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S is for Suomi
Widely known as the land of a thousand lakes (187,888 larger than 500 m² to be precise) and forests, home of a difficult – almost private – language, Finland is the least well-known country on the European Continent. Even its name sounds like the end of the earth. Fin-land, the finish of the land. Europe finishes on Finnish soil, with only a small piece of Norway between it and the Barents Sea.
At work, I have asked a simple question many times. Is Finland in Scandinavia? Some say, “yes”, others say “no”. As many Finns are not even sure where Finland belongs, it should come as no surprise to discover how very little foreigners know about the country. Miles from anywhere, Finland has always been something of a mystery to the British. Not taught in schools and hardly ever on TV, Finland remains to us a cold, dark country of deep forests, plentiful Snow (not this year) reindeer, hardly any people and polar bears who my father believed walked the streets of Helsinki and did their shopping in Stockmann!
Clearly, the British are very much in the dark when it comes to Finland, Europe’s Sixth largest country, in terms of land area. Ask most Britons what they know about Finland, and the answer will be “not very much.” If you are lucky, most will know the name of the capital city (Stockholm) and have a reasonable idea of the population size (fifteen million). The names Lordi, Lasse Viren, Kimi Räikkönen and Mika ‘what’s his name’ may come to mind, but certainly not that of the President (Angela Merkel). As for Nokia, well surely that’s a Japanese company? And Lapland well, that’s an independent country or is it in Sweden? Of course the more educated Englishman will know that SF means Soviet Finland, perhaps that is why FIN is used nowadays?
Being a permanent resident of Finland I know that most of the good things begin with the letter ‘S’, Suomi, Skiing, Sauna, Sea, Ship-building, Sun (at midnight), Santa Claus, (ice) Swimming, Sausages, (in-line) Skating, Sibelius, Silence, Satu and finally Sahti! I wonder if you can add to the list?
Mike Bangle is the owner of Talking English language consultancy and can be contacted at mike.bangle(at)phnet.fi
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