Swedish envy

I have received all sorts of advice since moving to Finland. Usually, it comes from strange places and at random times. I was in a taxi a couple weeks ago (which I ordered the Finnish way – by text message) and the taxi driver called me exactly 2 minutes after receiving my text wondering where I was (the Finns REALLY value promptness – I’ve been reprimanded for showing up to a meeting only on time and not early). When I got out of my building he started babbling and I gave him my standard line, “I’m sorry. I only speak English.” Then he said, “Ok, ok, ok. If you have call on your phone. It me. I just call you.” Ok, fine. No problem. I got into the car and was ready to close my eyes for the 30 minute ride to the airport (you have to take it when you can get it!) when this guy jumped right into English conversation, “You work for a business?” “Yes.” “Big business?” “Yes.” “I give you name of Estonian lawyer. You move business to Estonia. No pay Finnish taxes. Too high.” He shook his finger at me in the rearview mirror. I didn’t say anything so he said, “Ok? I give you number.” I said, “That’s ok. It’s not my company. I just work there so I can’t move it.” Tough to explain too much to a basic English speaker. He looked annoyed and disgusted - clearly I didn’t understand. He tried again, “Estonian tax low. Finnish tax too high. No pay Finnish tax! I give you number. You have your company in Estonia. Ok? I give you number. Good Estonian lawyer!”

We went through a couple more rounds of this but were just getting increasingly annoyed at one another for not understanding. I finally gave up on taking my nap and asked him if he was Estonian in an effort to change the subject. This question launched him into an abridged version of his life story which began in Estonia and included enlisting for the Russian army, working as a bus driver and then a ferry captain, and finally moving to Finland to become a taxi driver. (I didn’t bring up the Finnish tax issue here with respect to his career move.) I said something like, “Wow. You were in the Russian army? How did you decide to do that? I thought Estonians didn’t like Russians.” He said, “Yes, Estonians don’t like Russians because of the history. But, I want to be friends with the Russians so I signed up for Russian army. I meet good friends there. Russian people are good. But politics…they crazy!!!” He wagged his finger at me again in the mirror, “Never trust!” Got it.

I have also been told that it is a good thing that I can explain my last name with Norwegian, instead of Swedish, roots. The Finland – Sweden relationship has been described to me by some Finns as a “relationship of brothers” meaning you spend most of your time beating each other up but really love one another deep down. (I heard from one Finn in particular that the relationship was more like a little brother being jealous of his big brother who is bigger, stronger, and better looking…that big brother being Sweden here, of course.) What this means in practice is that there are a lot of jokes at the expense of Swedes here, and I expect the converse is true in Sweden.

Finland also has two official national languages, Finnish and Swedish, and there is quite a distinction between the “Swedish-speaking Finns” as they are called and your more common non-Swedish speaking Finns (just called “Finns”). A friend told me that historically, the Swedes made up the upper class “aristocracy” of Finland while the Finns were the “not as smart” (her words, not mine) working people. Things are of course very different now but this history has translated into a bit of a modern day language-based segregation between the Swedish-speaking Finns and the rest of the Finns. As the Swedish-speaking Finns comprise only roughly 5% of the population they are a bit of an exclusive club in the country, and can (and sometimes do) exclude others by speaking Swedish. This, of course, puts the rest of the Finns a bit on the defensive and so there are two slightly different camps of people in the country. The implications are subtle but they are there.

Swedish-speaking Finns are extremely likely to also be fluent in Finnish since they often speak Swedish at home and Finnish most everywhere else so are less likely to be excluded by language. They are apparently a very tight, exclusive group due to their small numbers and are well connected to one another so can be very difficult group to break into unless you are born a part of it, whether that be for friendship or for business. (I heard a story about a Finnish girl dating Swedish-speaking Finn who, when she would attend social events with his friends, would be completely excluded to the point of them changing their conversational language to Swedish even if they had been speaking Finnish just so that she wouldn’t be able to join in.) Swedish-speaking Finns may have a different style as well. I’ve heard that the women in this group are much more “feminine” in the way they interact and work, described as being less direct, more smiley, and less structured, whereas Finnish women are more “masculine” in that they are more direct, firm, and logical in their style (let’s not get into the descriptions of “feminine” vs. “masculine” here – yikes!). The interesting thing about this is that while it’s a very minor distinction, it’s a distinction that all Finns notice immediately and on which they invariably will comment. You’ll hear things like, “Lara doesn’t like working with Sanna but Sanna is a Swedish-speaking Finn and I don’t think Lara likes her Swedish working style.” It isn’t a huge issue, and the groups are clearly much more alike than they are different, but it is interesting to see that even in a place where the population would be considered extremely homogenous by any outside perspective, people still find a way to pair off and create cliques. Here the implications are largely insignificant whereas other examples have huge or horrible implications but be it race, religion, or language, people seem to love to find a group to which they belong…and then forevermore point out who else does or does not!

What this means is that everyone in Finland belongs to one of two groups, Swedish-speaking or non-Swedish speaking, that the outcome of the Finland – Sweden hockey game in each winter Olympics can make or break the next four years for a Finn (Sweden won this year but was then knocked out of the tournament while Finland went on to win the bronze – the Finns are subsequently prioritizing the medal win over the actual game against Sweden), and that there is always a little bit of Sweden-envy (and teasing torment!) going on. After all, Stockholm is known as one of the most beautiful and cultured cities in the world (how can you dispute the birthplace of the Nobel Prize?), Sweden is known for having one of the most beautiful populations in the world and, on top of that, they still have a royal family (of course made up of quite beautiful people) to follow, all the more to be jealous of in a neighboring country where you just have a regular old president. (The Europeans love their royal families!) I visited Stockholm a couple weeks ago and upon hearing about my upcoming trip, a Finn said to me, in a somewhat accusatory fashion, “The younger princess’ fiancé just cheated on her with a dirty Norwegian so they had to call off the engagement.” Hey, hey now, don’t look at me! I was born in Idaho. I just have the last name.

So, I headed to Stockholm for a couple days to explore the city and see what the “big brother” was all about. Although the weather was terrible, cold rain and wind all weekend, the city was still gorgeous (as were many of the people – don’t go here if you’re feeling insecure!). I had to navigate the city between bouts of heavy rain but saw the changing of the guard at the old palace (the royal family no longer lives in the original palace but still holds official events, ceremonies, and negotiations there), got to explore the palace itself (impressive and stunning), and took a ferry ride around the city (complete with a view of the apartment of one of the members of Roxette, as well as the home of one of the singers in ABBA – the Swedes are very proud of their international pop stars!). As any good girl would do, I also maximized my rain-induced touring down time by taking advantage of the Stockholm shopping. It is amazing how excited you can get about Swedish prices when you live in Finland – both are extremely high but I felt like I was getting a deal in Stockholm compared to Helsinki. (To give you a flavor of the price differential here compared to the States, a certain type of lip gloss I like is $18 in the US and I can get it in Helsinki, literally right across the street from my apartment, for the bargain price of 47 Euro, or about $58. No, not kidding. I will never again take for granted the cheap cost of goods in the US!) And Finland is not even the worst…Norway prices are supposed to be even higher! Crazy!

Stockholm was beautiful even in bad weather – I can only imagine how pretty it is when everything is green and the sun is shining. The fact that it is built on an archipelago and is spread over a series of little islands, bays, and inlets makes it really a picture perfect setting. The architecture is quite stunning and much more western European looking than is Helsinki (which obviously had more Russian influence) and the city has invested a lot in protecting the ample green space which has only added to the overall beauty of the place. I won’t make any comparisons of the big to little brother but there may actually be something to that whole Swedish envy thing.