I'm an Australian, and I've lived in Finland on and off starting from about 2006. I came here after having spent 4 months in South Korea, as well as having lived in Japan for some years. I've also spent a bit of time in India where I've been for a few visits and extended business trips.
I first moved to Joensuu, over in the east of Finland where (at first) I found it more or less a nice country place to live.
However despite things looking like a normal western country you soon find that there are many omissions and differences which are perhaps all the more stunning / shocking / mouth dropping / frustrating when you find almost everything else familiar (I mean like compared to Japan, India, Korea or China).
So this blog is about me coping with change as much as me reporting what is strange here (in my view).
Hopefully these pages will also serve to help others who may be thinking of coming to Finland to get a better picture of what things are really like here rather than just the dreamland stuff you'll normally find on this topic.
If you are thinking of moving here I would say to you the following: if like being lonely, don't expect to make any friends or meet anyone and you are independently wealthy (meaning you don't need to get a job) then sure ... try living in Finland. Skiing and winter is nice and I love winter here.
If your a health professional (Doctor, Dentist, Radiologist ...) you'll likely find a job. If you are not then don't hold your breath, and expect to spend 2 years unemployed and you really really need to be fluent in the language or really lucky (as I was).
Seriously.
I suggest you take a moment to read this page, I have found it to be quite spot on. IF you make the break then working can be good here and you may survive longer (I hope you are not gay, or that will present its own problems, Finns are NOT Swedes and this is not Sweden).
For my own experience Helsinki seems to have nicer people, and I have met some nice people through my work ... but most of the towns folk I've met here are enough to discourage anyone from moving here.
Why am I here? Well if you marry a Finn you'll find your self living here in the end.
Finland has its positive sides, Corruption is low and police are actually civil servants not Gestapo as they are in places like USA, Russia ...
But its not cheap to live here and if you come from a modern western country you're in for some confrontations. Look on the globe at where it is, keep in mind the isolation (geographic, cultural and linguistic) and you'll get a better picture.
Lastly I'll say that Finland was hit hard by the Global Financial downturn. Staff layoffs have bitten hard and job competition is really tough. With no (that I can see) fundamental strengths to the economy (no mining, no oil, no manufacturing industry, no electronics industry) it will be interesting to see how the economy fares in the longer term (with the cheap labour entering the country from Estonia and Poland where they've had it much harder). Finland may have survived due to protectionism in the past, however their EU membership has opened up the country now so it will be interesting to see how it can cope.
With Nokia and all the other IT companies that fueled the technical boom moving off shore, myself, I wouldn't lay bets on an upward swing in the near future.
:-)
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Learning about living in a place which is much stranger than it looks
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Why is this here
Prependum: I have not really addressed this blog for some time now, and while I've come and gone a few times I no longer feel "shocked" by the differences in Finland. Now this is just a historical piece, it may or many not help others in their adjustment.
This blog serves to help me to come to terms with the differences between life here and life where I'm used to. I recommend you read my introduction to get more details.
It may as well serve to give some sort of view of Australia to Finns who read this in understanding what Australia might be like by deduction or inference.
Essentially the problem of being a foreigner is that things which you may expect to be normal, may not be. This causes some frustration, but when you combine this with the reaction of locals to your expression of frustration you just end up more frustrated. Cos the locals often don't have a clue about the thing you're explaining and thus don't really know why you'd expect to find it.
Finding things like:
a service station which has a air hose to top up your tyres (because mostly its just fuel dispensing automats), an Electronics shop, a place which does a wheel alignment on your car, decent olives, nice coffee, a delicatessen, ruled line stationary (not checker style for maths), decent pens ....
Obviously its easiest in some ways if you come from somewhere of a lower standard of living to a place of a higher standard of living. Meaning you're less likely to find things missing which you expect.
After living in Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (country town south of Seoul) and India I didn't expect Finland to be such a backward step lacking in (or locating in a strange place) the western or developed country things I am used to. While I'm used to having to ferret around for getting my self organised and finding what's what when moving to a new country Finland seems to have challenged me more than any other place.
I hope you find it entertaining at least.
This blog serves to help me to come to terms with the differences between life here and life where I'm used to. I recommend you read my introduction to get more details.
It may as well serve to give some sort of view of Australia to Finns who read this in understanding what Australia might be like by deduction or inference.
Essentially the problem of being a foreigner is that things which you may expect to be normal, may not be. This causes some frustration, but when you combine this with the reaction of locals to your expression of frustration you just end up more frustrated. Cos the locals often don't have a clue about the thing you're explaining and thus don't really know why you'd expect to find it.
Finding things like:
a service station which has a air hose to top up your tyres (because mostly its just fuel dispensing automats), an Electronics shop, a place which does a wheel alignment on your car, decent olives, nice coffee, a delicatessen, ruled line stationary (not checker style for maths), decent pens ....
Obviously its easiest in some ways if you come from somewhere of a lower standard of living to a place of a higher standard of living. Meaning you're less likely to find things missing which you expect.
After living in Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (country town south of Seoul) and India I didn't expect Finland to be such a backward step lacking in (or locating in a strange place) the western or developed country things I am used to. While I'm used to having to ferret around for getting my self organised and finding what's what when moving to a new country Finland seems to have challenged me more than any other place.
I hope you find it entertaining at least.
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About Me
- obakesan
- In the first decades of the 21st century I've lived in the following countries (for between 3 months and 3 years at a time): Australia, Japan, Korea, Finland and India. My education ranges from Biochemistry - Electrical Engineering - Information Technology and Environmental Science. There is a lot I like to write about, and I put the fragmented stuff here.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteFound your blogs from your recent comment on the Macrobusiness blog.. as a Finn now living in Australia I read this with great interest, some very good points in your posts! :)