Exploring Challenges and Criticisms: Foreigners' Views on Finland

[@qwineth]

I totally agree about the cold vs darkness. Helsinki winters would actually be better if they would be a bit more freezing - we would then have permanent snow and thus more light, and not the constant rain and sleet. The darkness is pretty trying and tiring even for a native citizen...

[@Aidan_Au]

The nightlife comment is not really specific to Finland..... It's the same in any other country. If people want nightlife, they should move to the major metro areas and bigger cities with more people

[@Aidan_Au]

If you have a (big) family, it would be even more affordable to raise in Finland and than in the US or North America. There're many days of parental leave. There's affordable day care/child care. University if free for Finns. Sure, Finns pay more in taxes. But at least they can back in the form or social safety net. And their government is more earnest on how they spend those taxes

[@NatzoXavier]

As someone who is afraid of the dark and lives in Finland, winter time is scary outside.

[@hellyeah2k183]

What is guy saying lmao

[@olwynskye417]

At least in Northern Finland nights are never really that dark thanks to snow. People are the only scary thing in Finland.

[@NatzoXavier]

@@olwynskye417 The night is lit up by greenhouses here. Looks like a perfect halloween night.

[@lucone2937]

When the ground is covered by white snow and the weather is cold, dry and often sunny, the daytime is not particularly dark in January and February. November is usually the darkest month of the year when it's cloudy and it rains wet snow that quickly melts away.

[@ArchieArpeggio]

@@NatzoXavier Well, i hope you don´t live close to Närpiö where are alot of green houses. I know that there are lots of foreign workers. I remember once as i were driving from Turku to Kokkola at night and i started to see lights at the sky that came from green houses. I didn´t realize that first so that looked quite spooky and i wondered are ufos invading Finland 😂. But the when i got closer and saw the first green house and how it reflected the light into the sky, i ws reliefed.

[@ristovirtanen6396]

Typical Finn always thinks twice before he says nothing 🤐

[@hhdhpublic]

What can make our non expressivenes even more confusin is that some of us haver really sarcastic and ironic sense of humour meaning we can mean the opposite of what we say. Because we don't signal this through tone of voice or expressions one kinda has to just learn in which situations people are sarcastic and ironic and in what situations person means what. As a person who doesnt drink the fact that alcohol tends to be part of most social situations causes me to feel that sometimes there arent too many social events I can participate because, well, I don't really enjoy the company of drunks, heh. Alas, it is what it is. As for nightlife, well, even in major cities it can feel like there are lack of options compared to bigger cities, especially bigger cities with major nightlife like berlin. Small cities, well, I do hope you enjoy small, introverted village bars cause thats pretty much the only option, heh.

[@davidhenriksson285]

D-vitamine! Very important during the dark winter months! I even take iron suplements. Blutsaft is great

[@livinginthetropics8470]

Of course there is always the option to leave. Like you moved from Japan to Finland, I moved from Finland to Australia. Now I only have two seasons - the wet season and the dry season. It is hot and humid at the moment, so no place is perfect all the time. I like your videos by the way.

[@larizig]

I am from finland and the dark and cold winters suck in many ways but one good thing is that i can sleep good because of the dark. i love your videos and your opinions on finnis culture and people:)

[@lucone2937]

For a cold weather you just need suitable warm clothes to wear. Besides Finnish apartments and public buildings are planned to stay warm no matter how cold is outside. One good thing about early dark evenings is that they are very suitable to watch movies on TV in a completely darkned living room like you were in movie theatre.

[@ArchieArpeggio]

Those are very common problems for many Finns too. Also finding job as a Finn isn´t very easy either. Finnish food is quite mild and i use lots of spices myself. I am many times disapointed of the quality of restaurant foods. I feel and know many times that i can make much better food myself. So that has led to the point that i don´t go very often to restaurants. Anither thing that is shame is that most of the coffee places closes too early. If i go to date with someone, it is hard to find good coffee place where to chat peacefully. Usualy the option is some gas station and that isn´t very romantic.

[@huanhuang4723]

貴重な参考点をありがとうございます。 良い週末を。

[@ilmarinen79]

As a local I also dislike the winter's darkness (plenty or special bright lights recommended at home), though cold is fine as your body adapts to it. On the other hand I like how different the seasons are: spring feels cheery and hopeful, summer is like a short utopia and fall can be charming or beautiful in a melancholic way. If you get plenty of snow in winter time it feels more bearable as it offsets the darkness. Slippery walkways in winter can be dangerous and you have to develop a different attitude/style to walking which I hate. In addition it feels like some cities are getting more lazy with servicing the walkways. Taxes: I don't exactly know what is going on behind the curtains today but we are almost the #1 country on taxing and we still have crisis all over the public sector. Where is the money going? Some bosses in the public sector are getting wages similar to PM of the country...and there are lots of them. But Finland is corruption-free, haha!

[@adaw.5180]

Thanks for making the video. I like that even when you presented the negative side or the side of Finland that you don't like that much, you try to bring in positive perspectives from yourself or others. This brings more depth and insights to the content and showcases how the negativity could be dealt with somehow.

[@ttompuri]

Thanks for the interesting perspectives, it's nice to hear thoughts from outside your own bubble, it usually makes things so much simpler. I have lived all my life in Finland for 36 years, and only in recent years I have learned to enjoy the dark and cold months of southern Finland as well. I think it's rich that here you can see the different seasons so clearly, they also nicely symbolize life (birth, growth, flourishing and death). Psychologically, people are often against change because it is scary. However, through change and fear we often get forward so fast. Change both externally and internally should be appreciated rather than be against it :)

[@mikelitoris6923]

Even as a Finn i know what foreigners mean when they say food is bland. 😄 My parents have always made spicy food so i typically took some hot sauces, chilis and dressings to school when i was in yläaste (upper level of mandatory education) and ammattikoulu (professionschool). 😄 Things are changing slowly to direction of finns using more spices but the keyword is slowly. 😄

[@DAIKIFinlandLife]

This reminded me of my first semesters in Jyväskylä when I was taking sesame dressing to the lunch restaurant at school😂

[@marjar.5978]

Ah, the darkness! It also affects us who have born here. It feels like it’s more prevelant the older you get 😓. No place is perfect and it’s completely understandable to feel that some things in another countries feels strange at first, but in many cases you brought valid points to these ”dislikes” people have. One thing I can whole heartedly agree with, is the drinking ”culture”. I used to over indulge myself, when I was younger, but these days, I usually just have a glass of wine or a beer when eating out. Drinking in order to pass out, seems just dumb these days.

[@wyatt2477]

I am Finnish and I my self struggle with most of these points

[@mikkohapponen5728]

Have to own nature. Winter is long. U just adapt to it. Respect to u

[@Scheikima]

Hyvä video. 😐

[@Aidan_Au]

Thank you Daiki for making this video. I think that you're mostly positive. Thanks!

[@Aidan_Au]

Arigatō Daiki. I like that you're optistimic and that you chose to live in a higher wage and high cost of living country. Apple products or electronics cost just about the same in most countries. And those products may be even cheaper in western countries

[@mikkohan]

I'm sure that it has been said many times in comments, but many finnish people like the interaction with others, they just don't want to be the one to start it. That said, I'm always open for new friends and ready to help anyone if they have something that feels hard with living in Finland. So you can drop a DM anytime. :-)

[@glanwen10969]

About university lunches - I work at HU, eat often at Unicafe and I agree. They try to make it healthy and sustainable, so the amount of goodies they put in the food like butter and sugar are limited, and many Finns are used to that tasteless thing, so they make it mild and then there are some spices there on the side table you can add yourselves. Different thing though are there any good spices, the variety is rather limited. You get your stomach full, that is the main purpose. Most people can behave and alcohol is not a problem, but there are always those who like it too much and drink too many. It is seen sad and annoying, but as we Finns don't usually interfere other peoples matters, we just try to ignore. Still, there is the shame of drinking deep in our culture as it has been tried to root out of us so many times by public shaming (jalkapuu /stocks in the old days), with prohibition law and good hell fiery lectures of priests and health authorities. Alcohol is not seen as a happy thing you can enjoy publicly really, the authority raising their finger is looming above every time a bottle is opened. It is an escape from the shit in life, but if you drink, do it in half secret. Compared what I've noticed on drinking culture for example in Japan, they don't share that shame. Declaring "we are going drinking, wanna come along? " is not something we would say happily out loud. We can say we are going to a bar, restaurant or club, but alcohol is not mentioned, even though it is self evident.

[@pirateradioFPV]

寒い？そんな事がない、今日は僕の町がちょっとだけ雪を降った😂 はい、初雪🤣

[@Aidan_Au]

But yeah, Daiki. I hope that you'd get through this upcoming winter faster than you know. Last year, I heard of the national debt ceiling in Finland, and also the high energy cost.... Well at least Finland is in NATO now so that's good

[@spugelo359]

You mentioned liking how Finnish sounds and I personally feels some familiarity about how Japanese sounds. Has a lot to do with many words or parts of words that are pronounced mostly the identical way, yet still sounds very different and unique in the wider context. Which has resulted in some Jokes about Japanese language, which is basically just people coming up with sentences that are purposefully structured to sound 'more like Japanese'. Such as Kato-siko taka-kumi, all but siko having a meaning in Japanese as far as I know. Or just simple words that are basically identical, buy different meaning... such as "Aho" which is just a name in Finland but in Japanese means idiot, or hai, tori ect.

[@mikkohan]

Aho means like a field with no crop that is growing grass :-) so not just a name

[@KuopassaTv]

Have you yet been culturally enriched by "teens"?

[@ijoxi]

Don't they sand the streets where u live? :o

[@gambit_toys6554]

😊 nice video

[@stiglarsson8405]

Thanks, its this, how to live in the subarctic region The foreginer say, its so cold and dark in Finnland at winter. The finn.. its cold in summer to, get used to it and make you a life! Foreginer.. there is snow and ice on the roads, learn to drive in this condition.. if one take a driverlicens in Finnland one have to learn about driving on slippery roads! And then.. there is a rumor that says, in northwest of Japan there is a region that get 1-3 meters of snow every year! How do they survive?? Finnland is situated in arctic/subarctic region, along the northen part of the Baltic see.. not the Mediteranian see! Another warning about Finnland, it can be hot at summer, 20-25 centigrades, and the sun almoste never set soo it can be a problem to sleep! Turn of any lamps befor you open windovs for sleeping.. otherwise all the bugs comes in! Another tip to be happy, eat a lot of black liqurice, (saltlakris) (Salmiaki), blood sausages, liver sausage, Karelian stew, Memma as desert, frekvently take sauna baths! Its this.. there is no shortcomings to be one of the happiest population in the world, one just have to try harder!

[@r2dezki]

It's very sad that our government makes foreigners not feel welcome 😞