herb spice like any other herbs!
In a spa or swim hall you have to wash yourself before going in the sauna-pool area to keep things sanitary. You do not wear your swim suit in the sauna. Swimming in the chlorine water you will have chlorine on your swim suit. In the heat of the sauna it will vaporate in the air and is poisonous to breathe.
You've got it the wrong way around. If there was that much chlorine in the water to have an effect like that, it would dissolve your skin just by swimming in it. The reason you don't use swimwear in swimming hall saunas is that your body disposes of waste particles (along with any dirt you actually have on your skin when you go in) along with sweat, which then gets absorbed in your swimwear and makes the pool dirtier when you go to swim. If enough people would do that, the costs would jump up because more chlorine and labor would be needed to keep the pool water clean enough for it to stay healthy
@@houndofculann1793 That's propably one reason, but even small amounts of chlorine will produce toxic gas when it gets hotter than 60 degrees celsius
@@s3b4st14n2222 did you miss the part of your skin dissolving if the water had enough chlorine to be a danger when evaporated?
@@houndofculann1793 "Sodium hypochlorite solutions, such as liquid bleach, may release toxic chlorine gas when heated above 35 °C" It doesn't matter how much sodium hypochlorite there is in the water, I might be wrong but that's how I always understood it. I got some education on drinking water and disinfection in the finnish defence forces, the veterinarian who taught us always said that don't mix sodium hypochloride with hot water since it may release chlorine gas. Even if there was 5 times the amount of chlorine in the pool water, the effects on skin would be pretty much the same when affected in short periods, however if the water containing chlorine is heated, chlorine gas can be released, which is very toxic.
@@s3b4st14n2222 I am aware, I have had the same education as you. "When affected in short periods" does not apply to pool water since it needs to be safe to be in bare-skin contact with for hours. However, I'm no chemist so I can't definitively say that chlorine gas even in the tiny amounts that would be released from pool water would have _no danger at all_, the problem is more that the people I originally commented to said that as if it was the only/main reason. The main reason still is to avoid having to add even more chemicals in the pool water to keep it clean, as people most often go to sauna in their swimwear before they are going to the pool area, at least in my experience. And my experience is having played waterpolo for seven years, so that's three hours in the swimming hall four times a week.
I live in Estonia and it's quite similar to Finland (neighbor, one of the only similar languages as well). Love our dark rye breads and cooking meals is probably a lot more popular, I myself eat out maybe for lunch during work or when it's a longer day on town. We do greet clerks, aren't phased by questions and random small-talk, like pointing something out, and people you've met in school, work etc in public. But usually there's no small-talk without substance (sisuta) - don't see much of a point in asking shallow questions if one doesn't expect a meaningful answer (doesn't seem mentally healthy either for the other person to answer positively on instinct/reactively/without thought).
I saw such a washer in my rental apartment, usually it's the similar side-loader. It's convenient/better somehow to hang-try in my opinion, but there are washers with drying functionality, or just use the spin cycle again if there's a need to get something wearable faster (e.g. someone spilled something).
We have an ID code and card for every citizen - you can't really do anything with just that, so it's no secret. And the card is actually ment for the task and more (voting, banking, everything really, prefer Mobile-ID, which has a special cryptic SIM). USA doesn't have that, everything just adapted to the Social Security number (just because it's unique), the card lacks in security and identifying features - essentially a hack.
If someone managed to do something bad, it's his/her problem - they get punished, if it's too easy to commit a crime, the process get's a security step.
Family warmth is probably different by household - usually people are involved. Just a lot of people are more independent and comfortable or even prefer doing things in their own pace, time or way. Probably just didn't put any emphasis on pointing out family relations, so what if he/she is my sibling :), close enough to introduce my first name basis.
Remembered a comment a friend overhead in France regarding our drivers, something like: during winter when you're following a car with Finnish or Estonian numberplates, do keep a distance and be bit more focused, because in all likelihood they're better with reacting to sudden slippery parts on the road and generally drive more comfortably - might misjudge a patch of road or rear-end them when coming to a stop.
Public transport is quite nice - on longer trips get to do other stuff besides looking at the road, on shorter no need to park, also it's often just card-based like NFC. And kids do get to go to school independently or with friends without worry.
Sauna or everywhere really, nobody will care about or focus on your appearance if you don't point it out or draw attention to it or really look different from usual (shaved beard, special event prepped, colored your hair etc).
Thanks for the video, always interesting and funny to see other peoples' point of view!
I sympathize with anyone who cared to read this, just felt like writing :)
Tšau (our written version of "ciao", used a lot, pronounced the same)
Also: th-cam.com/video/8fH8nIAseMI/w-d-xo.html
If i say in finnish: sit on my dick, in Estonia it means: sit next to me. Finnish nickname: Pete (Petri, Peter etc) means homosexual in Estonia? Etc... and Estonians use our national song.
"Ihan hyvää" is the most Finnish answer to how anything is going.
Ville Lavikka LoL ... so true! Thanks for watching! Greetings from Texas ✌🏼❤️
@@WildwoodVagabond But the right form in that answer that your daughter should have said in Finnish would have gone like this "Ihan hyvin..." But the tone of her voice was correct ! :) Ihan hyvää = Quite good. (meaning something is good or as to a question Mitä kuuluu?/How are you? (We Finns say that word by word:What hears/ ?) But : "Ihan hyvin... " means : Just well. .
I´m sorry to be so exact but I like the language so much that I like to be correcting and maybe also giving you the nuances of the language and so giving the scenery of our mind also with it.
Because when you learn a foreign language you might learn a different kind of world that opens from/of the culture best when realizing the language more exactly from its forms of speaking the common things.
For example, In English and Finnish we have the same word for a tea spoon / teelusikka. But other for table spoon / ruokalusikka
So that might just give one picture how our mind works on one tool that we use.
I´m not sure if in English word giver for that tool thought that it was usefull to use in the table and in Finnish that person thought it was usefull just practically to use ON FOOD having a table or not... doesn´t matter , enough to get the food inside the tummy... =)
Or then different types of languages where people translated the word in to their own.
But the picture in mind might be a bit different
and that greats a bit different kind of world to us in each country.
I just can´t think of a better example for a moment but sure there are A LOT BETTER ones and other people can add them here, too! :)
hypnotic1979 nice! Thank you for sharing ☺️❤️
Ihan hyvää is too positive for me, I use "ihan ok".
"Iha jees"
Thats why we wash a load of clothes at the same time because it takes a lot of time to dry them so might aswell so alot of laundry the same day. For example saturday could be laundry and cleaning day the whole day🤗
Some comments here from a native Finn living in Helsinki. I'm 40 and I've seen a lot of Finland in my life.
1. Agreed. Tipping is not a thing here.
2. Agreed. It's very much a cultural thing to be modest. When I was a kid, every parent would tell us to sit down and shut up if we made any noise, and it was seen as very impolite to brag about anything. This is because the general sentiment is that you shouldn't have an easy life, so the other side of it is that it's good for you to overcome hardships. This is why many people still think that school lunches should taste extremely bad, so you'll learn to appreciate food as a necessity instead of something to enjoy. This also means that everyone roots for the little guy and is very honest about it. This is why we prefer Donald Duck over Mickey Mouse.
3. Agreed. Finland is generally safe and has never been safer. Many people are worried about immigrants who come from a different culture and are more likely to commit sexual offenses, which is statistically true, but on the other hand violence in general was much more common even in the 90s. Not many years ago we used to have this tradition of "kylätappelu" which means "village fight", where grown men from neighboring villages would meet on an improvised battlefield and beat each other up. This doesn't really happen any more.
4. Agreed partially. City apartments often don't have the space for dryers, and some of them don't even have the space for washing machines, but on the other hand half the population live in houses that do have dryers. Apartments in Finnish cities are small even by European standards because we have been very poor in the past, and constructing apartments nowadays is very expensive because of very high taxation, material costs and labor costs, and the most expensive square meters in apartments are the kitchen and the bathroom. This means that apartments are ridiculously expensive to buy, but even today buying an apartment is more common than renting one. For a very long time not owning your home has been seen as a sign of failure in life. This is changing slowly.
5. Agreed partially. Dining etiquette in Finland may be stricter than it is in the US, but we don't get slapped for keeping our elbows on the table like they do in many parts of the world. Among friends you can eat any way you like and nobody cares.
6. Disagreed. Social security numbers don't get tossed around and neither do bank account numbers. Personality theft is a real thing here and you can seriously ruin somebody's life if you have all of their personal information. It's a relatively common crime here to get monetary loans in somebody else's name redirected to your own bank account. I would say you have been misled.
7. Agreed. It is the responsibility of every grown-up Finn to take care of himself alone, especially men. This is because in general families are not very important and the government instead of family has the primary responsibility of taking care of Finnish citizens. It's very uncommon for anyone above the age of 21 to still live with their parents in Finland while it is very common in Southern Europe and places of that sentiment. On the other hand friendships in Finland are much more open than in many other countries, and generally speaking you either are able to share every intimate detail about your life with your friends or you don't call them friends and don't have anything to do with them. Usually we don't have friends in different categories with different levels of openness. Instead we either have genuine friends that you can trust with your life or we don't call them friends.
8. Agreed. It gets cold here.
9. Agreed partially. What I don't understand is all this talk about fish, since we don't eat fish that much. We should eat a lot more. I suppose your daughter has been exposed to our school cafeterias, which follow the official food guidelines and serve fish twice a week. What I agree with is that our restaurant culture is still pretty undeveloped, even though it has dramatically improved in the last 10-20 years, but only in the big cities and specifically areas with enough population to keep the restaurants alive, meaning mostly downtown Helsinki or Tampere. Sadly not many people can afford apartments in downtown Helsinki.
10. Agreed partially. Nearly everyone outside of Helsinki, Tampere or Turku has a car, but Helsinki has a really extensive public transport system that makes it possible to not own a car. Still many people get a car even in Helsinki especially if they have children, since you are not guaranteed to have a kindergarten slot for your children in your neighborhood, and buying groceries for your family can be a pain without a car. Also many people own a recreational cabin in the woods somewhere, and those are completely unreachable without a car.
yorkaturr hi! Thank you for your comment and feedback! About #6:
I didn’t give it out to strangers. In Finland I think the social # is used as a light form of identification and here it is rarely used and only in very official situations. Also, about the bank acct info... at that time I moved to Finland, in Texas at least, transferring money from bank to bank wasn’t really a thing. We didn’t even have online banking at the time. So giving your account info out to anyone was unheard of. At least for me. I just didn’t explain myself well enough in the video. Sorry for any misunderstanding. Thanks for watching!!
The thing about relying on the govt instead of the family is a leftist thing. Old or wealthy families have similar values to other European countries.
I think the thing with the bank account thing is cuz in Finland we use direct moneytranfers to pay a lot as opposed to how u in america u use creditcards alot
yorkaturr - it’s such a shame Finns aren’t family orientated. I’d be disheartened if I left my family home aged 21.
@@abcxyz-cx4mr In the early 19th and 20th centuries in Finland poor families would give up their children for a process called "child auction". Government authorities would sell the children at a public auction to the person who demanded the least compensation for taking them in. Usually they were treated as child labor in slavery conditions until they came of age and were kicked out the door.
Such an adorable daughter, and mama! My daughter is a few years older but she is as adorable! I enjoy this journey and you pointing out that it is your experience gives space to everyone have one their own. Well done! Greetings from Helsinki!
Tea Irene Oesch Thank you for your sweet comment! Hello in Helsinki! Greetings from Texas ❤️✌🏼
Moi, that was really big Suprise; you have a daughter 😀 I thought you are about 25 years old 😯 and so cute daughter ! I enjoy your channel, thanks !
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy it!
I thought exactly the same! About 25. I was so surprised that she seemingly is old enough to having a daughter of that age! And... my... god... her daughter is so beautiful! I mean they both are, but the daughter is definitely one of the most beautiful human beings I've ever seen!
maria kokolin Ah, thank you so much for your sweet comment! ❤️
So did i😁 you look younger. Nice to hear your toughts of Finland. Funny how you say Jukka or it did sound like my name 😀
Jukka Tyni she meant to say Jukka 😄 thank you btw
Sounds like you enjoyed your time here in Finland anyway :)
I have visited 34 state of the United States, but when I was my first time in Texas I had a small culture shock.
We drove from New Mexico to Texas and when we stopped at the first gas station in the Texas, the first person we met had a gun on his belt. This was a bit strange for the Finn.
Stefan Sirkiä I bet that was strange! To be honest, even though I’m used to seeing that it feels awkward to me. I don’t like it. It makes me feel uncomfortable when some older man is wearing a gun on his belt.
Thanks for watching!
@@WildwoodVagabond You'll pray that old man is around when a black tries to mug you :)
@@earlturner6023 well thats racist.
@@WildwoodVagabond I guess open carry is quite common in Texas.. The cowboys feel naked if going out gunless
Jhonny Baloba yes it is common. It feels weird to me though when I see men carrying guns on their hips like in the Wild West. It’s mainly middle aged or retired white men who I see carrying a gun on their hips. Looks silly to me. Like whyyyy??? 😄
6:54 that is what we call ”hyvinvointiyhteiskunta”: a welfare state where even the most poorest and unemployed people get enough money for living. Our crime rate is so low because people always have some money so they are not forced to do crimes because their life is already pretty descent.
And a lot of us would disagree on that one. People can be poor in other ways as well, f.ex. in family relations, lack of community... And only a few of the standard middle class Finns are in contact with the homeless or the poorest of the poor.
@@Athaya88 Please, please, the only poor people I wanna hear about are the ones who tend to my pores at the spa..
@@earlturner6023 Ugh, cringy internet kid. Russia is even whiter than Finland, their crime rates are great, right?
@@rf8754 i don't know what he said cause the comment isn't here anymore. but russia is a faschism right? ^^
Im from Finland and just couple of days ago I was thinking how funny it is that I only talk to my neighbours in sauna and I dont even recognise them clothes on with make up and done hair if I see them in the hallway or yard, 'cause I have only get to know them naked in the lenkkisauna 😁 sometimes we can be so weird🤣
Wendy Vanilla hahaha!!! 😄😄😄😂
Oh damn this is so true, I haven't even thought of this before 🤣
And its funny its called "lenkki" sauna. Does anybody actually go for a jog?
@@just_jouni maybe a lil jog to the store to buy sauna beers before they stop selling alcohol at 9 😁
I wouldnt even consider that. I'm the kinda guy who has to go alone to sauna.
I love the video, but I strongly disagree with point 7:D Inside the family things are super warm. In general families are pretty close. We are pretty held back about showing that, so that's why you got that feeling :)
H&D AV It definitely also varies between families and maybe I should have mentioned that in my video. For example I know one family there who are so very close. Even closer than any family I’ve known anywhere. So you’re right! Thanks for sharing and for watching ❤️
I'm sure there is differences in the behavior of families in different cultures. Show of both anger and affection are probably less extreme in Finnish culture than in Mediterranean cultures for example. Shall we say that northern peoples (not only Finns) come with a cooler temperament than warm region people? And kids are raised in Finland by telling them it is rude to bother other people, ask details about their affairs. But those good behavior rules are much lesser with friends and family than with strangers. Bothering your family and friends is pretty much OK.
Well for my family it is very true but I hope to change that for the better in the future
I am finn and whe are very very close.
I've noticed that we Finns don't use the dryer often. We have a dryer at home and we nearly never use it, we always hang our laundry to dry.
Sonja H It is definitely more efficient to hang dry clothes. And the clothes last longer I feel like.
On the issue of emotional distance, I think that's due to US Finns trying to respect each others' personal space. Unless one wants to open up about things or disclose information, we generally don't want to pry into other people's business. There's also a high level of respect placed on personal independance and sufficiency (e.x. my parents would go abroad for a week or two and they expected me to care for the house starting around 14 years old and no thought it was weird). It can be problematic at times when someone really needs support, though on the whole I'd rather have my space than having my family and friends feel obligated to cjeck up on me every few days/weeks.
TheUmbravulpes thanks for sharing! Greetings from Texas ✌🏼❤️
And also the fact that there were brutal wars only two generations ago (for more information study the subject of Winter War in Finland) and the men who were lucky enough to return home from the lines of war were absolutely traumatized and had hard time getting back to normal life again. And those people were literally our grandfathers and grandmothers. There has never been a culture of talking and sharing our emotions here in Finland (life has always been more or less nothing but hard work from cradle to grave) but after the wars I think it got drastically worse. Domestic violence happened a lot because of those poor men drank in hopes of drowning their traumas, anxiety and nightmares. Women just had to deal with it and try and raise the children at the same time. And together rebuild this country from ashes at the same time. There were no time for emotional issues - mentality was that if you could breathe and work, shut up and do so. So try and keep in mind that the people of Finland today still carry the heavy load of the wars with them in many ways. One of the way is the fact that we don't have a lot of experience of all this touchy-feely culture of today's global and ever expanding world but it's improving slowly by every generation. Many people simply never had the example of how to share feelings at home and those people have had to learn it by themselves in their adulthood. Combine all this with the fact that in Finnish culture keeping distance equals showing respect to others and you might have some sense of why we are the way we are.
30secondish Thank you for sharing! You are so right.
@@30secondish Imo the odd thing is that our country didn't even suffer that much from the WW2 if compared to countries like Poland, Germany or Russia. But the veterans weren't really treated for their traumas after the war and in the post-war reconstruction era there was, and still in some extent is, a big "strongman" ethos in Finnish culture. People were supposed to push through every hardship with pure willpower and never complain. Finnish "sisu" is a great thing to have to a certain extent, but one can also have too much of it.
@@andeluvianspeeddemon4528 Well who are we to compare and rank people's suffering anyway. It was horrible everywhere no doubt. In my opinion not laughable at all. And thinking about the history of Finland and how things were just couple of decades before wars it was a whole different thing in Germany or Russia than in Finland. One can't simply compare early 1900's Finland and Germany. The speed and state of development of last century was incomprehensible here in Finland. It was basically from developing country to one of the most developed in Europe (while simultaneously paying the debts to Soviet Union from the pockets of Finnish people, again remember the comparison of population between these countries). We came from a very different place than some of the bigger countries to begin with. That's one point of view to keep in mind when thinking about reconstruction of Finland after the wars. It's a good thing that we had plenty of sisu when it was needed more than ever.
I started watching your vids because I am a huge Ville Valo/HIM fan so you came up in my recommends. Can I say you are adorable, and your insights make me ready, willing, and able to learn a bit Finnish and visit one day myself. Thanks so much!
The name is more important than relativity. You can choose your friends, but not your relatives!
Regarding laundry. Most households use these laundry drying racks I guess you would call them aka "Pyykinkuivausteline". After washing your clothes in a washing machine you hang your clothes on it so they dry out.
Almost every household has a dryer OUTSIDE of the city. In city apartments you rarely have one.
I have always installed one in the bathroom ceiling. I also have a separate rack which I use indoors in the winter time and since I have parveke now, there otherwise.
Thank you for tipping part. I'm a waiter so it was interesting to me. Sounding how low wage is there is mad for me. So now I understand the tipping culture there better. It's depend on a person how much you get paid here but I can give example by explaining my wage. I get about 12€/hour then there is evening extra and night extra. They are couple € more and night shift you get paid more. On saturday you get paid extra and sunday/national holiday you get double paid of your wage. Tipping here it happen nowadays more but the common tippers are from abroad the tourist I mean usually. When I eat at restaurant I try to leave some tip because I wanna help my lads who are doing the same job as me. And I didn't mention but obviously I'm from Finland. Started subcribe you on your part 1 of this video. Looking forward new videos from you.
I think there's (or at least was at some point) some retstaurant chain that had a policy that thei employees weren't allowed to take any tips. So that's what I'm thinking when it's time to pay (why do I go to Rosso etc... well let's not go in there 😂). At least I try to make sure I say thank you and goodbye, something that I've read isn't in any way guaranteed (and THAT's rude even here). Maybe the tipping culture will evolve too, let's hope so.
slowpudda Thank you for comment! It was insightful! Also thank for for subscribing!!!! Greetings from Texas!!
Cage80 Thanks for sharing! And thank you for watching!
As a former waitress in Finland I always tip, because the salary is smaller than for example the salary of a cashier or other sales person. Wen you work at a shop you get the evening extra that is almost 5 euros per hour and the night is even more. When you are a waiter you get 0,6euros evening extra and about 1 euro night extra. And one of the reasons behind that is that waiters are supposed to have a tip also, but that rarely happens. Sure the salary is not as bad as in USA but compared to all the prices here it is not a good salary and the hours are horrible, as well as the benefits of the job.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing!
Cleaning your plate is a strongly cultural thing. We have a history of famine and food scarcity, so eating what you get and being grateful for that is ingrained to our head. It is collective memory.
My dad was born in 1950. He cooked all our food and he'd get really upset if you said you didn't like something. Like, even if you were 3 or 4.
It is getting more relaxed nowadays.
I study in a finnish City called Vasa. And I go home over the weekends to my family. One of my favorite things to do (especially during fall and winter). Is to go home in like below -20°c and journey home, 30 minutes by foot & then by buss 1 hour. When I get home it is like usually dinnertime. I eat something I grabb a cold beer and I head of into the sauna. That feels so good after a week in school.
Björn Snellman
That is SO interesting!! Thank you for sharing! I could just picture it in my mind. Where is home? I mean, what city?
@@WildwoodVagabond It is actually more of a countryside village. It is located near a city called Pietarsaari/Jakobstad. The region has a high concentration of Swedish-speaking finns. Jakobstad is one of few places where swedish is more common than finnish. The city is inhabited 55% by swedishspeakers. I hear much more swedish than finnish. I am a Swedish-speaking finn myself, you might tell by my... name... It means Bear in swedish..
@@thelonewolf9866
And finns even got a name for swedish speaking finns :)
@@11DNA11 Ruotsisuomalaiset!
That's cool!
Thank you so much for making this part 2 video! I Really liked. Your daughter seems to be super nice. I Wish you guys all the best and thank you for handling Finland so gently :D
sulosky You’re so welcome!! I’m enjoying making these videos. Although it is making me miss Finland TREMENDOUSLY!! I hope to come back soon! Thank you for your support! Hope you’re doing well!
Hi, I really enjoyed watching your videos :) Just a reminder that Finland is over 1000km long (nature changes A LOT when you move from southern to northern parts of Finland) so there are a lot of different kind of living styles. Apartments are bigger when you go outside of town areas :) But movement trend is to move into larger city areas, specially to Helsinki urban area. I hope you will visit Finland again in the future and get known with different areas of Finland as they might surprise you how different people are from other parts of Finland but still they have something in common :) Keep up the great work!
MrVilmeri thanks for your feedback! Glad you enjoy my videos. Greetings from Texas ❤️✌🏼
The distance in families is really a sad sad thing. You are absolutely right in this.
Greetings from Finland 💙
Essi Oja Greetings from Texas ❤️❤️
As a Finn these videos are so funny and interesting to me! All of these things are just our normal life and to some they’re so strange 😂🙈 however, I have to correct one point: I don’t think we give out our social security numbers very loosely, only to official documents and stuff 🤔
relitin hey! Thanks for sharing! I didn’t give it out to strangers or anything like that. In Finland I think the social # is used as a light form of identification and here it is rarely used and only in very official situations. Also, about the bank acct info... at that time I moved to Finland, in Texas at least, transferring money from bank to bank wasn’t really a thing. We didn’t even have online banking at the time. So giving your account info out to anyone was unheard of. At least for me. I just didn’t explain myself well enough in the video. Sorry for any misunderstanding. Thanks for watching!!
In Finland we have to buy our own dryer but in most of our apartments doesn’t have a dryer bc i think that there’s no space
tän takii meilläkään ei oo lol
I just assumed you were like 24-27, "College?! Mitä vittua.." is an accurate recap of my audible reaction.
Yeah same.. she looks so young
R3neeXD - haha 😆
EI KIROILUA 👿👿👿👿😠😠😠😠😤😤😤😤
möh
@@maistuu802 😂😂
I loved your ten culture shocks as well as your part one video. I can't wait to make my first trip to Finland.
Heh, the family thing. I don't think our family relationships are particularly cold or anything. I guess there's just a certain respect of someone's personal life? Also, expression of strong feelings like love or sorrow or happiness and such (especially love!), is kind of odd in a way... We're not used to big shows of emotion, and don't want to make anyone uncomfortable because of us 😅 Personally I think it's kind of sad we're so reserved! But I do appreciate the space people give each other, it's not about not caring or coldness, it's kind of about respect, I guess :D
Never thought about it, but you're probably right. We don't want to disturb people.
Makes a lot of sense! Thanks for sharing.
@@WildwoodVagabond Relationships between family members at least of my experience are not cold or distant. When family members are in private, they can hug each others and say that they love each other. Not so often though, because it kind of loses its meaning if you use it all the time. And there is lots of other ways to show your loved ones that you love them than just saying I love you. For example my dad has never said that he loves me (I am a guy). It does not matter, because he has always supported me and helped me so much in life even he does not have to do so after I became an adult. Still to me it is clear as a day that he cares about me and loves me and that is more precious than some words anyway. I guess it is our way of life, say what you mean and act like it, and also, say less and do more. In public (also if someone outside the family is present in the house for example) it is not rude to share emotions, but it makes others to feel awkward in a way, so we give them their personal space and act formally. To me it is very normal that my mom gives me a hug and says that she loves me when I am leaving when visiting them. But if we meet at public place, she still gives me a hug and says she loves me, but more restrained way. And what comes to sharing emotions, I think it is bit sad that so many people are feeling bad and having troubles in their lives but still not talk about it and seek help from close friends. It is kind of related the Finnish mentality and sisu, that you must handle everything and keep going no matter what. And also at the same time it kind of feels bad to disturb others with your problems, we try to be as harmless as we can to others and asking help is hard, because it makes you vulnerable and as you know, we fins are tough and we manage it all to ourselves as far as we can, unfortunately sometimes it is too much and too late...
warm greetings from sunny Poland :)
IMO, Finland, outside of maybe Helsinki area, Turku and Tampere is pretty much like MF:n Texas, everybody has car, there is not properly functioning sensibly priced public transport to speak of, and the distances are long and people sparse.
Yep but the buses are still safe!
@@77moonwalker77 Hey, they do have the "Vietnam Tom" taking out the trash in public transportation in the US tho. XD (call the ambalambs..) To be honest, i would rather kill my self than take a city bus in the US, from what ive seen over the years in the internets... :/
Hi there! We are here from Tyler, TX and it was so cool to see you live in Marshall (from the Walmart receipt 😁) my wife is from Finland and we are planning to go there soon for a couple of years. We really enjoy watching your videos. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.
I’m relatively new here but I love your videos! Especially these culture shock ones because I can relate so much, but just in an opposite way! I experienced that all of these things are different in the US from what they are like in Finland. I’m a Finn whose mom is American and I’ve lived in The States for a few months not too long ago. A lot of the things that you said you struggled with were also things that I was having trouble with when trying to adjust to life in the US. I did notice all of them, but some things didn’t bother me at all or I knew to what expect.
The hardest one for me was all the small talk and the continuous socializing. Don’t get me wrong, I learned to love it in no time and I still miss that somedays. But sometimes it was just too much, being used to spending most of my time alone. I noticed that a bunch of people thought that I was either rude or weird because I’m so quiet!
Obviously the safety part was a huge shock for me, and it was definitely the worst one. America is really not a safe place in general (or at least as a female, and when compared to Finland) and it sometimes scared me pretty bad.
Not bringing my own bag to the store was odd, and sad too, because of the amount of bags. Although some places use paper bags which we really don’t.
This is the longest TH-cam comment I have ever written haha
Susanna
Thank you for your comment! I enjoyed reading it. Btw... people here think I’m rude or weird because I’m so quiet! My coworkers are always asking me if I’m ok 🙄. It can be draining lol
Thank you for watching!!
Wildwood Vagabond Love to hear that! I get that too, some people won’t stop asking if I’m okay when I’m spending time with them.
Susanna 😣
Around blacks, never relax.
@@WildwoodVagabond Just make signs that say: "I´m doing just Great while I´m silent and charging my mental batteries" or "While I´m silent I´m smiling ALOUD"
Like how you're explaining everything plain and simple. Thanks great videos
jonas jonaitis1980 thank you!
Finland has union wages starting from about 11,50$ an hour for waitresses.
You have got to be kidding, it's mostly 3-4 euros in Estonia, sometimes 5 or 6 if you're lucky.. 🙄😏😪
Kadri Then you have to move Finland :)
@@katie18976 Then again, estonia is cheaper country.
@@katie18976 you are a two hour boat trip away from doubling your wage
This is the minimum wage with 0-2 year experience, without permission to sell alcohol.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but there are two main reasons why you don't go to sauna with your swimsuit.
1. When you sweat to your swimsuit the sweat is going to pool. Even if you shower after sauna (like you should) it still might get some sweat to the pool.
2. They use chlorine to purify the water. When chlorine vaporises from your swimsuit at saunas heat it's a health hazard. Not sure if lethal, maybe in some cases or extreme doses but anyway it's a health hazard.
Both of those are minor but they add up. Like if you sit in sauna for 10mins it's not that big deal. But when 5-10 other people do it also and during day there might be a hundred people in that sauna it adds up to be serious issue.
@Petri Lautamäki Ihan totta, ite olen uimavalvoja uimahallis töis ja kloori saunas on tosi vakava juttu, ei siitä kuolla voi mutta pyörtyä ainakin ja jopa sekin on vaarallista, koska uimaasusta kloorist voi tulla myrkyllistä kaasua saunassa.
I have washing machine, that has also dryer combined... There is programs that last from 15min to 3hours to wash, but we are ecological country :D Some apartment buildings have those industry washing machine and are quick, but for basic household it's unnecessary.. And I have this drying rack (like most of finns) in my apartment to dry out my clothes..
Food: Oh we do send food back if it is wrong (in restaurant). We don't complain about food if we are visiting or guest at some event. And about fish - can't remember when i last have eaten fish :D
But this is fun to hear someones thoughts about Finland - especially about Turku!
Kiitos Videosta, terveisiä Turusta - Nähdään, heippa moikka moi, terve, näkemisiin, moro morjensta!! :D
amadle haha... Thank you for your comment! I enjoyed reading it! Thanks for watching! Greetings from Texas ✌🏼❤️
Thanks for sharing your experiences. One never realizes how much of our culture we take as normal, not thinking there is any other way to think about or do things and accept them as OK.
Me a human living in finland i speak english rly good but swedish? The second language of finland? Oh boy
I feel that.
Great video, make me laughing several times! 😉 so much true in that, also for my country 🙂
Starting price for a dryer is something like 500$ in Finland. The only problem is that in small "bathrooms" that Finnish appartments usually have, that thing is going to create a hell of alot of heat.That's why, as well as the price of electricity people don't purchace dryers to small appartments.
paitsi pesukone kuivaus toiminolla on joku 400e että tuota, perus kerrostalo paskaa että pienin mahollinen kone 90 luvu alusta siellä
@@DuBstep115 I think the problem is that people still haven't realized the existance of the hybrid-models. Most people are still relative shocked to hear there is such and option when I suggest it to friends living in smaller apartments. I've had one for 20 years, and never going back.
@@Songfugel We have one now, but we've used the drying option maybe twice (just to use it). It takes about double the time compared to just washing, and we live in a row house, so we can hang them to our own back yard too. It's also not as effective as a dryer, but almost.
And yes, many people don't even know about those yet and those hybrid machines are also developing fast, so in a couple of years there'll probably be no need for separate machines.
@@Garbox80 I have miele washing machine (not cheap) with drying feature its 20min in and out quick wash and T shirts come out so dry that you can wear them right away.
@@DuBstep115 We have an LG, which I think has the quickest program about the same, but then you really just wash a couple of light clothes. But yeah, like that it would work, but I think it was originally about at least a half full machine.
I have just come back to this?? Love it. Take care. John.x
If you want someone to transfer money to your account, ofcourse you have to give out your bank number so they can do so.
Aside from that.. giving out your social security and bank numbers to anyone but government offices? Errr... no? You don't do that.
Did you give out your social security numbers to scammers or something?
I know it can feel like you're just throwing them everywhere when you move here 'cause you have to take care of so many official things, but she really did make it sound like she gave her ssn and bank info as a complimentary service with her phone number or something. ^^'
Bank account number is freely given, all you can do is but money in it.
Social security number, while required in many places for light identification, however has very strict rules on how to, and more importantly, how not to store them.
For anything important, we use secondary strong identification methods like two-step passwords (old way), mobile authenticator apps (almost all), hardware authenticator chips (quite rare).
This 2nd step of authentication is commonly (not always) also required when using your bank/credit cards for additional safety.
Maestro Bash I didn’t mean to make it sound like I just gave it away to anyone. It did feel like I had to give it away much more often than here for light identification in official and not so official situations. Here we use them very rarely. And for bank account transfers... around the time I was living in Finland bank transfers were extremely rare in the states. So it was something I wasn’t used to at all. I just didn’t express myself clearly enough with that point. Thanks for watching!
Jeah, I didn't get the "problem" about the acct numbers nor social security numbers. In Finland, just like in any other country you keep that info very secret. I don't understand who all you had to give those numbers. Btw, I cant' believe that this beautiful young lady is your daughter. You look the same age!
People give their bank accounts quite commonly. Using sites like Huuto.net where people trade used stuff it's most often paid through bank accounts. But social security number is not given the same fashion.
Thing is, in Finland everyone is in electronic records. We don't have registration for elections or census, because of the records. Two edged sword I know, but faking your ID is not easy here.
Thank you for giving me an insight from the outward into within about us Finns. Enjoyed it. I will however testament to the fact that Finnish youth will herefore proudly state their accomplishments. Carry on.
Nice video, really interesting :) Some notes from a Finn again:
1. This is a big one: most of us really, really detest tipping. The way we see it is that it's wrong to put part of the waiter's salary on the conscience of the customer. I've been to US three times and I always feel like the niceness of waiters is so fake that it makes me uneasy. Again, in Finland it's also a part of the customer protection. Oh, and average waiter salary is 2000€ ($2214) in Finland.
2. True, so true. Also: if you are rich, you have this peer pressure to not show your wealth. You can do it, but it won't be taken nicely.
3. Yeah, Finland is really safe. Most of the violence is domestic and under the influence of alcohol. :/ Also, Finland scored highest on the wallet test study, where they dropped 12 wallets with money and contact info in them on the streets of capitol cities. In Helsinki, 11 were returned.
4. We do have dryers, but they are rarely used because a tumble dryer takes a toll on the fabric and makes the clothes wear down sooner. They last longer if you let them dry while hanging instead.
5. It's called European dinner etiquette, and from the European perspective, the "relaxed" way is... err... hmmmm.
6. I think you can do some damage if you know someone's social security number, like opening a phone data connection, but not much. Knowing the bank account only let's you deposit money to it, nothing more.
7. Probably true. I feel like I'm close to my family and we even show it, but Finns usually don't show the affection in the same way as Americans do. We do care about the family, very much.
8. True, it's bloody freezing. :)
9. Being picky is a character flaw you should aspire to change. Being picky only causes you to miss loads of nice things.
10. Yeah, this is a European thing: it's way more environmentally friendly to have people use public transport. Btw, did you take the driver's licence in the end? Because the course you have to take is quite extensive, you need to study and pass a theory test as well as a driving test. Then after a year of driving you need to prove your skill again in a driving test. And the driving tests are done in real traffic.
Bonus #1: There is no "Jukko", but "Jukka" is very common. This is a common mistake because in many languages, names ending in "o" are masculine and those ending in "a" are feminine, but we don't have anything like that. We don't have "he"/"she" either.
Bonus #2: Yeah, it's a hygiene thing to not have a swimsuit in sauna. Here where I live people even get angry if you go in wearing one. :D
PunCala Awesome! Thank you for sharing!! ❤️
Another Finn here. Couldn't agree more 😄
A beautiful mother with a beautiful daughter :) I'm glad you reached 1000 subs. In my experience dryers are not really that common, at least in Romania, Hungary and Austria. Rachael you still have that special aura that captivated me the first time i saw your video. I'm exited to watch your garden video. Sending lots of love to you and your family. :)
Jozsa Istvan
Thank you Jozsa! I appreciate your comment! Best wishes to you!!! ❤️❤️and YAAAY!!! I reached 1k!! Right now I’m at 1,223!! It’s so cool to watch it grow. Thank you for your support!
@@WildwoodVagabond I follow a few other TH-cam channels, somehow I never engaged in the comments section. This is the first time :) If I remember correctly I was your 66 or 69th subscriber. Nice to see your channel growing. You have my support. Have a nice day.
Jozsa Istvan I’m so glad you have commented! I enjoy your comments very much! Thanks for sticking with me! Wow! You’ve been here from the beginning! Well... that was since March/April. That’s awesome. Thank you!
The weather thing is actually pretty funny. Many foreigners (like outside Europe) thinks it's cold here all year round. If they haven't heard of Finland, they probably haven't heard of the Gulf Stream either. People come here in midsummer with furcoats on :DD The stereotypes of Texas you can blame on those Western films people have seen in the past. Like saloons and cattle drives etc. So that's on Hollywood xD
yeah on our side of the pacific, in Canada, we have 6 months of snow, from 25 to 30 C in our coldest weather
Wow girl ! You make me understand a lot of things watching this videos ! I meet a girl from Finland from tempere so I always text her looking for conversation and you totally right she just reply with shorts answer, that bothered me a lot at first but then I got to get to know the culture
A small correction: Social security number is also a well-guarded secret over here (unless a person is for some reason careless with their personal information), especially since the first part actually IS your birthdate. It's used frequently when handling your business with any government officials, as well as to identify you when purchasing insurance, credit etc.
Bank account number does not get anyone access to anything, hence why it is usually given out when, you know, you want someone to send you money to your _bank_account_.
Stagideus I didn’t give it out to strangers. In Finland I think the social # is used as a light form of identification and here it is rarely used and only in very official situations. Also, about the bank acct info... at that time I moved to Finland, in Texas at least, transferring money from bank to bank wasn’t really a thing. We didn’t even have online banking at the time. So giving your account info out to anyone was unheard of. At least for me. I just didn’t explain myself well enough in the video. Sorry for any misunderstanding. Thanks for watching!!
For me, as Estonian who is not fluent if Finnish but vaguely understands it, your Finnish sounds really good!
Argo Hein cool 😁 thanks!
You two look great! And I'm still wondering how much would it do to the planet if they would make USA public transportation functional...
jupe 80
Thank you!! And I know right.....COME ON USA... get with the program. Lol.
Tearjerker so true!!
The washing machines take long, because they keep the water usage so low. They need to soak the laundry longer, because they save water. Also, dryers are getting common, but they too are seen as wasting energy if you can hang dry instead. Driers are popular among large families where there is just more laundry in general. Most washing machines also do have a "quick wash program" if you are in a hurry, then it will do it in 30-45 minutes depending on the machine.
"Super-finnish" is a pretty accurate term for those sausage-beer-adidas pant finns, not gonna lie.
I always though adidas swestpants were more of a russian thing.
more like college trousers, cuz adidas dont look good at fat mens also ad reino's also (finnish casual shoes):P
Fun fact:
Karhu Sports sold the three stripe trademark to Adidas for (the equivalent of) €1,600 euros and two bottles of Whiskey.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stripes
Another awesome video! Thank you guys!
Quickie By Pepe you’re welcome! Thanks for your feedback
I'm a bit confused about the burger thing, my friends are really picky eaters and when we got restaurants they always make the burgers/food etc. how they want, no questions asked :D Even in Hesburger // The car thing must be a big city thing, like in Helsinki, everywhere else in Finland every family has one or two cars, the public transport is not very good anywhere else but Helsinki.
Depends on the family I quess most finns are part of the middle class so most families have one or two cars not every. Also don't expect burgers looking pristine in a fast food restaurant... And I'm not sure where you live in Finland, but I think the city I live in has good public transport and no it's not Helsinki, anyway I disagree with your statement regarding public transport.
Hej from Sweden. Liked! You have such a open attitude it is really refreshing 🙂 I spent the first part of my life in South Africa so I can so relate to this even if it Finland for you.
isdraken Productions
Hello from Texas! Thanks for your comment ☺️ I didn’t get to visit Sweden except for a small peek out of the ferry window. I hope to visit there someday. Also, South Africa is on my bucket list! Have a great weekend ❤️✌🏼
@@WildwoodVagabond Same to you. Take Care.
Many of these are actually differences between Europe and US. No shoes indoors, the small cars/houses, public transportation, the safety (though this could differ a bit), eating etiquette (actually not having one is frowned upon), BYOB.
Other are indeed Finnish (or Scandinavian): the confortable silence, modesty, emotional distance, common dryer rooms, and of course SAUNA.
I was just reading wait what about sauna?.. wait wheres SAUNA?...U FPRGOT SAU... oh there it is😂😂
Sauna is not really a Scandinavian thing, I have yet to visit a Swedish or Norwegian sauna that was actually properly made and used
@@houndofculann1793 U should come to Finland get some beer and sauna!😎
@@Kalanarri47 uhm, I've been living here for my whole life of 27 years now, how did you think I can tell if Swedish or Norwegian saunas are properly made and used? =D Ihan sysiturkulaine kuule
@@houndofculann1793 oh daem :D
Dryers are more common in detached houses but usually in apartments you have only a washing machine. In bigger apartments there might be room for a dryer on top of the washing machine which is a pretty common solution if there is room for a washing machine filled from the side. But usually people have their own metallic clotheshorse in their apartment. They cost like 10-20€ and usually will last for the rest of your life. It is bendable so you can bend it and put it in a cleaning closet if it is big enough or just leave it leaning to the wall. It is really handy and if you fill it compactly it can dry two 13 kilos of clothes which is usually two washing machines of clothes.
that washing machine looks average size and they are slow because they are made to be environmental friendly, I am finnish btw
We do have dryers for laundry, not everywhere, but still. I've used one most of my life and I love the industrial machines at our apartment complex; 2 weeks worth of clean, dry clothes in 1,5 - 2 hours. :D
In official settings inorder to identify a person the sosialsecuritycode is used.. But you are not advice to hand it out to every one... Like if you call somewhere your phonecompany/your bank/healthcarecenter/etc they ask your code and other identifying questions.. I dont know my familys sos. codes or bfs sos. code.
awesome job. How cool to immerse yourself in such an unfamiliar European country and come home to tell us all about it.
There is a reason not to use swimsuit in sauna. In swimmingpools man uses chemicals and when in finland saunas temerature is over 80 degrees of celsius those chemicals vaporaizes out of carments greating fumes which basically compares ww I toxic gas. Thats also reason why you must take shower before going sauna after you come out of pool. We finns have reason for every thing we do sometimes those reasons are far-fetched but they exist.
Jukka Kopol thanks for sharing! Yeah I noticed Finns have a reason for everything, which is good in my opinion!
Absolute nonsense about toxic gases. Very few swimming pools use chlorine, also chlorine vaporizes at 34,6 C.
@@MikkoVille What? I don't know of any pools that didn't use some amount of chlorine, and public pools use a lot
@@Maplaplaplapla Yes, you're correct. Although AFAIK
they use relatively low amounts nowadays though as they use ozone to kill off bacteria. However, chlorine in swimming pool does not produce "toxic gas" in the sauna.
Let's be honest tho, I don't think finns really need any reason to get naked
9:25 The washing machine pictured here is top loading with drum rotating in horizontal orientation. Those are often used for old aparment buildings that are not compatible with modern 60 cm wide and 60 cm depth front loading washing machines. And students living in tiny aparments also use those because there's not enough space for bigger machines. Those top loading machines are harder to use than other models but the result is equally clean clothes. In addition, thanks to the design those machines often last longer because the bearing is stronger when you can suspend the washing drum on both sides. Typical front loading washing machine has only have sided bearing which is possible to make strong in theory but often fails first.
And people in Finland do use dryer and modern heat-pump based machines are getting more popular. The older tumble-dryers are not commonly used because it uses so much electricity. However, if you're a student, you usually live in cheap enough spaces to not have heat pump dryer and instead you just hang the wet clothes around until dry.
It basically boils down to are you willing to plan landry a day ahead to save electricity? If not, get a dryer with a heat pump.
Clothes dryers are bad for your clothes and waste energy. The guys who sell dryers and clothes may not agree (dryers = $$$) but a) it's pretty easy to reason that by yourself if you just imagine what's happening inside those machines, b) there's some real research done into the subject and the results are pretty clear. Fabric just wears out badly due to stress and heat.
Now expect someone to say it's not true, but yeah, there are actual academic papers of the subject. Only a couple of dozen washes and you've practically lost half of the fabric's strength.
It's true that majority of washing machines sold for consumers are way too slow in the whole EU. I love the fact I can use industrial washing machines that do the job in something between 20 minutes to 1 hour. After washing I hang the clothes to dry because I only buy quality clothing made in west and not some child labour crap that costs like 1 euro a piece.
McSlobo true... thanks for sharing
Dryers are also a fire hazard.
Awesome videos, this and part 1. You made me smile :) Nice to see basic life things from different angle. Gonna watch that "10 things miss about from Finland" next but would love to see more videos like this, thanks :)
sunfiretys Thank you so much! There are more coming up soon!! I’m glad you like them! Greetings from Texas ❤️
Actually here in Finland we eat meat or chicken more than fish. I think it's kind of a habbit that we eat fish once or twice in a week. But mostly we eat meat or chicken. And for the driving license thing, here we can get driving license for mopeds when you turn 15. But there is strict regulations for the engine size and maximum speed the moped is allowed to reach. When you turn 16 you're allowed to get driving license for a motorcycle but that too has regulations about the engine size and the engine power. And like you said, at the age of 18 you can get driving license for a car.
It's interesting to hear how you guys have experienced things that are part of everyday life for us here in Finland. And it's also interesting to hear how differently certain things is experienced between US and Finland.
Hope to see more of these kind of videos about how you have experienced things in Finland🙂 Did you travel anywhere else in finland or did you just stay in Turku all the time you spent in Finland?
Jami Sorvisto Hi! Thanks for your comment. I visited eastern Finland and Helsinki but that was pretty much it. Greetings from Texas ✌🏼❤️
About the cold temperature (Sorry about the multiple comments on your multiple videos. I'm drinking and waiting my mates to show up, so it's good entertaiment!) But after -30 degrees celsius your eyelids also start freezing and it's really a blast! Best weather for jogging through the snow really keeps your heart pumping eh ! Did you guys try avantouinti after sauna? (It's the freezing water swimming in lake during winter)
Juhani Mustola lol no worries! Glad you found them entertaining. Yes we did get to try that!! It was AWESOME
Average monthly wage for server is (by Official Statictics 2018) 2266 euros. (About 2500 USD)
Jussi Karppi That’s pretty good!
That has to be net income... right?
Arcangel Arts No, sadly it’s gross income. Taxes are reduced from that amount.
About the driers, we didn’t have one when I was a kid, but even now that we have one, it’s only used when something needs to be dry quick. So when I learned that clotheslines, especially the foldable indoor kind, aren’t common everywhere was a major culture shock for me.
And as someone from Turku, the fish thing is very much a coastal thing. There’s a reason each and every coastal town has a separate annual event celebrating fish and that’s all down to the sea just being right there as a source of food.
Ohh wow, i didnt know you had a daughter in college! You look super young haha! i loved the video tho, keep up the great work! Terveisiä suomesta
lilli tiainen Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate it ☺️❤️ greetings from Texas!
3. As moomins say "Ei muumi taloa lukita yöksi" meaning Moomins house doesn't get locked for night.
We Finns do not possess human feelings. We are robots, and we have succesfully deceived the rest of the mankind, in believing we would be squishy meatsacks, just like you. har har in a robotic voice
*laughs in binary*
Sure. Thank god we robots do not sexually harash pple on streets.
@@turbojuudas *01001000 01000001 00100000 01001000 01000001 00100000 01001000 01000001 00100000 01001000 01000001*
@@GODofTimewaste2 01101100 01101111 01101100
Have you played Star wars Knights of the Old Republic? There one of your companions, HK-47 (yes, H not A) calls you "meatball" :))))
It was really nice to hear your ideas and oppinions on the differences between our countries.
About the missing dryers you were talking about on your video... People do have clothing dryers in Finland, but on my experience, only the busiest, richest or families with MANY children have those. On my oppinion, this is linked with the practicality you mentioned in the culture shocks part 1. Because everything is quite expensive in Finland, you will save money by not having a dryer: first by not buying the expensive machine, but second your clothes wear faster out by the metal nodules of the dryer so that you would have to buy new clothes more often. Drying them in a clothing rack in your apartment or in the drying room is also more energy efficient than using a dryer.
Here were some ideas for you to understand life without dryer better. I would be interested to know what did you think the reason is/was to not have a dryer.
I've been travelling a lot in Europe and Asia but never in Americas' side. I like so much your comparison videos! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
H Savel thank you for your comment! I think the reason for no dryers were because of the reasons you mentioned: not very practical, expensive, space and wears out clothes faster.
Thank you for watching and for sharing your thoughts! Greetings from Texas ❤️
Joo! Rakastan suomalaisia ja heidän nöyryyttään! He ovat erittäin vahvoja ja ahkeria ihmisiä! Tiedän tämän ensimmäisen käden.
dissaaks?!
Jeff Middleton I agree!
Historia tehnyt meidät Suomalaiset vahvoiksi
Okay! About license. Here in the Philippines is same with Finland, you can get your license if your 18 and student license (learning to drive) if your 17.
The tipping system is such a n inconvenience for the consumer, especially if you are from a non tipping culture, i.e.having to carry small change all the time, knowing who to tip and who not to tip, i.e. the folk the servers in fast food chains etc. And knowing how much is the appropriate amount to tip, it can be awkward if you unknowingly tip as much as expected. However having said all that the tipping system really encourages good service, and service with a smile, even though as a consumer you know it's all fake and plastic and just a arse lick attempt to get a big tip. Servers in europe couldn't care less because any tips left at the table are considered a bonus, but not expected.
One of the main reasons why I don't want tipping culture to come here is that it encourages the employers to pay minimal wage to their employees, while making it ok to "blame" (in lack of a better word) the customer if s/he doesn't pay more enough in addition to the food + drinks + reservation + etc. So, they are trying to move the responsibility of their salary expenditures towards the customer, and gladly miss all the mandatory payments (which, in Finland, make approx. +30% x employee's salary).
So, it's not just about service (btw, who would hazard their regular job anyway, just so they could be jerks..?)nor it is about being a bad customer. There really is this bigger picture that needs to be considered before making statements about tipping. I, for one, wish it would stay in countries where they, for some reason, aren't paying enough to their waiters/waitresses, and I'd gladly keep this system which we have now here. Or, they could start paying decent wages to people who they hire to be the faces of their business to begin with.
I agree, it's about the low salary, however the salary in the fast food chains (i.e. McDonalds, Burger King etc) is not exactly generous but yet the employees working there don't expect any tips, any they work very hard too. The American tipping culture has gradually expanded to many parts of the world and it's sneaked it's way into some parts of western europe, but a tip is not expected. For example, the employees would never go chasing after a customer if he/she deems the tip inadequate, but they certainly would do that in the states. In the far east, such as Japan for example, which incidentally has a huge following of American culture, the employees even considered a tip as an insult, and they will hand any tips back to the customer.
@@Keythong Once I was in Czech, I wanted to eat in a restaurant. The service was almost excellent. I was prepared to pay a tip. After getting the invoice, I was curious about two rows. The waitress explained that they were "Belag" as bread and stuff and the tip. So I paid the invoice and left no additional tip.
@@Keythong In 2017, I met a Croatian in Sicily. He was traveling through Europe with the currency ho got for working at MacDonald's in Ireland. He told me that many Croatians go to Ireland to work at MacDonald's because they get paid well there.
Tipping is just salary without tax and social payments, so it's pretty much like mafia payment. No health insurance, no retirement benefits,...
My mind got blown away when you introduced your daughter who is already in college. Was not expecting that. I peeked ahead when you mentioned a surprise guest and thought she's maybe your sister xD
That is kinda small washing machine. Not the standard size. I love the clothes dryer!!!
Great videos! I hope you keep up with your Finnish, its great to hear and we Finns are super impressed with any foreigner who can speak our tricky language. :)
T.H A Thanks for your comment! Thank you for watching. Greetings from Texas ❤️
@@WildwoodVagabond by the way, you should check out Ismo Leikola and his stand-up bits about Finnish/English differences, laughed my ass off 🤣
In cities you can get everywhere in Finland yes, but in countryside car is must have. There is no busses. But yea in every city you can bus everywhere.
There are long distance busses, and then you can take a local taxi to your destination.
@@jonskitalonhenki9613 no there is only schoolbus 2-3 times a day some old people use it aswell, taxi costs 50€ one way so that's not really an option and usually taxidrivers don't wanna come here, it's more profit to stay in the city, they can decide nowadays do they wanna take passenger or not and usually they say no. There is no thing called local taxi all taxi depots are in the cities.
and the way between my job and my home is 20km in one way and there goes 2 busses by per day, so when I have different worktimes everyday I can't use them I need a car. Taxi is 45€ in one way. I took it ones because my car was broken. I didn't make profit that day, my hole salary went to travelling.
@@Vvopat96 Well that's not so good. :/ Anyway, I live on the west coast of Finland, so here it is different. A lot of safe and relatively cheap public transportation. I myself use bicycle to get to work. ;) I feel sad for those americans who are so dependant on their private cars. :(
@@jonskitalonhenki9613 I think it's what they wanted
4. The machine you used is a smaller size than normal, a top loaded small version. The machines usually take about 7kg of clothes, but a normal cotton washing cycle do take about 2-3hours, if you don't choose the turbo mode then it is finished in 1h. A dryer is common but since it is a power hungry device and air drying is free and the clothes last longer and smells better that way it is fairly common air drying the clothes ^_^