Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TheAverageFinn:
He or she is 43 years old, has 1.73 children, will live to be 79, and
is tech savvy; the United Nations' Technology Achievement Index ranks Finland
first in the world (the US ranks second).
Finnish is a difficult-to-learn Uralic language whose only relatives in Europe are Estoni-
an (closely) and Hungarian (distantly). Finland is officially bilingual, and about 1 in 20 res-
idents speaks Swedish as a first language. You'll notice that Helsinki is called
Helsingfors
in Swedish. Helsinki's street signs list places in both Finnish and Swedish. Nearly every
educated young person speaks effortless English—the language barrier is just a road turtle.
The only essential word needed for a quick visit is
kiitos
(KEE-tohs)—that's “thank
you,” and locals love to hear it.
Hei
(hey) means “hi” and
hei hei
(hey hey) means “good-
bye.”
Kippis
(KIHP-pihs) is what you say before you down a shot of Finnish vodka or
cloudberry liqueur
(lakka).
