boredtortoiseJun 10, 2024

No right wing wave in Finland as Left Alliance take record result in EU elections

https://lemm.ee/post/34225888

No right wing wave in Finland as Left Alliance take record result in EU elections - lemm.ee

> Finland’s results in the European election bucked a continent-wide trend of rising support for parties on the outer fringe of right-wing politics, with the Left Alliance and the National Coalition winning big at the expense of the nationalist Finns Party. > Leftist leader Li Andersson received more votes than any other candidate has ever received in a European election.

Show threadLord WiggleJun 10, 2024
I’m moving to Finland.
Show threadFlying SquidJun 10, 2024

I hope you know Finnish already or are really good with languages because it’s completely unrecognizable to people who speak most other European languages. My dad went to Helsinki in the 90s and said the only signs he could recognize were ones which had international logos like McDonald’s.

This is (according to a search) “I love you” in Finnish: minä rakastan sinua.

But yes, it sounds like a very nice place to live.

Show threadLord Wiggle
I’m familiar with the language, I just don’t know it. But Finland is bilingual, as there is also a lot of Norwegian spoken and many signs are in Norwegian too. I have less issues understanding Norwegian. Myself I’m Dutch, I’ve been to Finland several times. I’m not even going to try to learn the language, it’s really hard. But in major cities they speak English.
Jun 10, 2024 at 11:08amWeb
Show threadSkuaJun 10, 2024
Is it not Swedish, rather than Norwegian?
Show threadVebredJun 10, 2024
Yes it is swedish that is the second official language in finland :)
Show threadLord WiggleJun 10, 2024
I fixed it, by bad :)
Show threadHurmeliJun 10, 2024

A finnish person here. Our second language is swedish not norwegian :-). Aside from that, it is true that many signs etc. are written in both finnish and swedish. People working in public sector are also supposed to know swedish.

Outside of few swedish speaking areas you are better off using english as it’s more widely spoken by the general population.

Show threadLord WiggleJun 10, 2024
Ah thanks for the correction. It has been a while since I’ve been there, I clearly didn’t remember correctly.
Show threadFlying SquidJun 10, 2024

I just remembered that my dad said that about the same trip. That he was able to get around the city because pretty much everyone spoke English, so they could just help him out. The signage was the issue for him.

This was back in 1989 and, just by coincidence, this morning I found a postcard he sent me from Leningrad, because he got permission to take the train there from Helsinki. He wrote that he hoped one day I would learn about Peter the Great and visit the beautiful city he founded. Always the professor. Zero for two, unfortunately. I know basically nothing about Peter the Great and, even though the name St. Petersburg/Petrograd should be a clue, I didn’t even know he founded it.