# Ask the Finn **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 23, 2008, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815 "2008-09-23T10:26:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/41 "2008-09-23T21:45:33Z")
[ul][li]A Finnish word sounds like ‘vashtemey’. What is the word, and what does it mean?[/li]What is the Finnish word for ‘pilot’? Lentja?[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/42 "2008-09-23T21:55:11Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > And I’m confused–your country had to pay reparations to USSR after WW2, but also lost WW2? I apologize for my ignorance and will go look it up, but I’d like your opinion on the matter–Russia lost in WW2–so how did you guys end up paying to them? 😕 How did we end up paying them? They won, they get to make the rules. _shrug_ When Finland signed the peace treaty in 1944, it was ordered to pay war reparations to the sum of 300 million USD in wood, paper, cellulose, ships and machinery. Some point out that it was because of the need to pay war reparations that Finland’s previously underdeveloped steel industry and shipyards were brought up to speed so that Finland had the most technologically advanced ship-building technology of the Nordic countries by 1949. However, exports to other countries besides the Soviet Union were extremely minimal at this time, and others counter that if Finland had been able to channel the money and resources to exporting to other European countries, it might have bounced back better than by paying reparations. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/43 "2008-09-23T21:55:36Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > :smack: :smack: :smack: Of course Russia won. :rolleyes: (those eyes are for me) > > I knew that. Gah–no brain today. Sorry. And the Allies just let poor lil Finland hang there flapping next to the Iron Curtain? Shame on us (although we all did have our hands a bit full). Well, it was tricky. Early in the war when Hitler and Stalin had that “pact of steel” thing going, after they’d divided Poland between them Russia went after Finland. They did badly (which encouraged Hitler to think Operation Barbarossa was a good idea) but they had numbers on their side for the long run. We (Brits) were all for helping Finland, but we couldn’t get any help there without violating Swedish and Norwegian neutrality. Otherwise Britain could have been at war with Germany and the USSR at the same time. :eek: (Not you Yanks though - you were still sat on your duffs in '39) Subsequently, given that Russia was on our side against Hitler, we were a bit circumscribed as to what we could do about Finland, since it was technically on Hitler’s side (though the Finns only wanted Karelia back, and flat-out refused to attack Leningrad just when Germany could have used the help). But I don’t think Finland did as badly as all that out of it when you consider what a fair old chunk of Eastern Europe had to put up with until the 1990s. Personally I have a big old soft spot for the Finns over the Winter War. One of my favourite wargames paints Finnish infantry in glowing colours. There’s never really enough of them, but they punch way above their weight. Still, that’s all old history now, all the more to someone the OP’s age. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/44 "2008-09-23T21:56:31Z")
[quote=“Johnny\_L.A, post:41, topic:464815”] [ul][li]A Finnish word sounds like ‘vashtemey’. What is the word, and what does it mean?[/li][li]What is the Finnish word for ‘pilot’? Lentja?[/ul][/li][/QUOTE] Pilot is lentäjä. “Vashtemey” I think you’ve asked me before. I have a hard time coming up with possible things it could be. Do you have an example sentence where it’s used or something? It might help to decipher this word. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/45 "2008-09-23T21:58:39Z")
Although the USSR started on the Axis, they joined the Allies when Germany invaded, and “won” along with the US, UK, etc. Finland wasn’t an Axis member, they were de facto allies because of their war with Russia. edit: I will refresh before replying, I will refresh! * * * A common stereotype about Finns is that they are rather socially awkward, especially when compared to their neighbors. Do you think this is accurate? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/46 "2008-09-23T21:59:21Z")
> [@auRa](#): > > “Vashtemey” I think you’ve asked me before. I have a hard time coming up with possible things it could be. Do you have an example sentence where it’s used or something? It might help to decipher this word. My mom would hear her husband use it when he’d talk to his folks. (They spoke Finnish to one another, having immigrated from there.) My mom joked that she could pick out that one word in the conversation, but nothing else. The problem is that I don’t remember if that’s actually the word, and it’s too late to ask. It’s possible it was ‘vatamashte’ or something else similar. Edit: Thanks for ‘lentäjä’. I originally typed it that way (without the umlauts), but then I changed it. My mom’s husband was a pilot, and he saw a carload of Finn Air pilots with a license plate that said LENTAJA. ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/47 "2008-09-23T22:08:38Z")
Have you been to Muminvärlden (Muumimaailma)? My daughter is begging me to go. ---
**Author:** ![Torpor\_Beast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@Torpor\_Beast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torpor_Beast)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/48 "2008-09-23T22:14:04Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > My mom would hear her husband use it when he’d talk to his folks. (They spoke Finnish to one another, having immigrated from there.) My mom joked that she could pick out that one word in the conversation, but nothing else. It might not be a “proper” Finnish word since they were immigrants. From what I’ve heard, at least in some parts of US the immigrants have their own dialect that borrows words heavily from english but uses finnish pronounciation. For example petiruuma = bedroom (in finnish, peti = bed and ruuma = ship’s cargo hold). Without any context, my best guess would be “vastaamme”, which could be translated as “we will answer” or in formal speech “we will take responsibility of”. ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/49 "2008-09-23T22:14:47Z")
> [@WormTheRed](#): > > This got me thinking. How many refugees and immigrants are there in Finland? I remember reading some years ago that very few were let in (just like here in Iceland), in comparison to Sweden where there nowadays are quite a lot of people from former Yugoslavia, the Middle East and other refugee-zones. In 2007, there were approximately 188 000 Finnish citizens who were born elsewhere living in Finland. Since 1973, Finland has taken in over 23 000 refugees (the statistic was from 2004, though. There are probably more now.) The first real refugees were Chileans who came here in the 1970s to escape Pinochet, and most of them went back in the 90’s when things calmed down. There were about 200 of them. The first quota refugees Finland accepted were “boat refugees” from Vietnam in the late 70’s. The biggest influx of refugees into Finland was during the 1990s when about 3000 Somalian and a fairly large amount of Yugoslavian refugees were accepted. Finland is one of 15 UN nations which takes in quota refugees. Right now, Somalians are the fourth largest linguistic minority in Finland; there are about 10 000 Somali-speakers. Russians are third with about 50 000 speakers. Most Somalians are here because someone in the family was a refugee in the 1990s and later families have been reunited; by contrast, most Russians have moved here for other reasons, such as work. Currently, most immigrants to Finland come from the European Union area because of the more mobile possibilities that have come about as a result of the Schengen agreement and other EU agreements. Most come to work here; we have a lot of Estonian and Russian bus drivers and construction workers, for example. Most asylum seekers who come to Finland get an “oleskelulupa”, a residence permit, usually because of “need for protection” or “other reasons” which usually means officials want to reunite families. Actual refugee status is granted to only a few people a year. Edit: I have to add that it’s getting late and I have classes again tomorrow, so I’ll get back to more of these questions tomorrow. **Torpor Beast** , meanwhile, feel free to field as many of these as you want. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/50 "2008-09-23T22:27:21Z")
> [@Torpor\_Beast](#): > > It might not be a “proper” Finnish word since they were immigrants. From what I’ve heard, at least in some parts of US the immigrants have their own dialect that borrows words heavily from english but uses finnish pronounciation. For example petiruuma = bedroom (in finnish, peti = bed and ruuma = ship’s cargo hold). > > Without any context, my best guess would be “vastaamme”, which could be translated as “we will answer” or in formal speech “we will take responsibility of”. FWIW, Turkka came over as a teen with his family in (I think) 1948. So his dialect was probably pretty well set by then, and his parents’ as well. They were from Turku. I have the impression that this mystery word might have meant ‘OK’ or ‘I understand’ or something. But this was told to me many years ago and I just don’t remember. ---
**Author:** ![Torpor\_Beast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@Torpor\_Beast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torpor_Beast)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/51 "2008-09-23T23:00:09Z")
> [@auRa](#): > > Edit: I have to add that it’s getting late and I have classes again tomorrow, so I’ll get back to more of these questions tomorrow. **Torpor Beast** , meanwhile, feel free to field as many of these as you want. 🙂 Thank you mizz. 😛 Speaking of the Schengen agreement and the opening of borders, we had a bunch of visitors this summer, that nobody really seemed to know how to react to: A band of [Irish Travellers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Traveller). This particular bunch drove around the country, looking for masonry work and then leaving it unfinished, causing disturbances on camping grounds, poaching animals etc. until they were deported. At least the press had something to report during the summer months. I’m not into believing in stereotypes that much, but that group seemed to take their cues straight from the movie Snatch… :smack: * * * [QUOTE=thelurkinghorror] A common stereotype about Finns is that they are rather socially awkward, especially when compared to their neighbors. Do you think this is accurate? [/QUOTE] Doesn’t seem too accurate. The Finns might not be that quick to pour out their innermost thoughts, but from my experience(I live in Helsinki too), people seem very polite and quick to engage you in small talk. * * * The GBLT situation doesn’t seem too bad from my limited experience, considering that: 1. There are several openly gay celebrities 2. The number of gays in my circle of friends is exactly 1, so the sample size isn’t too big, but he hasn’t had any encounters with bigotry since his teens. 3. There are several gay bars in Helsinki alone. These are frequented by both gay and straight people. 4. I’ve had people of same sex hit on me openly in the small town I was born in and visit occasionally. So I’d guess that there isn’t much reason for them to fear any repercussions for showing their sexuality. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/52 "2008-09-23T23:18:09Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Well, it was tricky. Early in the war when Hitler and Stalin had that “pact of steel” thing going, after they’d divided Poland between them Russia went after Finland. They did badly (which encouraged Hitler to think Operation Barbarossa was a good idea) but they had numbers on their side for the long run. We (Brits) were all for helping Finland, but we couldn’t get any help there without violating Swedish and Norwegian neutrality. Otherwise Britain could have been at war with Germany and the USSR at the same time. :eek: (Not you Yanks though - you were still sat on your duffs in '39) I think you all could have taken them. Stiff upper lips and all that, what? 😉 > [@](#): > > Subsequently, given that Russia was on our side against Hitler, we were a bit circumscribed as to what we could do about Finland, since it was technically on Hitler’s side (though the Finns only wanted Karelia back, and flat-out refused to attack Leningrad just when Germany could have used the help). But I don’t think Finland did as badly as all that out of it when you consider what a fair old chunk of Eastern Europe had to put up with until the 1990s. True enough-- better to have paid reparations then suffered behind the Iron Curtain. I have actually met a Finn (it’s true! And they’re bipedal and walk upright and all!). 😃 I met her in UK, in Durham. She was a student who gave tours of Durham castle (actually the uni dorm in the castle or was it the keep? can’t remember). She started her tour with an icebreaker–who’s from the farthest away location and we (daughter and I) won. As soon as she heard Chicago, she got all excited. She’d been in Chicago’s airport to connect to a puddlejumper to take her to Macomb, IL where she was to study one summer. She went from Helsinki to London to Chicago to Macomb w/o leaving air conditioning. When she arrived on the tarmac in Macomb, she fainted (on the tarmac) due to the heat and humidity. Macomb, IL is surrounded by corn and soybeans and it gets HOT and humid there in summer. She was so pleased to tell us this story. Daughter and I kept thinking–she’s from Helsinki and she went to Macomb? WHY? 😕 With all of Europe etc to choose from, why Macomb? We never did find out. But other than that, she seemed very nice… 🙂 And now back to the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Torpor\_Beast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@Torpor\_Beast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torpor_Beast)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/53 "2008-09-23T23:27:07Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > FWIW, Turkka came over as a teen with his family in (I think) 1948. So his dialect was probably pretty well set by then, and his parents’ as well. They were from Turku. Ahh. This explains a lot. The Turku area has it’s own, quite peculiar dialect, which probably was much stronger 60 years ago than it is today. Peculiar enough to be the butt of jokes in the rest of Finland. 😃 Add this to the fact that Finns have the habit of mangling up their language in creative ways in everyday speech and even [these](http://www.kotus.fi/?l=en&s=1) guys probably can’t begin to guess what the mystery word is. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/54 "2008-09-24T00:07:25Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Finland wasn’t an Axis member, they were de facto allies because of their war with Russia. Finland signed the anti-Comintern pact in 1941, had German troops on its soil during the Continuation War, occupied East Karelia, and, in Operation Silver Fox, participated in a joint German-Finnish offensive under German command against Murmansk. How were they not a member of the Axis? ---
**Author:** ![Torpor\_Beast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@Torpor\_Beast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torpor_Beast)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/55 "2008-09-24T00:31:30Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Finland signed the anti-Comintern pact in 1941, had German troops on its soil during the Continuation War, occupied East Karelia, and, in Operation Silver Fox, participated in a joint German-Finnish offensive under German command against Murmansk. How were they not a member of the Axis? To be honest, I’ve wondered about this a bit myself. I guess the difference is that Finland never considered itself a part of the Axis. Finland would certainly have been the only country in the Axis to have a [field synagogue](http://www.jewishquarterly.org/article.asp?articleid=194). ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/56 "2008-09-24T00:55:05Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Finland signed the anti-Comintern pact in 1941, had German troops on its soil during the Continuation War, occupied East Karelia, and, in Operation Silver Fox, participated in a joint German-Finnish offensive under German command against Murmansk. How were they not a member of the Axis? They didn’t sign the Tripartite Act, which founded the Axis, hence not an official member. If you want to quibble about them being Axis in all but name, fine, but there were still things they did differently than other members. ---
**Author:** ![BumBoat\_Magdalena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@BumBoat\_Magdalena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BumBoat_Magdalena)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/57 "2008-09-24T00:56:25Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [ul][li]A Finnish word sounds like ‘vashtemey’. What is the word, and what does it mean?[/li][/ul] Are you possibly thinking of a word that sounds like ‘varovosty’ (I’m likely way off there)? I’ve heard that word often. I always thought it was a curse word, though never asked. Thanks for your info Aura. ---
**Author:** ![Torpor\_Beast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@Torpor\_Beast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torpor_Beast)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/58 "2008-09-24T01:07:12Z")
> [@BumBoat\_Magdalena](#): > > Are you possibly thinking of a word that sounds like ‘varovosty’ (I’m likely way off there)? I’ve heard that word often. I always thought it was a curse word, though never asked. > > Thanks for your info Aura. You might work/live somewhere where people would be carrying heavy or fragile stuff? “Varovasti” means ‘carefully’, or ‘careful now’. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/59 "2008-09-24T01:12:33Z")
Hey, thanks for starting this thread! Finland is one of my favourite places, and, unlike a lot of my favourite places, I’ve actually _been_ there! I spent a week in Helsinki in 2000 at a conference, then traveled across Europe to England, where I met relatives. I was very surprised by Helsinki. I was especially surprised by the landscape, which is an almost perfect copy of the Canadian Shield country, which I had believed was unique in the world. But the landscape was the same, the trees were the same, the lakes were the same, even the people picking wild berries were the same. As a result, Helsinki and its surroundings often seemed like an alternate-universe version of Canada run by smarter people (no giant cities or huge freeways, better trains, better architecture and city design, etc, etc). > [@auRa](#): > > I’m 25, female, living in the capital city Helsinki… Wait, you’re a _girl_? For some reason, I had completely the opposite impression. 🙂 > [@auRa](#): > > The term refers to a country maintaining a perceived neutrality in foreign affairs while still carefully maintaining a policy of not upsetting the much more powerful country next to them. As a Canadian, I find this concept oddly familiar. Though Canada and the USA are much closer culturally than Finland and Russia, we’ve still had our disagreements (ref: the Iraq War). > [@auRa](#): > > Because of certain old political decisions and mandates which are fairly complex and I will not go into here unless specifically asked to, Finland has two official languages: Finnish and Swedish. This means that every Finn is entitled to receive government services in their own mother tongue. The National Broadcasting Company in Finland, Yleisradio, has one channel solely for Swedish-language programming. All street signs and notices must be in both official languages, etc.etc.etc. Sounds familiar, though in Canada only _federal_ functions are Officially Bilingual; the provinces vary from “Officially Unilingual in French” to “Officially Unilingual in English” to “Officially Bilingual” to “we’ll provide services in the other national language where numbers warrant” (that would be Ontario). > [@auRa](#): > > This also means that all Finnish-speaking Finns must learn Swedish in school, and all Swedish-speaking Finns must learn Finnish in school. This is the root of the “pakkoruotsi” debate, where some Finnish-speaking Finns loudly complain that they do not see the reason to study a language which they will seldom, if ever, need because most Swedish-speaking Finns speak Finnish very well. I have not heard of Swedish-speaking Finns complaining about the mandatory Finnish. This sounds oddly familiar as well (ref: Albertans having to learn French in school even though they never use it). Is there an area in Finland where Swedish-speakers are a majority, and, if so, has it ever had a separatist movement? > [@AudreyK](#): > > I read somewhere that Finnish folks are quick to embrace technology, and as a result, Finland is geek heaven. Any truth to this? The guy who started Linux was Finnish. Also, so is Nokia. 'Nuff said. 🙂 > [@auRa](#): > > Genetically very homogeneous. Phenotypically also, traditionally; we have a lot of blue-eyed blondes here. I have never seen a place with so many surreally-gorgeous women as Helsinki. Random fact: [Toronto City Hall](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_City_Hall) was designed by a Finn. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amber_in_Treasury)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815/60 "2008-09-24T10:36:56Z")
Why does Alexi Laiho have such cute bunny teeth?😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-finn/464815.md?page=4)