This year, I sort of lost something that was once very important to me. I am wondering what the experience and thoughts of others are on this topic.

My Finnish heritage is from my mother’s side, with both of my grandparents coming to the U.S., separately in 1920. Married in 1924, they raised 4 children in Minnesota, in the Northern Minnesota Finnish immigrant community. This community was so isolated that my
Mother’s first language was Finnish, same as all her siblings. My eldest uncle made a point of teaching her English before she started school.

My mother identified so strongly with that heritage, and raised me to value it as well. She had the love of nature, the outspoken ways, the emotional reserve (at least in public) that so many say are characteristic of Finns. I learned only a small amount of Finnish myself, fully identified as American, of course yet always valued that heritage. I still do, yet a few things changed my slant on the matter.

I called myself “Finnish American” on a Reddit once. I was immediately jumped on by several Nordics (not Finns) who announced I did not “deserve”to call myself Finnish, misunderstanding the way that Americans use that terminology. Okay. Guess I go stuff my fat American face with some apple pie and forget the whole thing lol! Maybe I’ll laugh in a big gas guzzling SUV while I’m at it 😁.

Next, maybe a week later I was contacted out of the blue by distant Finnish relatives on Ancestry.com, a great Uncle’s nephew to be exact. A pleasant email chat somehow degenerated into his diatribe against the U.S., complete with assumptions on who I voted for (he was wrong on that, by the way).

Ugh! Finnish heritage is a part of me, absolutely. The immigrant culture my
Mother was raised in, also by extension a part of me. The struggles of my grandparents just to be in the U.S., in the depression, political activists accused of being communists at one point and nearly deported, a part of my family history. I will always respect Finland, but no longer feel the same connection, exactly. At 61, I have lived and will die as an American-American. It occurs to me that no one cares what happened or who was on one of Ellis Island’s last boats. Americans are we are today, and from the vest of the world, little love is lost.

My wife went to book us a rental car for our French holiday on booking.com today.

She has both a Finnish driving license and a Chinese driving licence.

Initially the car (a Nissan juke) was priced at €66 and she accepted that and started to proceed with the booking. At the point where it asks for your license details she changed it to be her Finnish license - figuring that when in Europe it would be best to use her European license. Goes to check out and noticed the price had changed. Significantly. The new price was €133 a day!

She figured it was one of those last minute deals and she had missed out by taking too long to finish the booking so she went back and tried with a different car. Same thing happened.

Eventually found the price basically doubled when she switched from her Chinese license to her Finnish one.

This is outrageous discrimination! How is it even legal?

During the battles of Tornio, the Germans took more than 200 Finnish civilians hostage. A total of 232 Finnish civilians were threatened with execution unless German prisoners of war who had surrendered to finns during the fighting, were returned back to German side. The demand was delivered to the commander of the Finnish forces, He was Hjalmar Siilasvuo, who read the documents and give his answer. The Finns' reply was delivered very quickly to the German commander and it says : If anything happens to Finns or Finnish property, he will have all the German prisoners of war in her custody shot, as well as the staff and patients of the German military hospital in Tornio. The Germans were shocked and let the Finnish civilians go unharmed.

Hi!

I’m not very familiar with mental crisis help system here, and have been going thru a fairly hard time as you would already know it from the title.

Is there any place that I can get any support for a casual topic like break up without having to wait 2-3 weeks? I tried Mieli chat but they are on a vacation for this month.

I’m not gonna kill myself or something, but then I already had some panic attacks and couldn’t eat or sleep so maybe it is a good time to get some help 😅

Big appreciation for your guidance in advance! 👍

Our family will be hosting a Finnish exchange student this coming school year. What would be good to know about their culture to better understand them and make their stay more comfortable?

Hello. Im a 19 year old person who is right now doing civil service instead of military service. Lately I have been getting a lot of stuff on my social media about the civil service system and how it is not perhaps very well developed and in fact pretty under utilized, a lot of the time the comments tend to be filled with people who do not understand people who seem to think that it is a question of manliness and patriotism if you choose civil service or the military. This is far from the truth, almost everyone who does the civil service wants to protect Finland if the worst is to happen (the ones who wouldn’t is a tiny minority), for most people in the civil service it is a question about values and in what position they could best serve the country. For example I have allways been quite opposed to guns, but I love my home country and want to help the people here. Therefore I have educated myself in first aid and in putting out fires, I have also been educated in how to handle oil leakages in nature and in searching for missing people.

I would like to ask where you think this attitude towards the civil service comes from?

Hi! My husband & I are looking where to settle down after living a long time in Spain. Quality of healthcare is of utmost important to us, and we're considering Finland as one of the potential countries to settle. It seems to have a very high quality of life, but not too excellent healthcare outcomes (behind other Nordics), esp. for cancer (which is very relevant to us, as well).

We'd love to hear from people currently living in Finland (natives and expats) - how has your experience of healthcare been in terms of cost, access & wait times, quality, serious & small problems handling, and general level of trust in healthcare?

Bonus points if you could compare it to other places you've lived - any experiences abroad tend to give deeper perspective.

Thank you!

Specifically looking for PlayStation all stars Battle Royale as it's not on PSN anymore to download

Also dead or alive 5+

I'm in USA but want it from Finland for personal reasons. Already checked konsolinet, vpd, retrogametycoon, puolenkuunpelit and buying other titles from there but not these can't seem to find these two anywhere

Hi everyone,

I'm based in Finland and recently had a frustrating experience with VEVOR and Klarna.

I ordered an commercial ice cream machine for my small business and a vacuum sealer using Klarna's 24-month financing.

Here's what happened:

• VEVOR accepted my order.
• A shipment was created.
• The ice cream machine was never delivered.
• At one point, the carrier even marked it as "delivered", although I received nothing ???????
• I reported it as goods not received and waited while the case was investigated.
• Several weeks later, VEVOR refunded the ice cream machine and shipping fee.

During those weeks, my Klarna financing remained active, so €7.21 in interest accrued before the refund was processed.

Klarna explained that, under the financing agreement, the interest was calculated correctly because it accrued before the refund reached them. They have agreed to submit my case for a manual waiver review.

VEVOR, however, says they are only responsible for refunding the purchase price and will not reimburse the interest because it resulted from my chosen payment method.

I understand Klarna's explanation, but I struggle with VEVOR's position.

If VEVOR had delivered the machine as agreed or simply cancelled the unavailable item and refunded it immediately, there would have been no financing interest at all. The additional cost only arose because the order remained unresolved for weeks after VEVOR failed to fulfill it.

As a small business owner myself, I don't believe customers should be expected to absorb costs that arise directly from a business's own operational or logistics failures. If my mistake causes a customer a financial loss, I believe it's my responsibility to make them whole, not just apologize.

I'm not asking whether Klarna calculated the interest correctly. My question is about accountability.

When a seller fails to deliver a product and that delay directly causes an additional financial cost for the customer, who should ultimately bear that cost?

Has anyone in Finland experienced something similar with Klarna or another financing provider? How was it resolved?

EDIT:

1. Many comments are focusing on the €7.21, but the amount isn't the point. Whether it was €0.70, €7.21, or €70, my question would be exactly the same.
2. I've also removed the purchase price because it was distracting from the actual discussion.

This isn't really about Klarna's interest calculationI understand how the financing works.

It's about whether a business should be able to apologize for failing to deliver an order while leaving the customer to absorb the financial consequences of that failure.

To me, an apology should come with accountability.

I love genealogy research but have exhausted most of what I can discover about my ancestors. So if you need some help with looking up your Finnish ancestors, I have a couple of days free and could maybe be of help. Just dm me! 🙂

edit: Offer no longer stands, thanks to InAppropriate-meal.

Moi!

My mom is from finland, i understand and speak finish but as i get older im loosing my vocabulary. I want to incorporate the finish language into everyday life - so im asking for recomendations on finish tv-programs, youtubers, podcast or music. Im really bad at reading and writing so nothing text-based.

I have asked my finish relatives before but they are older and dont have any recomendations for young adults. Im a woman, 22 yo. Ive tried to watch finish documenteries but i dont understand complicated words. It needs to be slow pace and about everyday life. Also, my mom is from Turku so i find it hard to understand if someone has a very different dialect or uses a lot of abbreviations or slang.

Is there any youtubers that have a mixture of nature content (like living on the countryside) & a bit of talking calmly in finish? I really enjoy peacful, low-dopamine vlogs with animals or nature sounds.

Hello, first I should say that I’m a very ignorant American who is trying not to be ignorant anymore and learn something! I have a lot of ancestry that comes from the Posio and Kuusamo areas, and lake Ala-Kitka is mentioned frequently. I can’t find many detailed sources here to learn more information about these areas besides the very basics. My surname is related to reindeer husbandry, so I’m wondering if reindeer are a strong part culturally here (or have been in the past) or if that comes from somewhere else. I’m open to learning any fun facts or information you have in general. Thanks for your time!

Hi! I've been living in Helsinki for 7 years and I might need to relocate near Porvoo for a job. Public transport doesn't reach the hypothetical work location so I'd need a car. I've never owned a car in Finland cuz it was never needed, so I'd like to know from car owners their experiences with living in Helsinki and owning a car (commuting out of the city) and in general owning a car in the country.

I would also like to know from those who have an employment contract and can deduct their car trsvel as commuting expenses. How does that work? Do you negotiate it as benefits or include it in the contract?

Thank you for the help!