What do you know about Finland?

[Pancaspe]

Finland was part of the Axis in WW2. I understand why, because of Russia, but that is a black mark.

[Shakadam]

Where in Finland do you live? Åland?

No, currently I live in Turku/Åbo. Born and raised in Nykarleby/Uusikarlepyy in Ostrobothnia though.

Finland was part of the Axis in WW2. I understand why, because of Russia, but that is a black mark.

I feel like I need to comment on this: Finland never signed the Tripartite Pact, it was never a member of the Axis powers and never deported any jews. I'll quote wikipedia on the rest:

Military co-operation between Finland and Nazi Germany started in late 1940 after Finland had lost a significant amount of her territory to Soviet aggression in the Winter War. Finland joined Operation Barbarossa on June 25, 1941, starting the Continuation War. In November, Finland signed the Anti-Comintern Pact (an anti-communist agreement directed against the Soviet Union) with many other countries allied with Germany. Soon after this Germany suggested Finland sign the Tripartite Pact. However, the Finnish government refused, because Finland saw its war as a "separate war" from the Second World War, and it saw its objectives as different from those of Nazi Germany. Finland also wanted to maintain diplomatic relations with the Allied Powers, the United States in particular. During the Second World War, Germany asked Finland several times to sign the pact, but always the Finnish government declined the offer. Diplomatic relations between Finland and the United States were maintained until June 1944, although the US ambassador had already been recalled earlier. The United Kingdom, however, declared war on Finland on December 6, 1941 in support of its ally, the Soviet Union.

[Deleted]

Finland was part of the Axis in WW2. I understand why, because of Russia, but that is a black mark.

Finland wasn't part of WW2.

[Deleted]

Finland wasn't part of WW2.

Yes it was

Notice all the German kit?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fi...LamA0AWt7IHwBw

[Rukentuts]

Finland wasn't part of WW2.

The "Winter War" is considered part of WW2.

[Deleted]

No, currently I live in Turku/Åbo. Born and raised in Nykarleby/Uusikarlepyy in Ostrobothnia though.

Woah, that's a lot of Swedish-speaking majority. Might as well give half of Finland to Sweden so you don't have to learn Swedish anymore, am I right? :P

[Darkis]

Decent cheese, outdated cellphones, ascii language, lovely scenery.

[Deleted]

The "Winter War" is considered part of WW2.

Winter war was Finland vs soviets. WW2 just happened to happen at the same time.

[Deleted]

I feel like I need to comment on this: Finland never signed the Tripartite Pact, it was never a member of the Axis powers and never deported any jews. I'll quote wikipedia on the rest:

Finland deported 8 jewish refugees to Germany, some of them died in concentration camps, none of them Finnish. However, in the continuation war, both Finnish jews and nazi soldiers fought on the same side against the russians.

[Orangetai420]

Isn't the band H.I.M from Finland?

[Talokami]

Isn't the band H.I.M from Finland?

Yep. Sort of dropped off the earth for a bit though.

[Jackmoves]

Winter war was Finland vs soviets. WW2 just happened to happen at the same time.

Dude, thats like saying Hiroshima wasn't part of WW2.

History lesson, not a fantastic doc, but I'm sure you can learn something!
1h 40mins long

[Deleted]

Kato perkele!

[Deleted]

Ahhh the language debate again.... A constant source of irritation for everyone. I imagine it's somewhat similar for Canada with the english-french thing.

Kanani represent one end of the spectrum, the one that wants nothing to do with sweden and/or the swedish language. Then we have some people on the other end who wants to keep things exactly as they are or even make the swedish position stronger. I guess I'm somewhere in between along with the majority of the population and the political parties. Keeping both finnish and swedish as official languages is a good idea imo, we are after all neighbours and cooperate on many levels. It doesn't in any way hurt to know swedish. I do agree though that it's kinda silly to force finns in the eastern parts to learn swedish even if they don't want to though. They're never gonna learn it properly anyways and have little use for it in daily life. Let them learn russian instead if they want to.

Not all swedish-speaking Finns know finnish btw. I sure as hell don't. I know enough to get by on a daily basis without any problems but if I need to have a real discussion about something I have to do it in swedish or english, my finnish just ain't good enough. I happen to be from a part of Finland where swedish is the dominant language so I never needed to learn finnish while growing up, meaning i never learn it properly. Same thing for most of my friends and family. None of my grandparents know more than, like, 5 words in finnish and no english at all.



I imagine Finland is called Finland and not Suomi in english because it's probably adopted from the swedish word from Finland, also as Whitey said pretty much every country is called something else internationally (the english version that is) than in its local language, or indeed in any languge, most seem to have their own version of what a language is called. For comparison:

In english (and internationally): Finland - Sweden - Germany - United States of America
In swedish: Finland - Sverige - Tyskland - Förenta Staterna (Commonly just called USA though)
In finnish: Suomi - Ruotsi - Saksa - Yhdysvallat
In german: Finnland - Schweden - Deutschland - Die Vereinigten Staaten

Wonder why swedes dont learn finnish, we're neighbouring countries afterall and it doesnt hurt to know finnish, right? Honestly it would be so easy if you fuckers would just deal with the fact that we live in finland and learn the fucking language. You people are so selfish, this isnt your land, this is finland and if you dont want to act like a finn then you should consider taking a boat to our beloved neighbor whom you love so much. Yes, this is a very touchy subject for me, especially when there are some people who see no problem in our language situation. Makes me fucking mad.

[Deleted]

Wonder why swedes dont learn finnish, we're neighbouring countries afterall and it doesnt hurt to know finnish, right? Honestly it would be so easy if you fuckers would just deal with the fact that we live in finland and learn the fucking language. You people are so selfish, this isnt your land, this is finland and if you dont want to act like a finn then you should consider taking a boat to our beloved neighbor whom you love so much. Yes, this is a very touchy subject for me, especially when there are some people who see no problem in our language situation. Makes me fucking mad.

Strange how you treat "hurris" like different and foreign people. We are Finnish as well, most speak Finnish as well as their mother tongue and we aren't fucking hurris speaking Swedish because we love Swedes so much, we just happen to speak Swedish as our relatives have spoken it for a long time. I, for example haven't had any Swedish relatives since the 17th or 18th century so I'm not very Swedish. I can't either understand how this subject is so sensitive for you, you seemed to have really horrible Swedish lessons in your youth and decided to hate everyone who speaks Swedish because of that?

[Deleted]

Winter war was Finland vs soviets. WW2 just happened to happen at the same time.

Just propaganda, we the finns were 100 % on the nazi side of things.

---------- Post added 2012-11-27 at 11:25 PM ----------

Finland was part of the Axis in WW2. I understand why, because of Russia, but that is a black mark.

And how exactly is that a black mark? Atleast we didn't nuke civillians.

[Deleted]

Strange how you treat "hurris" like different and foreign people. We are Finnish as well, most speak Finnish as well as their mother tongue and we aren't fucking hurris speaking Swedish because we love Swedes so much, we just happen to speak Swedish as our relatives have spoken it for a long time. I, for example haven't had any Swedish relatives since the 17th or 18th century so I'm not very Swedish. I can't either understand how this subject is so sensitive for you, you seemed to have really horrible Swedish lessons in your youth and decided to hate everyone who speaks Swedish because of that?

I hate swedish because its unnecessary language for us and I dont really like swedish language at all. Finns do infact have a real reason to hate swedes, just look at history. Swedish is like a mix of german and english and it sounds really boring to me as I already know english. We have our own beautiful language that we should care about, not our neighbour's language.

If you truly consider yourself finnish you wont teach your kids swedish, only finnish. If you however do teach them swedish too, then fine. Just dont make everyone else learn your stupid language even if they dont want to.

Many people, me included would have liked to learn another language BUT we were forced to learn swedish instead and many people arent ready to learn 4 languages at once (finnish, english, swedish, the language you chose). Dont tell me you can learn fourth language on top of all this, we have enough school work without extra language. Its funny how you people cling to sweden and cant let go. Its 2012 already.

[Deleted]

I hate swedish because its unnecessary language for us and I dont really like swedish language at all. Its like a mix of german and english. We have our own beautiful language that we should care about, not our neighbour's language. If you truly consider yourself finnish you wont teach your kids swedish, only finnish. If you however do teach them swedish too, then fine. Just dont make everyone else learn your stupid language even if they dont want to.

What makes me "un-Finnish" if I speak another language as my mother tongue in addition to Finnish? And I personally haven't contributed to that you are forced to learn a little bit of Swedish in school, it's the party which I find pretty shit, and I'm pretty sure that most other hurris don't care either if the mandatory Swedish language teaching is getting removed. Also, why not teach ones kids two languages if it's possible and it has been researched that talking 2 or more languages as a mother tongue improves some parts of the brain, so I don't really find any downsides of that either.

[shise]

<3

[Deleted]

Also, why not teach ones kids two languages if it's possible and it has been researched that talking 2 or more languages as a mother tongue improves some parts of the brain, so I don't really find any downsides of that either.

English might be useful to learn, swedish not so much.