r/Nordiccountries

I’m a very warm and expressive person, thinking about moving to the northern part of Europe because I love cold climates and quality of life is much better over there than in any other part of Europe. Due to me being a EU citizen and overall loving Europe, I don’t consider moving to any other part of the Europe (but maybe USA???). So I’m very curious if I’m gonna feel isolated if I move to Norway/Sweden, cause I’m introverted and prefer to have many friends. I love to have convos with strangers, I easily can support any convo, I’m a good listener too hahahaha. I love to frequently invite people over, cook for them, I love hugs, don’t mind any friendly physical contact like shaking hands, kissing in cheeks or smth. So I’m curious if I’m gonna get depressed in scandi/Northern Europe, I’m not a fun of overly protective of their personal space people who think that it is rude to suggest them some spontaneous trip or give a hug when we became friends already.

Hello!

I have recently been reading about Finland and the Finnic people, who are truly unique in Europe and I found it quite surprising that practically all Finns descend from Viking age Northern-Estonians as that founding population predated the massive/exponential increase of the Finnish population and the Finnish colonization of non-coastal, inner regions of Central- & Northern-Finland.

As a Northern-European, Finns have always seemed like the “definition of Finnic people” as even the Finnic subgroup is named after them, Finland’s population surpassed Estonia in the 16th/17th century and the economy (GDP per capita) surpassed Estonia after WW2.

So, how well is it known in Finland that the Finns descend from Estonians the same way that the Icelanders descend from Norwegians? What is the general opinion about Estonians and how similar do you think they are to you in the 21st century? How well do you understand Estonian? Is it comparable to an Icelander understanding Norwegian or Danish?

It is fascinating how Finnish has preserved a lot of archaic elements of the ancestral Finnic language while Estonian has linguistically innovated quite a lot. Just like Icelandic is similar to Old Norse while the Scandinavian languages have changed a lot!
Interestingly, Finland innovatively created many new Finnish words, for older loanwords, in the early 20th century and this seems to have decreased the mutual intelligibility with Estonian. For that reason, Estonian and Kven look more similar because of shared words/loanwords from Germanic languages and Kvens live in the far north of Scandinavia!

Thank you in advance, for all your insights and opinions!

Reference:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002929721002809

I’m thinking about moving to Norway, I think I will move to Asker, I want smth close to Oslo.

I noticed that it’s hard to find bus stops around Norway, in smaller than Oslo type of cities also, because Norway is just mountains and hills mostly (I’m still shocked by that, cause I couldn’t imagine that it is built that way, I spent my whole life living on the flat surfaces lmao). So I’m curious if you can actually live comfortably in Norway without driving a car?

I still don’t have my driver license even tho I’m 21, I’m crazy terrified of the traffic and driving, getting a car is my huge nightmare. I would absolutely love to get a license for the boat and drive on the water, but definitely not on the road.

Hey guys, I’m Ukrainian and I been living in Poland since 2021. I want to move to some country, but idk which one. Logically I understand that I better pick Norway because I love cold climates and rain, I been to Norway recently and it turned out to be much better than I expected. Everyone told me that Norwegians are cold and reserved, but irl they turned out to be very nice and talkative , I also enjoyed hearing their superior towards Ukraine, kinda appreciated it:) I loved the food, loved the people, loved their lifestyle that they have sea and forests close, I’m from the southern Ukraine so it is very essential for me to have a beach nearby, in western part of Poland every day I feel like I’m missing the sea, even tho I been living there for the last 5 years, I still didn’t get used to the absence of the sea….so I can’t imagine living any longer far away from the beach, just can’t….. beaches are crazy important to me, I don’t even like mountains much, but beaches are mandatory for me, I don’t see any sense in life if I’m gonna live far away from the beach. I liked the Norwegian food even tho I heard lots of complaints about it, I liked the Norwegian language even tho I heard a lot of people talking shit about it, I loved the amazing nature and saunas in water, and weather - is just a maxing, when the whole Europe was suffering from the 40 degrees, I was chilling on the beach having 26-28 degrees. I really love cold weather, I love to breathe cold air in, I love to come home and try to warm up instead of trying to cool down after walking under the sun, and I just hate sweating. I actually enjoyed white nights, u get so tired during the day, that ur biological clock starts to work just fine, and closer to 11 om u r feeling tired and falling asleep.

Here in Poland I live in a student city where we have lots of Erasmus students from Spain particularly, and I have never ever met better people than them, they are so open, loud and fun! They remind me of souther Ukraine’s a lot (Odesa region), we are also loud and very expressive, joke a lot and are very direct. I really love Spanish people and would love to live among them, I also do really love Spanish food, I love the sea products a lot. I had many Spanish people asking me to move there, I almost got a few boyfriends from Spain, even tho I don’t have much of luck around my own people lamo, but I think that I will feel miserable under a huge heat, in Odesa we have 40-50 degrees in summer ☠️, I remember how I hated it and promised myself that I will move to the cold country in the future.

And I do like how polite and nice people in Norway are, but I so don’t want to become all of that reserved and silent, I’m loud and expressive, and very open, and talkative…I so don’t want to lose it, and I don’t want to scare Norwegian people away lmao, because of my personality. And I feel great being the way I am, I don’t want to change it, honestly. I also heard of crazy Norwegian standards that u need a lot of stuff to fit into the society like hide ur debt, get two cars, a house and some luxury stuff, I feel like it is so stupid even tho I’m a materialistic person, and tbh I don’t really care about being accepted by the society in my mind, but I understand that to gain connections u gotta fit in a bit and I am a crazy sociable person, so I want to have lots of friends too. I’m so confused. I don’t really know how to play my cards right. But Norway does have great free healthcare, working conditions, good quality of life etc….

Also, in thinking about entering another uni cause my first degree is graphic design and the whole IT field seems to do very bad, so idk tbh who I wanna be, I think I would lie, to be some person who designs implants or smth, maybe a doctor but not sure, or psychiatrist, or…. I don’t know yet tbh…. I would love to work in IT, cause I wanna work remote, but this field seems to do rly bad rn and probably in the future, and I’m bad at math so i don’t even know what to do lmao. For the background check: I have a double citizenship - Bulgarian (EU citizenship)and Ukrainian, so I can’t take a refugee status anywhere, but I can easily move anywhere I want, my family is ready to help me with changing my major and moving to another country. I’m turning 22 in November.

I feel very old, very lost, just hhorrible… while my ex classmates are owning cars and starting families, I’m stuck with a useless degree and don’t know what to do. And any country I make a research on moving to, I hear some horrible shit and people begging not to move here and how they want to get out from this country.

Hey guys, so I’m thinking about moving to Norway and I have an alt style, when I been to Norway I noticed that people are dressed mostly the same, same "old money" classic style, the makeup, the hair, the clothes etc…just the same classic look. On the net making research about life in Norway I found many videos saying that if you have an alt or related style, then u won’t make friends over there and won’t be accepted by the society. I wouldn’t like to lose myself moving to any country, so I’m just curious if these internet statements are true?

Outside the completely different language of course, they seem really really similar, they actually look more similar to me than Sweden and Norway for example, the architecture ecc. look very similar and even the nature. Am I wrong? If someone has visited both or has lived in both what are the biggest differences (both pros and cons) of Finland? In both living and visiting (outside the € of course)

-masturbation

-reconsider how to ingnore every girl when 9th grade starts

-shoot an air rifle

-imagine being in a war

-longer masturbation

-recap the 1808 Finnish war again

-ponder how firearm A is better than firearm B

-debating whether or not masturbation can be done sinless (it cant)

-imagine being in a war more realistically

-wonder in terror whether or not Oulu is a good place

-advanced masturbation

-fantasize what kind of girl would be the perfect lover

-recap Russian history just to have an excuse to say "ryssä" over and over

-look around and feel patriotic

-ponder what room masturbation feels the most comfortable in

-shoot an air rifle for longer

-be upset at ticks and horseflies

-slower masturbation with a better climax

-go magnet fishing again becouse still cant afford a metal detector

-memorize the names of Finnish counties better

-finish the 17th soda can of the week

-be afraid of divine punishmed due to masturbation

-wonder how many pimples stay hidden under a baseball cap

-celebrate Ukraines victories

>En million europæere har nu skrevet under på et borgerforslag, der opfordrer EU til at suspendere den såkaldte associeringsaftale med Israel.

>Det er det antal underskrifter, der kræves for, at tvinge EU til at tage stilling til forslaget.

>Borgerforslaget er lanceret af Den Europæiske Venstrefløjsalliance (ELA) sammen med civilsamfundsorganisationer og pro-palæstinensiske bevægelser. De argumenterer blandt andet med, at Israel er ansvarlig for “et hidtil uset niveau af drab og skader på civile, omfattende fordrivelse af befolkningen og den systematiske ødelæggelse af hospitaler og medicinske faciliteter i Gaza”.

>Initiativtagerne ønsker at nå 1,5 millioner underskrifter, før indsamlingen afsluttes. De nationale myndigheder har derefter tre måneder til at verificere underskrifterne.

>I Danmark har godt 18.000 mennesker skrevet under, mens næsten halvdelen af underskrifterne, 410.000, er sat i Frankrig.

• Please note that you must be a EU citizen to sign the European Citizen Initiative (petition)! • Minimum age requirement in most EU countries:18 years

Hi everyone!

I'll soon be moving to Sweden in September as a visitor. I'm a French girl, 23 years old, who will be living with a host family made up of a single dad and his 6-year-old child. I'll only be staying for one year, but this will be my very first experience living abroad, on my own, and with people I don't really know yet.
I'm gonna leave near a city named Nora. It seems lovely btw

I also wanted to say that I know almost nothing about Sweden—literally nothing! I know it's a country with beautiful nature and lakes, and that it has a very high quality of life (great working conditions, a strong focus on children's education, respect for the environment, etc.).

Everything seems so different from France, and I'm honestly a bit nervous because I've heard that social norms are very important there, and that people take rules quite seriously—whether it's communication, handling conflicts, respecting personal space, being polite, and so on.

So, I wanted to ask: what are the biggest mistakes I should be careful not to make as a French person living in Sweden, especially when interacting with people? Are there things that are considered rude or impolite that I should know about? Any advice on conversations, social etiquette, or everyday behavior would be really appreciated.

In France, we're not necessarily loud like Americans are often stereotyped to be, but we're generally not afraid of conflict. If we think we're right, we usually don't hesitate to say so, even if it makes the situation uncomfortable—especially at work. I think we're also quite direct and honest, and we probably have a slightly different sense of personal space. We can come across as rude sometimes... and, to be honest, some French people even enjoy a bit of playful sarcasm.

I'd love to hear about the biggest cultural differences I should expect and any tips you have for fitting in. Thanks in advance!

Also, if you guys have extra tips for things to shop before I leave. It can be things like special medicine for winter, special clothes for the cold, or others things I didn't think about it because It's not used in France. It would great !

Thank you 🌲

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I had the idea to work in one of the scandinavian countries during summer.

Does anyone have advice for websites, companies,agencies who are looking for seasonal workers.?

I have experience in tourism, hotels, retail, office management. However I dont speak any of the skandinavien languages.

Happy about any advice 🙂

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