Focus on Finland! (MAGICAL Nordic Nation)

This video is all about Finland! Join this channel to see videos early, and get ad-free videos:
/ @geofocuschannel
Finland is a Nordic country located in northern Europe, though it's technically not a Scandinavian country. One third of the country is located within the arctic circle, resulting in very cold temperatures and 7 months of snow per year in some areas. It also results in arctic nights called "Kaamos" during which the sun never rises above the horizon, and "nightless nights" during which the sun never sets. The south of the country experiences less of these extremes, but it's still very much a northern nation.
An interesting part of Finland's history is when it was ruled by Sweden. A result of this is that today there is a Swedish cultural and linguistic minority living in parts of Finland, and Swedish is one of the country's official languages. This includes areas of the southern and western coasts, as well as the autonomous region of Åland where Swedish is the ONLY official language (even though it's part of Finland). There are a lot of surprising facts about Finland!
●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Credits▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●
Producer and host: Paul
Writer: Abdullahzeki Ilgun
Video editor: Amador Lluís
●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Video co-stars▬▬▬▬●
Santiago González
Michael Ruelas
Click the join button to become a video co-star
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Images licensed from istock.com
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The following images were used under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license:
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●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Music▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●
Main: "Analog Romance" by Jon Presstone, licensed from Storyblocks.com
Outro: "Cutting Keys", licensed from Storyblocks.com

[@GEOfocusChannel]

Hi, everyone! I hope you like the new video on Finland! Join this channel to see videos early, and get ad-free videos: kzbin.info/door/8HYERScBt-e0kV0fpe0asgjoin (Join on computer, Android, or web browser on iOS. After joining, you'll have membership features on the iOS app too) Have fun!

[@reynard2ki]

Dang, Paul, I've been subscribed to LangFocus for a long time and I just discovered this channel toaday. Good stuff, but I don't recall you ever promoting this on your other channel.

[@GEOfocusChannel]

@@reynard2ki Hi, Reynard. Yeah, I didn't make any videos on this channel for 5 years and just recently rebooted it. How did you find this channel? Was it recommended on your homescreen?

[@reynard2ki]

@@GEOfocusChannel yes, Paul, it was recommended by YT. As an American who has French and Québécois heritage, I loved your video on the difference between French in France and Québec! Love your content! It’s funny, I saw your face on the preview and thought it was another language video and was taken aback, pleasantly, that it was a geography video.

[@isiarndt1590]

Nice timing for me to learn something about the place i'm going to visit in 2 weeks to see my favourite band which you can see at 11:09 in the video by the way. Good taste Paul.

[@oh2mp]

Hey I found this channel today from KZbin recommendations and I have been subscriber to LangFocus at least 7 years. Because I live in Finland and have watched many videos about geography lately, I guess that's the reason why KZbin recommended this to me. Nice channel, I subscribed this too.

[@syrjaaho]

The No. 1 missconception seems to be that as we live in the cold, we can handle it. Not true. We just make sure to dress appropriately and build houses that are always warm. (I’ve never been more cold than when I lived in Ireland.) We even have a saying along the lines ”There’s no bad weather; it’s just a question of dressing accordingly.”

[@JulleCS2]

Very interesting that we have the same saying in Swedish! But its more like "Theres no bad weather, just bad clothes"

[@nadjakari1752]

Very very true!!!

[@eVill420]

we are for sure adapted to deal with the cold slightly better though. it's not a massive difference but it's definitely there. our facial structure and slightly larger bodies are a testimony of that

[@leosalonen1564]

@@eVill420 wouldn’t a larger body increase surface area though? I think it’s just a matter of perspective

[@eVill420]

@@leosalonen1564 a larger body does mean a higher surface area, but your body's volume grows proportionately even more, allowing you to maintain your body temperature more easily, that's why animals in the arctic tend to be bigger than at the equator

[@prospektarty1513]

Finland is renowned for its education system and the high regards with which it holds the teaching profession. It is one of very few countries in the world where teaching is considered a a very prestigious profession.

[@formatique_arschloch]

Yes, teachers are very respected. Surveys show that Finns tend to respect and trust the police, teachers, nurses, doctors the most.

[@tosijjaan]

Well the tenetin yläkoulu in Sotkamo is shit, so the finnish education isnt that good

[@gastonrelanez3724]

Which is the state of woke agenda there now? Might consider moving there if its not compulsory indoctrination

[@tanishavnishsingh5198]

I visited Finland and it was amazing! As someone who lives near the equator, seeing the midnight sun was fascinating and weird at the same time. We were just strolling on the streets when we noticed that they were completely empty, so I checked the time and it was 11 PM! It felt like 4 PM. I also met Santa Claus and he was a great person. I would love to visit again but in winter this time for I want to see the Aurora lights and everything covered in snow. It was also the first European country I visited. Btw great video as always Paul.

[@attekalkaja]

Im from finland💪🇫🇮👍

[@tanishavnishsingh5198]

@@attekalkaja I wish I was born in Finland. It's heaven on Earth.

[@keravavantaa2886]

@@tanishavnishsingh5198 until you are born in a poor family in a moldy 60’s apartment

[@basicallyedward]

Heh... Good to hear people like this country... Where I live in...

[@cinderellaandstepsisters]

@@keravavantaa2886 less poor ppl in Finland than in many other countries.

[@mantelikukkapenkki2368]

You forgot the most important thing: We have more saunas than cars 😄

[@xezzee]

When you have One Car but also Two Saunas :D

[@himynameisemma7364]

@@xezzee actually we have practically two saunas, one in our home, and other at our summer gottage. Also we used to have an outdoor sauna, but it burned down😂 so we hade 3 saunas at some point, but only 1 car

[@tosijjaan]

I have 4 saunas

[@aztecdune]

We have one sauna and zero cars. 😂

[@PikeTheFalcon]

If I went to Finland, I would like to watch a game of Pesäpallo, a Finnish offshoot of baseball. In Pesäpallo, the pitcher stands next to the batter, and pitches the ball upwards over the plate before the batter takes a few steps forward to hit the ball on its way down. The bases are arranged in a diagonal zig zag path inside a play area that is long and narrow. There is also a difference between being caught, and being out as a baserunner. If you hit a pop fly, and it is caught before it hits the ground, you have to reach the next base before the person on base there gets the ball. If you succeed, you are only “caught”, and can leave the field without further penalty. If you fail, that is an out.

[@moai4110]

oh shit i never realized it was different elsewhere

[@ojl5055]

@@moai4110 Finland is basically the only country to play this variant. The creator saw baseball in USA in the early 20th century and brought it to Finland with adjusted rules

[@Wezqu]

@@ojl5055 Well thats not true anymore. There is a world cup organized every three years last one was 2019 in India and there has been teams from 10 different countries taking part. Australia and India has their own leagues that are gaining momentum. Still so far no other country has not won the gold in any of the cups than Finland.

[@teep_eater]

:O YOU MENTIONED THE Ä

[@tosijjaan]

They forced us to play it in school and nobody liked it and anyone who liked pesäpallo was automatically gay

[@mikasaarela6217]

Thanks for the video. As a Finnish person who travels a lot, the one thing that I feel we Finns lack is the family relations. This may just be personal for me, but I feel that where ever I go, I see the family having much larger authority over people than in Finland. And second point, we Finns never understand how we could be the happiest nation in the World, as we are quite melancholic people. I'm sure the system we have built around us is very functional and humane, though.

[@kameliastoyanova7198]

"I see the family having much larger authority over people than in Finland." Well, that's the thing. Why should someone (or in this case something) have authoruty over the people. Is it making these people happier? It offers some good experiences but it can also be pressuring other people to conform, which doesn't always result in greater happines. One thing I hear about Nordic nations is that there is not somuch pressure on the individual level to conform (and in practise religion isn't as strong) and that's what makes these nations so interesting to learn about for me.

[@AnnaKaunitz]

Helsinki is a stunning city with some unique architecture, the world famous Temppeliaukio/rock church, the Uspenski Cathedral (orthodox cathedral), the massive Soumenlinna fortress. There’s a reason they recommend a full day there for visitors wanting to explore the whole island and fortress. The Temppeliaukio church is the most spectacular church I’ve ever been to. It’s a life altering experience the way the church is built. Åland is large geographically speaking but tiny. Mariehamn the main town takes 20 minutes to cross by foot. Åland people have their own identity and they do prefer their autonomy. Finns are very friendly but it’s a running joke in Sweden and amongst themselves that a conversation equals a nod and Finns think Swedes talk to much lol ❤️😂 Only negative, the prices. Crazy expensive.

[@ophatjb]

Helsinki is my least favourite part of Finland (Yes I live near Helsinki and work there). The nature here is incredible but the cities are 'meh' at best.

[@ojl5055]

One huge and damaging misconception about Finland is that our suicide rate is absurdly high and it gets brought up every time we rank first in the happiness report. Nowadays we are pretty much average in Europe with the rate going down all the time as opposed to many countries in Europe where it is on the rise

[@cinderellaandstepsisters]

@@sheilafallas6161 The weather is the same in all the Nordic countries and Iceland 's and Denmark 's suicide rates are higher than Finland's. "Watch the statistics in the video" Suicide rates by countries/Country suicide rate comparison".

[@damianmccoy6128]

I spent some time in Mikkeli, which is in the lakeland area. It was a wonderful experience and I visited several other places. The best bit was spending time in a mökki (summer house) by a lake, having saunas and swimming in the lakes. It was tranquil and relaxing.

[@Fl4ngerr]

Did you see the alcoholic Finnish people also?

[@kalma999]

@@Fl4ngerr are you idiot?

[@nawafaj93]

you're a really good presenter. I missed Langfocus and I'm enjoying this now. I wish you all the best with all your channels.

[@GEOfocusChannel]

Thanks! I'm glad to hear it. There will be more videos on Langfocus, but I'll never be able to release them as often as I release GEOfocus videos (unless I make them much simpler).

[@dannnyc93]

@@GEOfocusChannel it’s clear the amount of research and care you put into each video, I imagine they must take a lot of time and work! I appreciate your dedication to accuracy.

[@J.i.M.9604]

@@dannnyc93 the Langfocus videos are worth the wait

[@amjadmohammed6085]

Sammmme I love langfocus and geofocus just as good

[@benitocamelo1488]

I lived in Finland and I loved the country, and their language is definitely one of the hardest I've ever heard of! 😁

[@benitocamelo1488]

Btw, it'd be cool if you made a video comparing Standard Swedish and Finland Swedish imo

[@erikybarra3898]

Even harder than Mandarin and Arabic?!

[@MPee76]

Nonsense.. Finnish isn't hard at all. Even the small children here speak it :D

[@kultakoirad9885]

@@MPee76 yo wtf are u talking about

[@keravavantaa2886]

oh where did you live

[@seybertooth9282]

Fun fact: before Sweden joined the European Union in 1995, it had very restrictive alcohol laws and very high alcohol tax (it still does, but much less so). So prior to its EU membership, especially during the 70s and 80s, cruises to Åland from Stockholm (which conveniently takes just over 24 hours) was Sweden's most popular booze cruises. If you were out of the country more than 24 hours you could bring in tax free liquor and since the ticket price for the ferry was less than the money "saved" on the tax-free booze, the trip was essentially free. In addition to this, clever Swedes figured out that alcohol which was actually in one's blood stream, rather than in one's bag, did not count as imported. Thanks to this it was rumored that no one in Åland had seen a sober Swede since the 19th century. Anyway, the EU put a stop to all this by forcing Sweden to lower its alcohol tax and allow much larger amounts to be imported.

[@GEOfocusChannel]

That’s amazing 😄

[@kirby1225]

on the other hand, Finns go to Estonia for some cheap booze

[@poopoo1533]

@@kirby1225 and they go to Latvia and they go to Lithuania and they used to go to Russia and they used to go to Belarus and Ukraine

[@Bellasie1]

Finland is a great country, I'd love to visit more of it, outside of Helsinki, which I already like a lot. The food is delicious, and the people are lovely, too.

[@televisio8652]

Visit actually representative Finnish cities like Vantaa or Mikkeli or Lahti, then you will finally see that this place is not so big of a paradise after all

[@tezvx]

I wouldn't consider Hämeenlinna to be a part of greater Helsinki as it's like 150km away and rather as its own city/town. Also a common misconception is that it would be muich colder than it actually is EVEN on the summer. The climate of Finland's southern parts is close to the one of New York, USA in my opinion. Anyways a great video! :)

[@viinisaari]

More like Maine

[@jyrkilehtinen9886]

In current days there may be weeks or even months with +30 degrees centigrade all the time in summer in southern Finland. But temperatures of +10- +15 degrees centigrade may also last for weeks in summer as well (but not so often).

[@Weissenschenkel]

I don't know what I should say about Finland first! I lost a golden chance to visit Helsinki in 2008 while I was living in St. Petersburg, just a couple hours by car. Maybe next year I'll make my dream come true, after 15 years. Who knows? Fun fact: Linus Torvalds (Linux OS creator) is a Finnish-born citizen from that community where people speak Swedish. Thanks for sharing, Paul!

[@sampohonkala4195]

A minor mistake in the history at 4:00. Civil war started in January 1918 not 1917, and although the reds supported socialism I would not describe them as pro Soviet. All political parties were in favor of independence, the war was primarily about what direction that independent country should take. The issue is quite complicated as there were Russian soldiers fighting on the red side and it is possible that had the reds won the independence might have been lost when the USSR was created in 1922.

[@ojl5055]

Yeah saying pro Soviet and pro German is just wrong

[@Ollireki]

Yup, after the civil war russia was ready to actually take over once again, but they didn't have the resources and no one here liked them lol

[@S4ne]

We Finns may seem reserved and silent but just wait when some success is achieved by Finns or especially by our national team of Icehockey, we go nuts, though it's not only sports; when Lordi won the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2006, tens of thousands of people gathered to the Market Square of Helsinki to celebrate with the band.

[@nicklaslindgard]

haha I am from finland and i hate ice hockey :D aaand the finnish language :P

[@tosijjaan]

Finnish guy + kossupullo + ice hockey victory = torilla tavataan.

[@FinnishOrthodox]

@@nicklaslindgard Get out

[@helmeri2606]

Finland is so beautiful during summer!

[@Fl4ngerr]

ft. 20 mosquitos

[@FinnishOrthodox]

@@Fl4ngerr pitiki mennä muistuttaan

[@Somewe]

The climate quite changed. In the southern Part temperatures can reach 30+ nowadays. Quite good video 👍

[@joonatan433]

As a finn i thought this video was awesome. Greetings from Finland🇫🇮✨

[@GEOfocusChannel]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. :)

Finnish people are concidered grumpy and closed, introverted. But when I speak as a fin, When one gets to know the person, they get to be friends for life. And fun fact also, when people ask how're you doing, we answer most of the time quite honestly.

[@smultronpojke4010]

I didn't know that the Sámi people originally inhabited all of Finland and spoke a non-Finno-Ugric language! I assumed it was more like Sweden where traditionally Sámi lands, while substantially larger than the current official borders of Sápmi and makes up a slim majority of Sweden's land area, never extended into the south of the country. As a Swede, I believe it's important for me to learn about the indigenous people of my part of the world, especially since I often hear Sámi people say that the average Swede knows more about the indigenous peoples of North America than the indigenous people right at their own doorstep, and since there are a lot of misconceptions floating around about whether indigenous people exist outside of America. So I'm very grateful for this new info, Paul, as am I for the video as a whole! Keep up the good work!

[@user-js5sh7rb8v]

There is a lot of names of places everywhere in Finland that originate from Sámi people.

[@valkeakirahvi]

Yes, for example Nuuksio, a national park near Helsinki has name originating in Sámi language. Many Finns don't know that either.

[@sm6allegro]

At 5:50 I would've used pictures from the summer, Sápmi/Lapland isn't covered in snow during polar day.

[@ajanpursikonna1131]

Hello, olen Suomesta, from Finland and this was actually first quite good and accurate videoclip from Finland, thank you! Did not mention anything about Sauna, which is permanently inseparable ritual of peoples life here. And also everyone is not a drunk only those who are... really are. :D

[@PiousMoltar]

Wow I didn't realise this channel was back! Glad to see it return! Never been to Finland but it seems awesome. And I'm a big fan of many Finnish metal bands: Insomnium, Mors Principium Est, Kalmah, Norther, Diablo, Synestesia to name a few...

[@miumau4532]

It's the middle of spring, and we over here in Southern Finland (does Tampere even qualify as a part of Southern Finland?) have to deal with almost half a meter of snow... And it's only going to get worse

[@ojallae]

I almost cried when I watched outside today 😭 I live in Tampere too. I really thought the winter was over and weather would become warmer since we already had days with +8 celsius weeks ago. The snow melted already once, now we have to wait it to happen again. Finnish weather is truly an experience.

[@user-js5sh7rb8v]

A proper winter after few years, i enjoy it!

[@pauljmorton]

For me the No. 1 misconception is the idea that Finnish is related to, our sounds similar to, Swedish or Russian. A lot of times, when someone does a "Finnish accent", they actually do a Swedish or a Russian accent. The Finnish accent is its own unique thing.

[@toranshaw4029]

Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux Kernel and Git, is from the Swedish-Finnish minority!

[@Antti-ox1ho]

Yay my home country!

[@yodorob]

Some interesting facts/analogies about Finland: 1) It's as much in Scandinavia as Bermuda is in the West Indies/Caribbean - lumped together mistakenly. 2) It's linguistically as distinct from its neighbours as my own Quebec is from its neighbours - though just like Quebec has an English minority, so Finland has a Swedish minority. 3) The Sami/Lapps were pushed north by the Finns, Swedes, etc. just like the Ainu were pushed north by the Japanese. I'd love to go to Finland one day, and all in all sounds like a fantastic country to live in!

[@televisio8652]

Finland might look beautiful and majestic in some cities and Lapland, but most of them just look like the remnants of Soviet designed cities with high rise buildings towering on top of everything else. If you want the closest image of what it was to live in Prypjat before Chernobyl, go to Kouvola, you will get depressed in 50 different ways. If you want to get to the drug capital of Finland and always grey weather, Lahti is the way to go.

[@jyrkilehtinen9886]

A very well written video. The geographical research very well done.

[@javlonbekmurodov4062]

Thank you so much for the wonderful projects. I am fan both of your channels. Not only am I gaining new knowledge, but I am also correcting my pronunciation by repeating it among you. If possible, please create content about Uzbekistan and the Uzbek language on your channels

[@Andrew.Schlei]

Now I have to visit Finland 🇫🇮

[@nicklaslindgard]

You are welcome! :)

[@valkeakirahvi]

We know for sure that Suomi doesn't have anything to do with suomaa 'swamp land', even though that's a popular folk etymology. It has been reconstructed to older šämä which would have come from a Baltic word meaning 'land' , and is possibly connected to sámi and häme (a name of a Finnish tribe). In any case it's a very old tribe name in the area. Also a minor point, the people living in Finland before the Uralic speakers came did not adopt 'Proto-Finno-Ugric' but a western branch of the language family, or you could already call that proto-Sámi already. But I apperciate that you mentioned that the Sámi lived in the whole of Finland before the Finns. That's an important fact that even most Finns don't know!

[@mariax1485]

Thanks again for another great video Paul. I spent this morning working on a really boring essay and you just made my Saturday less stressful. 🙂🌻

[@GEOfocusChannel]

That’s great to hear!

[@Whitbypoppers]

I'm only sorry I only got to spend one day there (Helsinki). That happens when you're cruising, but it gives you a taste of a place in case you want to go back to explore in depth. Two places I found fascinating in the city are the Rock Church and the Sibelius Park with the amazing sculpture that reminds one of a huge church organ.

[@GEOfocusChannel]

Yeah, I'm not sure I'd handle a cruise very well. I'd probably go AWOL and not get back on the ship. lol

[@0wly]

Yeah the sibelius parks sculpture is exactly ment to be like the tube things in a church organ

[@somerandomedgyguy1723]

I've undertaken a round trip through Finland in 2019, also venturing into Lapland (indeed -32°C at some point). The cities were your "typical" European-style ones, clean and with good public transport, with a historical inner city as their core. Turku made an even better impression than Helsinki on me, as a tip for those who're planning their trips. The nature is the main selling point to me, though - stunning!. Can't say I would want to live there for longer than a year, though. Daylight hours and temperatures are just too low, not even having a real summer to look forward to is huge (like even worse than here in Germany, where we at least have like an inconsistent month of around 30°C)

[@keravavantaa2886]

real finnish nature: snowy field with poop

[@Teddy_Tek]

We compensate the winters (atleast I, and people I know) by travelling a lot in winter to warm places and many finnish people have apartments bought from Spain etc. where to spend winter!

[@somerandomedgyguy1723]

@@Teddy_Tek Yeah that's what people I have couchsurfed at also told me. Spain, Italy, Greece, the same favourites across Europe to flee the cold, I guess :)

[@HelenaUschanoff]

Last year the temperatures was almost every day between 27- 32 degrees.

[@tosijjaan]

"clean and good public transport" Wtf????????

[@miamidolphinsfan]

What an awesome country !!!

[@flawyerlawyertv7454]

Such a beautiful country. 🇫🇮

[@northstar2839]

I visited Finland three times. Marvellous! I'd like to visit Outokumpu my next time, though ...

[@oh2mp]

I'm curious. Why just Outokumpu? Do you have heritage there or are you just interested in mining history?

[@northstar2839]

@@oh2mp Because of the steel factory. Outokumpu is one of Finlands most industrial cities, and I would like to see how the Finnish people cope with that ...

[@Aidan_Au]

Please make more videos on Nordic countries including Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland. Thank you!

[@sofiaamanda1551]

Most common misconceptions I have heard: - That the Moomin Characters are Japanese or Korean even though they are Finnish - That Finnish people were vikings - That all Finnish people are fluent in English and use it all the time (not all Finns can speak English and many that can don't enjoy using it)

[@GEOfocusChannel]

Everyone in Japan knows that Moomin is Finnish. :)

[@sofiaamanda1551]

@@GEOfocusChannel Yeah that's true! :D

[@Gentlemanclub5]

@@sofiaamanda1551 some of the Finnish people were Vikings , the culture was heavily influenced by the Vikings back in the days . there has been found Viking items all over the Finland also A LOT .

[@karisaarinen2746]

@@Gentlemanclub5 no...non of the Finn's were Vikings. There has never been Viking settlements in Finland. There are some Viking burial sites on coast of Finland but there is far more in Russia. And you could say that Russia was more influenced culturally by Vikings than Finns

[@Gentlemanclub5]

@@karisaarinen2746 who told you that ? that there was no vikings in the finland ? school ? the culture was influenced by the vikings , and there was also finn vikings , finns also traded and celebrated with the vikings , not all , but some of the finns .

[@heh9392]

About the Finnish King: It was originally Germany's idea during WW1 to make Finland it's own puppet state under a German King, because Germany wanted to cut down Finnish trees, and Finland was alright with the idea, until the armistice was signed in France, then the Finns changed their minds to not do it afterall.

[@Latexi_LMX]

Nicely informative video, with pretty much correct information.

[@aarnisaranen]

There's no snow in Lapland in summer...

[@lolajl]

Good video! However, you forgot to mention the Orthodox Church of Finland - this is the only other Christian denomination that has a legal position as a national church.

[@finnsuomi1719]

Exactly! I am Orthodox and I noticed the same thing.

[@lolajl]

@@finnsuomi1719 I'm Orthodox, too, so this really caught my eye.

[@mnic86]

Fascinating and always well researched! 👍👍

[@juanpedronardin8596]

Oh mate, Finnish music saved my life, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, Battle Beast, Beast in Black, The Rasmus, it's a sacred place for me only for that 😅 Answering your question, definitely the Northern Lights, and if it's in the forest, better, despite I'm very weak at the moment to face a very cold night, I hope the saunas could help me with that, I heard they love them 🤔😅

[@sheldonpon9141]

I'm so glad you have this channel, I used to watch Geography Now but got annoyed by the host. I've been subscribed to Langfocus for many years now and didn't even know this channel existed.

[@GEOfocusChannel]

Yeah, that’s because I let it lie dormant for 5 years. In hindsight I wish I had made just one channel called GEOfocus and uploaded both videos like this and language videos. But it’s too late for that now, so I’m just rebooting this channel and developing it separately. I’ve heard of Geography Now, but I’ve never seen one of his videos. From what I understand, he’s more of animated extrovert, while I’m a complete introvert (and possibly autistic). So, I imagine we resonate with different people.

[@mixlllllll]

What's wrong with Barby? :(

[@GEOfocusChannel]

@@mixlllllll Probably nothing. Different people just connect with different types of personalities.

[@mixlllllll]

@@GEOfocusChannel Well yeah, that's true.

[@deralttrelazedumontperier4756]

I think you should focus on Venezuela next as it is a country that not many people know much about.Thank you for your great content on both of your channels.

[@GEOfocusChannel]

You're welcome! It can't be next because we have a production schedule and months of videos are already finished and waiting to be released. But we'll do it someday (as long as this channel keeps going).

[@mantelikukkapenkki2368]

Fun fact: Simon Bolivar had a Finnish brother in arms and a friend named Fredrik Adlercreutz

[@heh9392]

People think the Winter War is more important and "known" than the Continuation War (during Operation Barbarossa) in Finland, even though the most famous novel in Finland tells about a story of soldiers during the Continuation War, and it's movie is shown every year on the Independenceday... The reason why I'm saying this, is cause I see tons of foreign youtubers only know about the Winter War, instead of the more important Jatkosota...

[@Arskanbooki]

The Winter War is more popular because it is seen as a noble heroic story, while the Continuation War was an alliance with the vicious Nazis, one thinks. (Although it was also a perfectly legitimate attempt to obtain redress for the injustice suffered.)

[@JohnTavastian]

One misconseption I have seen is that people think it's always cold. Summers are warm here, last summer I believe it go to +30 celsius. And the summers are farely long too.

[@chrisroberts1036]

No they are relatively short

[@JohnTavastian]

@@chrisroberts1036 well longer that the 2 weeks everyone is spreading

[@chrisroberts1036]

Oh yeah 😆 that I can confirm

[@fuongnam]

spectacular

[@mysteriousDSF]

Hey very small mistake but it was the Proto-Finnic that arrived to the region at that time, the Ugrics still stayed in an area west of the Ural mountains before Hungarians broke off and started migrating southwest.

[@jyrkilehtinen9886]

And what was actually the time period when the baltic finns arrived? The results of the linguistic research keep changing all time.

[@mdevandara]

I lived Espoo till 2009, and my children lives in Espoo. I like every thing in Finland, except the winter. So, I am living in Florida currently. But I visit Espoo e

[@heh9392]

And Helsinkin actually still has -5 going on today, there has been heavy snowfall lately, and more will come.

[@okbazgiembay1954]

Nice so many teachings thanks ✌🏿🇪🇷

[@mossmoss2019]

7:40 nice raikkonen reference sir

[@ErikoinenTapaus]

Heh, KZbin suggested this to me even i'm from Finland. Well, it's nice to see vids like this. :) Greetings from Finland. :D

[@xItzSpruce]

My family summer cottage is In lake finland. Btw I live In Finland. Its so nice to live here

[@zepmarq]

Learned a lot from this video... Thanx!

[@kepa47]

Love from finland!🇫🇮💕

[@Ollireki]

The biggest misconception is ✨obviously✨ that we're an independent land. No. We're Japan's fishing land.

[@albertteitsson9359]

I spent summer in Finnland 33 years ago. The Finnish people are my favourite people alongside with the Basque, i think it has to do with love for freedom and independence mentality. I am from Iceland we don't like foren rulers.

[@pystykorva7114]

The name of Turku is derived from some pre-historic word Turgu which means marketplace so the place's history reaches even further than 1150 :) also christianity arrived from east long before the Swedish rule, but eventually the Swedish version won...

[@jyrkilehtinen9886]

Or according to som scholars from south, where slavic languages also were spoken.

[@myunis4334]

I really like your videos 😍

[@Sakura-zu4rz]

🌸❤Your channel is literally my comfort place. You make me so happy. Love you❤❤

[@GEOfocusChannel]

Thank you! 😊

[@mattimatala3870]

You missed one big information about finnish people, social anxiety :D its very common that for example on a bus people dont talk to each other at all, maybe say hi to the driver. I think im a social person, but everytime random person says something to me, im very suprised, its very rare here :D

[@SaccoLokka]

It's the same here in Sweden. People in Finland and Sweden are not so different. After some koskenkorva we never shut up. 👍😄

[@mattimatala3870]

@@SaccoLokka :D

[@nimi5570]

This is true and all, but I wouldn't call it social anxiety. Most people in Finland can talk to each other if need be, we just don't say anything if there's no reason to do so.

[@Fl4ngerr]

Might be true in the north of Sweden

[@VmKobudo]

greetings from Finland 🇫🇮🦢🇫🇮

[@kristiinaparkkisenniemi8680]

This is awesome!

[@GEOfocusChannel]

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

[@hiivatti67]

We have saying: there are as much iron as there was in way to Raate.

[@EneriGiilaan]

One about political rights for women. The same time Finland gave women the right to vote - they were also given right to be candidates for the parliament. So not only were women able to vote they also could be voted for - and thus a few got also elected. In that respect Finland was the first i the World. AFAIK New Zealand gave the right to vote earlier - but women were not eligible to be elected.

[@alexanderwhittle7671]

I saw a video from Not Just Bikes about winter bicycling in the city of Oulu. Based on what I saw in the video, I would love go there!

[@netsong2239]

I'll point out some mistakes in the language part. Finno-Ugric languages as a language family or as a branch of a language family do not exist. Yes, all of the "Finno-Ugric" languages shown on that map are a part of the Uralic language family but the idea that Finno-Ugric is a unified branch of the Uralic languages is a pretty dated one. Uralic languages also contain the Samoyedic languages which were totally missing from the map. Today it's seen that the Finnish language or proto-Finnic arrived in modern day Finland only ~2000 years ago. The Sámi people settled this area before that but to my knowledge they always spoke a Uralic language and their language and culture moved hand in hand rather than the language being picked up by some old Europeans. I tried looking for where this info was from in the sources but they were just links Anyways I have to point out that the whole video had some little mistakes and didn't seem to have been made with a,lot of insight. For example Helsinki isn't known for its neoclassical architecture and it doesn't have that much of it. Helsinki is known for art nouveau, specifically Finnish jugend. This is one of the most remarkable things about Helsinki.

[@GEOfocusChannel]

I suppose it’s imprecise to refer to Finno-Ugric as a family, because it’s really the Uralic family minus Samoyedic. That’s why the Samoyedic languages aren’t on the map, of course (because it only shows the languages of the Finno-Ugric grouping.) About the Sami people speaking a pre-Uralic language, there was definitely a non-Uralic language spoken in Finland by ancestors of the people we call Sami. I guess the question is whether we can call them Sami at that point, or whether they can only be assigned that ethnic identity from the time they began speaking proto-Sami. So for clarity maybe I should have said “the ancestors of today’s Sami people”, or something to that effect. About neoclassical architecture, that was specifically about some buildings in the city center, like around Senate Square, and that was included in reference to the Russian authorities rebuilding the city center. That wasn’t a comprehensive description of Helsinki’s architecture. That part of the script came from a member of my writing team, but while fact-checking, I found nothing to contradict the information, and every source prominently mentioned neoclassical architecture.

[@netsong2239]

@@GEOfocusChannel I suppose my comment may have been confusing because I was tired when writing it. What I was trying to say is that there is no such branch in the Uralic languages as the Finno-Ugric languages. This has not been believed in for a very long time. As an example Finnish is not more closely related to Hungarian than it is to the Samoyedic languages. It's kinda like if you were to classify Germanic, Italic, Slavic and Celtic languages as "the European language family". These branches are not more closely related to each other than they are to the Indo-Aryan languages. I would not, but to use this category of "European languages" could maybe even be argued for because they are clearly separated geographically from the Indo-Aryan languages. However the Samoyedic languages are clearly a part of a geographical continuum with the rest of the Uralic languages so it's more like talking about the Indo-European languages but leaving out Germanic. The Sámi language transfer thing you said was, yeah technically true I guess but this is not how people talk about what is just assimilation really ever. Especially since the bringers of the Sámi languages principly kept their Uralic culture and world view when they came in contact with the Old inhabitants of modern day Finland who got assimilated and lost their own. Though of course their culture was influenced and a large amount of loan words can be found in the Sámi languages of today. In fact the Sámi and the Old languages, the substrate, coexisted for perhaps 1000 years or more with the substrate only becoming extinct in ~500AD. So even Finnish was spoken in modern day Finland at the same time as the substrate languages. I understand I'm saying a lot of words here so I need to back them up somehow. I would prefer to direct you to some PDFs but I'm on mobile so I can't personally view them right now. I'm going to have to resort to a Wikipedia article. I support checking the references 1, 3 and 4 of the article for further information but I'm unfortunately in no ability to check them myself. However my trust in Ánte being able to explain this is quite high. Also, the Wikipedia article is called "Pre-Finno-Ugric substrate" although a better name in my opinion would be "Pre-Uralic substrate". I really understand the confusion with Uralic and FinUgr because the word Finno-Ugric is today often used interchangably with Uralic. Anyway here's the link: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Finno-Ugric_substrate

[@akumayoxiruma]

Video Suomesta: *on olemassa* Suomalaiset: Nnn... mielenkiintoista. 👀

[@SnabbKassa]

Rovaniemi is a city, not a village, albeit a city of just 64,000 people. The "Santa's village" that lies a short drive north east of the city is a village, sort of.

[@gheorghitaalsunculitei9146]

"Apparantly Santa Clause lives in tourist trap":)))

[@jessetujula]

I live in Lappeenranta, which is located on the shores of Lake Saimaa. 😀

[@85sharifa55]

One more from Lappeenranta. Täällä toinen lappeenrantalainen! Tosin kävin viime vuosisadalla asumassa ja opiskelemassa/töissä silloin jaetussa Saksassa. The lake Saimaa is very near. I live on an island.

[@roope8187]

I live in Finland and recommend traveling to Lapland. in winter or summer👌

[@Onurius99]

Hi, so I searched up on Wikipedia about the Sami predating the Finns in the area and adopting Uralic, but couldn't find evidence of it

[@leisti]

The statistic on membership of the Evangelical-Luthern church (9:55) is quite dated. It's currently about 67% of the population, not 82.5%. The percentage has been steadily falling for at least the past 120 years.

[@Wetubedd]

Paul! Could you guys do Venezuela? please 🙏🏼

[@matshunt1874]

at 10:48 picture from Tallinn, Estonia, Pikk street, old town

[@GEOfocusChannel]

I think that photo must have been mislabeled by the stock image provider.

[@ThenameisAntti]

ERROR in the video: Hämeenlinna is not in the Greater Helsinki area, unlike you claim, and neither is Porvoo. Porvoo is in the Uusimaa region like Helsinki, but Greater Helsinki (aka the capital region) only consists of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen. Hämeenlinna is in the Kanta-Häme region (Tavastia Proper), which is an entirely separate region from Uusimaa.

[@GEOfocusChannel]

Well, there are different definitions of Greater Helsinki, but the ones I've seen say that it includes a larger area than the capital region. And it's not limited by administrative region, because it includes the whole urbanized area. Maybe Hämeenlinna is a bit of a stretch, because it's far-flung. But it was included in the larger definitions of Greater Helsinki that I saw.

[@teemupuotiniemi839]

@@GEOfocusChannel Greater Helsinki is old term and are not in use nowadays. Hämeenlinna is too far in the north to consider to be in capital region. It's not even in Uusimaa (or Nyland in swedish) region, where Helsinki lies

[@pattiskidmore8792]

I want to see the midnight sun, the Sami with their reindeer, and, of course, the Northern Lights. And listen to the Finnish language.

[@miniblasan5717]

When I was 7-8 years old (1997-1998), my family and I visited the Mummidalen (Moomin Valley) in Finland because Mummi is so popular among children and adults here in the Nordics, at least in Sweden. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomins

[@mikemurphy8350]

Alright! I love Finland!

[@Tedger]

Russia has been killing finno-ugric languages for past 100 years in its russification process. In Karelia for example, you can only find small areas where ppl still speak karelian and what is left is fast replaced by russian speakers. Then again.. Not many sami speakers left in Finland either...

[@WombRaider_theoriginal]

I feel bad for karelians, they have been oppressed for hundreds of years. Sami people were oppressed by the Finns back in the days, but it all ended long time ago

[@alfonsmelenhorst9672]

Today there is a revival of the Karelian language, supported by the government

[@oh2mp]

And almost nobody can speak Karelian in Finland anymore. My father could even his first language was Finnish. Karelian was his father's mother tongue. And I am purely just Finnish speaking. So we are one example about how a language dies :(

[@Fl4ngerr]

”Everything’s always Russia’s fault”...

[@freyjulundr]

not gonna lie even if they arent of scandinavian descent id rather have finland in scandinavia than denmark cuz finland atleast gets snow like us in norway and sweden and they do have mountains up north and isnt completely flat and dry like denmark

[@WombRaider_theoriginal]

Pretty much exact opposite of Denmark 🤔

[@user-yr4vp1jk7j]

Where are mountains in Northern Finland? I didn't see any when I went.

[@jyrkilehtinen9886]

At the norvegian border naturally. Not elsewhere.

[@naIIepuh]

1-6 years only 10:36 bc high school amouts every class have drifend theacher

[@jaakkoaho9447]

Finns have also the best enduro drivers and hard dance/freeform music in the world.

[@emmaeriksson7155]

I wish Sweden was more like Finland 🥲// Swede

[@Brian-vn4xb]

Do you take any inspiration from TheWorldAccordingtoBriggs or GeographyNow when you make these videos? I don’t hate them but I do think your Geography videos are better than theirs

[@GEOfocusChannel]

I’ve never seen either of their videos. I know about Geography Now but I’ve only seen the thumbnails. I think it started a little before I started this channel years ago, and I didn’t want to be influenced by it, so I avoided watching it.

[@artisokka4295]

helsinki is old odin land and old area of ring lands.

[@villekuronen6242]

if you like sauna, salmiakki and hate small talk then finland is right place

[@rafaelbriganti502]

I get all the positive aspects on this video but just like there are days of 24 hours-light, there are entire days of darkness. As far as I know (I'm not a Finn). And foreigners living there said this is much harder to handle than the cold. And quality of life in Finland is great without a doubt, but that doesn't mean it's the happiest country, if there is even such thing. Depression and suicide rates are not exactly low, I think.

[@MH-nk3ls]

There's been found hundreds, maybe thousands megalithic structures 33,3km apart aswell. Most of them destroyed.

[@maukkatulinen461]

"it has days without darkness" :D:D thats funny as hel*. I'm finnish and yes we have summer nights when sun doesent go down. But the WINTER IS DARK AS HE** AND ITS LIKE 2/3 of the year (raining and snowing). Summer is definitely nice. But the winter is coming! ;) Like in Game of Thrones. Its no joke... Over 1 meter of snow and temperature -30 celsius is nothing unusual.

[@justanaveragemario6260]

As a person from Åland, it is a bit annoying when people think Finnish is the only language spoken in Finland. And also I'd say the actual people of Åland prefers to be a part of Finland rather than Sweden.

[@johansvideor]

Same in Ostrobothnia.