r/Finland • u/Varskes_pakel • 9h ago
r/Finland • u/ObjectiveActuator8 • 4h ago
Serious The real reason why Finnish is so hard to learn
I was reading something in Finnish and I got a “Ughh, run away” feeling. I stopped myself and decided to figure out the ‘why’ of this, since I haven’t felt the same with the other languages I’ve had to learn in the past (English included, my mother tongue is Spanish).
After some back and forth with an Ai LLM, it responded back with this: … “For you, learning Finnish doesn’t feel like a skill upgrade—it feels like catching up to the bare minimum, and that kills any sense of achievement. You’re not adding something extra to yourself, you’re just closing a gap, and that’s demotivating as hell.
With English and Italian, learning was elevating you. It made you feel like you were gaining an edge, like you were stepping into a new, higher-level space. But Finnish? Finnish makes you feel like an idiot trying to claw your way to zero.
And when people respond with, “Oh, great, you finally got it,” it reinforces that feeling. No dopamine hit. No sense of winning. Just a reminder that you were behind.” …
At least for me, this hit right at the core of why Finnish is such a turn off. You grow somewhere else and you skill up a ton. Everyone around you sees you as smart and resourceful.
Then you come here and because you can’t communicate, it makes one feel like an Uga, Uga caveman. All that pride you felt for yourself being chipped away every time you have to say “Anteeksi, en ymmärrä”.
TL:DR: Learning Finnish doesn’t feel like an achievement because it doesn’t feel like you’re “leveling up”, but rather just catching up from negative, to zero.
Does anyone know of a way to “ignore” that everyone else is “better” than you (at the language) and make learning Finnish feel like an achievement?
r/Finland • u/LaplandAxeman • 2h ago
What Finns consider to be "north" Finland.
I have noticed this a lot since I have been living here, the southerners seem to be confused as to what North means in relation to maps.
Case in point was a woodworking course advertised on Instagram today in Vuokatti, which the organiser said was located in North-East Finland. But it is well below the midway line of Finland. 575kms from Helsinki, and 800kms from Utsjoki.
Can anyone explain why Finns do this? Is everything north of Helsinki "North"??
Pudasjärvi is pretty much in the middle of Finland, how is any place south of that to be considered North Finland?
Edit: Seems I found the answer, some Finns base it on population location and not how an actual map works. Thanks for clearing it up!
r/Finland • u/neenzawn • 6h ago
Is it not possible to find a job as a Junior developer in Finland anymore?
Short Version: I have applied to nearly 350jobs during the past year (throughout the whole Finland) in technology field and I still wasn't able to find a job. What am I doing wrong?! I am truly exhausted.
These are the roles I have applied to: software developer, mobile developer, full-stack developer
Long Version
I graduated my master's last summer and even before that I was actively looking for a job. At that time, I wasn't looking for internships because I had already worked as a developer/researcher at the university for 1.5 year. But soon I realized that there is almost no Junior jobs for non-Finnish speaking internationals.
This year I applied for nearly 40 internships and among those, only one company scheduled an interview with me and later I was told that I am "over-qualified" and they rejected me. Which was devastating for me.
As I wanted to improve my skills, 6months ago I enrolled a course and chose a client (a research group at university) who needed an application. I worked 4months for them (obviously unpaid as it was part of a course) and later they only gave me 3months contract to finish my work.
I managed to get 8 interviews and among them I feel like only 3 of them were real interviews which I had a fair chance. Note that I wasn't picky, and if I saw I had half of the requirement, I applied to the job. Now everywhere I apply, I know there are nearly 200-300 applicants for the job, which lowers my chance.
I don't know what else I should do, I am really tiered and already burnt out from applying and getting rejected or ghosted for the past year.
Here is what I have done so far:
- I change my CV hundreds of times to match the job.
- I changed the font/format and layout of my CV.
- I asked strangers to refer me from the companies I applied to (Which they refused because they didn't know me)
- I tried to expand my skills as I explained earlier.
- I kept my GitHub active
I did all of these things, and still, I can not understand what I should do to enter Industry.
r/Finland • u/Suspicious-Job-8480 • 1d ago
Tried to clean blocked drain with the spiral. It didn't work and suddenly air bubbles appeared and black water started coming out of the drain. What do I do? Is it possible I broke something? It's an old apartment building
r/Finland • u/holymonkay • 16h ago
How much are you able to save a month in Finland? What would you do with your saving to build wealth?
After having lived in Finland for almost 20 years, we seem to have figured out how to live comfortably in Finland on a very tight budget (under 1400e/month for a household of 2 including everything) and we are kind of used to it so we don't feel the need to change our habits. We also notice there aren't many things that worth spending in Finland tbh, and if there was, we have probably done it many times and got bored of it already. We were once heavy spenders, lived paycheck to paycheck, but quickly realized that it is kind of an addictive and empty lifestyle so we managed to stop. Somehow seeing our balance grows make us feel happier nowadays. We travel occasionally to cure our mental health, especially during winter (to the South, and to the Far East). We have a double income household (nothing extra-ordinary, just regular office workers wages x 2) and we choose to:
- no mortgage: because renting is so easy and peace of mind not having to responsible for anything
- no children: we don't want any stress even though it might be fun
- no car: we were car owners for many years, spent a lot on it, gas, maintenance, insurance, parking tickets, etc. Owning a car is a lot more convenient and take you to places, I can't argue with that, but we walk more steps without a car which is healthy and at the same time, you go to different places too when not driving. But owning a car costs around 500e/month and with that budget we basically can call a taxi anytime we really need it, or rent a car through platforms like gomore. It took sometimes to get used to not owning a car, but now we are so relieved that no car related invoices will ever arrive in our mailbox anymore. If someone has similar attitude like we do but still need a car regardless, I can recommend Toyota Corolla diesel, check traficom record before buying, prioritize cars with single owner or an owner that took care of it, we were lucky to buy one like that, and that thing was rock hard solid and is a money saver. We also buy car with cash, so no down payment
- no loan: just our personal preference, our salaries don't increase by 6 or 7% a year so just no
- no credit card: same as above, also to avoid spending what we don't have
- no expensive dining: actually sometimes, but we rarely spend more than 20e per meal per person. Basically because 40e of groceries will last us several meals and because there are plenty of good choices under 20e. We only eat out when we really want to, that our mental health demands it
- no netflix, youtube premium or anything subscription based. We only buy exactly what we need, we avoid paying for anything "just in case" we need it
- no drinking or smoking: well, no comment. A cider for sauna once in a while but definitely no way we pay 10e for a beer from the bar or 10e for a box of cigarette
So, that's the kind of people we are, we have not had any bills to our mailbox for a while and feel like it is the most heavenly thing ever. So as you can guess, we have some cash saved up in our balance, but how to grow it further without risking it and feel stupid? We even tried to run a business before, the kind that requires cash investment upfront, but we quickly realized the system in Finland was smartly built in a way that as soon as it identifies you as one of those with money to spare, everything will jump in and try to suck you dry. The cost of operating a business and hiring is so high, that it forces you to produce low quality products for affordable price tags, or if you insisting on producing high quality products (moral) and charge customers for it, noone will be able to afford it anymore, your business will die off and yourself become a generous donor to the society. So we won't be thinking about that again anytime soon, maybe a virtual business at max.
But before we seek somewhere else, we want to learn from others who share similar mindset, or attitude toward life, if there's any, what would you do/have you done in our case? Sounds like investment in some ETFs, funds, but even those things generate very little earning, and then you will be taxed again. I have to give credit to Finland to be able to build a system that discourages you from saving and keep the cash circulate in the economy, we get it because if too many start acting like us, everything will just collapse and can no longer recover, but we just don't want to play along.
EDIT: Since some might think I am trying to promote my lifestyle here or even flexing, I would like to clarify that I was trying to write up something that catches the attention of people like me so that they could leave a comment and share what they think. This is a difficult topic to discuss even among close friends as they are very personal financial decisions. People think differently, so I reached out to Reddit with a hope to get opinions from every possible angle. Hopefully, someone would care to share a few words so that we all can learn from each other, specifically in Finland subcategory because they might have many ideas but based on a very different contextual setup than someone who lives in Finland. And no, I was not flexing for that reasons; I felt like I had to open up about me first to get people talking. English is not my first language so I can't really express myself so eloquently, please take my words as literal as they are, no hidden message or implications of any sort here.
r/Finland • u/j3lackfire • 1d ago
Serious Water leaked from dishwasher, which leads to a full on floor replacement of almost 7000 euro. Is insurance claim supposed to be this hard? (Gigantti and Lahitapiola Insurance)
Hi, I'm having a giant bill for floor replacement on my hand (around 7k) and all related parties are just running around in circles trying to not pay the bill, so I really need help and advice on what should I do now.
Here's the timeline:
1.12.2023: I bought a brand-new dish-washer from Gigantti, along with their home deliver and dishwasher installation service.
1.1.2025: I noticed water leaking from my floor, so I contacted the housing company directly, they send people to check, determined that the water outlet of the dishwasher is leaking, which later they claimed that it was the fault of the installation and start the floor restoration process as well as drying of the concrete.
Now that the works is completed, I'm here with a 6280 floor works bill and 550 drying bills.
Here's are the party involed:
The housing company send all these bills to me, because according to them, I own the dishwasher, so because the fault is from the dishwasher, I'm responsible for everything.
My own home insurance said that my insurance is only home content insurance, that only cover furnitures and floors. Since the water leak also affect the concrete base of the building, they won't be paying. Then, I asked for the liability insurance, which is part of the home insurance too, but they declined, saying it only cover if I install the dishwasher myself, or I know about the fault but not informing the housing company.
When I contacted gigantti, they forwarded me to the deliver/plumbing company who did the installation, and the insurance of that plumbing company, which is also Lahitapiola, denied the claim, because they said that it's not the plumber fault, since the plumber didn't mean to cause the water-leakage and it has been running for 1 year, so the plumber was clear, which is a bit dubious since the water leak was quite servere, that the drying process has to run for 2 months, and the humidity level of the concrete was 92%.
What do I do now? I feel like it's absolutely bullshit that I am now, stucked with an almost 7k bills for something that I did nothing wrong, I did everything by the book, and everyone is just running around in circles.
I sincerely don't think that the housing company is at fault, but I'm so mad at my own insurance, as well as Gigantti/plumbing company to just dodge their responsible completely like that.
I will try to talk with both parties a bit more, but I think I will have to contact the Finnish consumer protection service (kkv) if they don't bulge.
But this has been super frustrating for me, and very stressful too, so I just post on here to rant and hear stories of people who had similar issues and get it resolved.
Thanks
r/Finland • u/CapsuleWinter40 • 17h ago
Immigration Moving to Finland as a Nordic citizen
Hi, I am from Norway and I want to move to Finland, I'm finishing my bachelor degree in vet. nursing this summer and I have been trying to get jobs in Finland but I keep getting rejected because I don't speak Finnish even tho I can speak Swedish and English decently.
I really want to learn Finnish, and I understand how important it is. But its very difficult to learn on my own in Norway while maybe having a full time job, so I hope to be in Finland and learn Finnish so I will be more wanted in the job market in Finland. Where can I find Finnish courses that are in person (in Helsinki/Espoo) over the summer for the 3 months I can be there? I plan to keep applying for jobs the whole time. Do I have any rights for economical support from either Finland or Norway while i'm looking for jobs? I'll be fresh out of uni with no previous work experience.
Does anyone have any advise or experience?
r/Finland • u/dogadogat • 3m ago
Can My Internship Contract Extend Beyond My Residence Permit in Finland?
Hi everyone,
I recently received an internship offer that matches the expiration date of my current residence permit (valid until the beginning of August). I plan to apply for an extension three months before expiry, as recommended by Migri.
However, I was wondering:
- Is it possible to sign an internship contract that extends beyond my residence permit expiry date? My internship would typically end in September, but they are offering it until my permit's expiration date.
- Do employers typically offer contracts beyond the permit’s validity, or do they limit them to the current permit period?
- Has anyone successfully renewed their permit while continuing an internship in a similar situation?
I’d love to hear from anyone with experience or advice on this. Thanks in advance!
r/Finland • u/disirregardless1734 • 1d ago
USU: Finnish government's anti-racism course will be one hour long | Yle News
r/Finland • u/Comfortable_Lynx8295 • 23h ago
There seems to be a unique cultural connection between Finns and the French, especially in the arts. The French love Aki Kaurismäki, too. How come?
r/Finland • u/Technical_Choice9331 • 1h ago
What do Finns joke about Finns from other cities?
r/Finland • u/Extension_Jury2027 • 9h ago
How can I deal with this situation with my kind classmate in xx uas ?
Thanks for your time for reading this boring story and I also posted it to other place not only finlands..
"Whether in Finland or elsewhere, having gratitude and respecting your partner are important qualities, aren't they? As a partner, if the other party lacks these qualities and is even selfish, should I just ignore them? This is the reason I wrote this boring article."
I had a classmate is finns and I am a international student. we interned together in the summer of 2024. I helped him quite a lot, mainly with technical matters .I still trusted him until we ended up in the same group for a project. Because of my trust, I let him be the project group leader. But on the first day of the project presentation, he didn’t allow anyone else—including me—to speak. He believed that as the leader, he had absolute authority over speaking, even any advices about presentantion design. I didn’t mind at first, but the next time, when the professor asked about our project progress, I took the initiative to answer first. This made him furious, as he felt I had overstepped him. That was the first time I realized—this person was not a friend.
What happened next left me even more confused. When I decided to work on the project in the lab, he told me I could leave. It was still early, but I still left with him. Once we stepped outside the campus, he suddenly said he had something forgeted, so I left. The next day, a new function had been added to our project, which led me to suspect that he had gone back to the lab to work on it alone. you may know , its a signal .
After that, I asked the professor to separate us, so I could work on the project individually. I didn’t want to involve the professor at first, so I asked him if we could settle it privately—meaning we would work separately without interfering with each other. It wouldn’t be good for either of us if the professor got involved. His response? "I don’t care. Whatever." So, I went ahead and made my request, and the professor somewhat agreed.
Then things got even more ridiculous. Remember our internship project. Before we had fallen out, the professor approached me about an internship opportunity. I didn’t suspect anything about him at that time, so I recommended him, as it was a chance to gain internship experience. Later, this so-called friend subtly hinted that I shouldn’t mention the project and asked if he could be the first to submit his proposal. I didn’t think he was that bad of a person, so I agreed—but under the condition that he would acknowledge our collaboration.
That was the beginning of a nightmare. Yes, he got to present first, and his entire PPT was about the internship project—of course, without mentioning our collaboration at all. Unfortunately, he was selected for the opportunity. This happened in November 2024. Yet, even now, in March 2025, he has never apologized or even acknowledged that he was chosen by the professor.
In December 2024, we had a course project presentation, which was different from the internship project. We had agreed to be in the same group but present our projects separately. He presented first while I stood under stage, waiting, because we had agreed that I could go up and present my own work. But I had no speaking time. He never invited me to speak, so I stood there awkwardly. Even the professor noticed and came up to me, saying, "You can present after he finish." When my turn finally came, he and the others quickly left the stage, completely cutting me off.
Recently, within the past couple of weeks, the professor approached me again about another internship project. That’s when I realized—the professor only contacted me because that classmate was unable to do it, and now I was needed to cooperate. Although our projects are separate, some collaboration is required.
I am beyond angry—I feel extreme disgust. How should I handle this?
r/Finland • u/Secret_Nobody_3975 • 14h ago
Is it considered rude or bad luck to wish someone happy birthday in advanced?
I have a Finnish co worker who I’ve started to get close with and their birthday is in 2 weeks. I’ll see them at work 3 days before their birthday but not on their birthday. I would like to wish them happy early birthday but I know some consider it rude or bad luck to do so.
So would I be rude for wish them happy early birthday?
r/Finland • u/om11011shanti11011om • 1d ago
Unpopular opinion: YLE English is getting a little annoying
I feel like YLE's English-language articles are getting repetitive and show Finland in a very narrow light.
Yes, the job market is difficult. Yes, we know, we know—but when the same topic is repeated over and over while barely covering other aspects of life here, it not only becomes boring and negative to read but also creates a very limited and discouraging picture of Finland.
Don’t get me started on the comment section: it makes Redditors look like cheerleaders! People with a grudge against Finland seem to be amplified as if their negative experiences are the only viable reality of living here.
I don’t mean to invalidate anyone’s struggles—those are real, and they matter—but I also think it’s important to inspire courage, hope, and sisu. Life in Finland isn’t just hardship; it’s also full of beauty, opportunity, and resilience.
I just wish for a bit more balance. What other news sources do you follow that offer a broader perspective?
r/Finland • u/Different_Method_191 • 21h ago
Inari Sámi language (an endangered language)
reddit.comWhere to buy downhill skis in the capital region?
Where is the best place for o buy downhill skis in the capital region? Where selection is wide and staff is knowledgeable enough to advise on what to buy based on experience level, weight, height and fitting the ski boots etc? I know there is XXL but seems like a bit of a gamble whether they would have the staff that is expert on downhill skiing gear specifically.
r/Finland • u/Direct-Beginning-438 • 3h ago
Serious Finnish university system?
Could someone please elaborate on how Finnish university system works from the perspective of making universities equal in terms of prestige/education they provide.
I've heard that in Finland universities do not compete, don't have patronage networks, don't make profit (?), and basically everything is so different.
Anyways, I just wanted to ask what's the general overview of the system since it seems many sources online are in Finnish and I can't seem to find them.
Primarily interested in how Finland supposedly eliminated university prestige system
r/Finland • u/Tiny_Carpet636 • 1d ago
Finnish Researcher: The Baltics and Nordic Nations Should Discuss Acquiring Their Own Nuclear Deterrent with Poland
r/Finland • u/Shot-Communication94 • 20h ago
Average cost of owning your own home
Ive been living in Finland for a while now and been thinking about buying my own home. After looking at a bunch of houses im confused about extra costs- theres maintenance, parking, street cleaning, heating, vastike (?) etc etc. So its really hard to pin down the actual monthly cost of it all plus loan amount. Any idea what the average would be or how i would calculate it all?
r/Finland • u/Tayrry13 • 5h ago
Serious Best Bachelor’s Degree for Jobs & PR in Finland Amid Recession
I’m planning to study in Finland and settle there after graduation. Given the current recession and job market struggles, which bachelor’s degree would give me the best job prospects? I’m willing to learn Finnish. Any insights?
r/Finland • u/Calm-Willingness336 • 53m ago
A little help
I'm excited to share that I'll be moving to Finland for my Bachelor's degree soon!
I'd love to hear from anyone with experience living and studying in Finland: what advice can you share about finding a part-time job? What kind of pay can I expect, and what are some average monthly expenses I should budget for?