In the remake Rocky got beat in to submission by his Russian counterpart. Who knew that lifting logs and frolicking in the woods wasn't enough training to beat the monstrosity that was created by the help of the Russian state's full cooperation and disregard for any rules of the competition. But anyway this is more about the stage of the fight.
1. Finns really love any international recognition. That's the basis for the "Suomi mainittu, Torilla tavataan"-meme. It translates to Finland mentioned, meet you at the marketplace. It's a semi-sarcastic remark. All major celebrations happen at the marketplace in Finnish towns and spontaneous gatherings there usually happen after hockey or Eurovision victories. The important things in life.
2. We take our borders seriously. This is our border with Sweden...
...you can see the border post behind the 6th hole flag of the Tornio golf course. Tornio shares the golf course with a Swedish border town. It's in the middle of the border because neither really care. Players cross the border whenever they like.
3. Highest speeding ticket in the history of Finland was 103000$. A Nokia executive was fined for going 45 on 30 mph zone in 2002. Our fines are based on income. Before 1999 it was left at the honesty of the person being fined to report their income correctly. After they started using a database to check income we found out to our dismay that some people had been lying before.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business...ticket/387484/
4. Finnish language is about as hard to learn as Mandarin Chinese. The payoff for learning Chinese is that you can communicate with a billion Chinese, while for Finnish it's about 7 million Finns. Our related languages in Estonia and Hungary aren't something we understand. We share few words with Estonians and neither of us understand the Hungarians.
We lack all the small words that English use. Like a/the, to/from, in/out etc. Instead we cram all those in to nouns themselves. There are 15 plus basic forms of all Finnish nouns that follow one of the 42 different patterns that most Finns know intuitively. I don't know why i use some forms but i do know them nearly all and what pattern to use.
As a result of the different forms of every word it's very common that words can have a different meaning and only way to know is the context. Such as the phrase "Kuusi palaa" can mean 9 different things and 8 out of those are complete sentences. "Kuusi" is either Six, Spruce or Your Moon. "Palaa" is either To Burn, To Return or Pieces. The whole phrase is some combination of those. Oh and they are all pronounced exactly the same way.
We also like combining old words to describe new or unknown things. Such as Computer is Tietokone, that directly translates to Knowledge Machine or Dragon is Lohikaarme (Salmon Snake). Two combined words is very common, three is fairly common and grammatically you can stretch the concept to 60+ letter "words" made of 5+ other words, that no one uses but are technically correct.
5. We like Sauna. In Finland there are 5ish million Finns and 3 million saunas. The word Sauna is Finnish. I didn't participate in the sauna thread here because by Finnish standards I'm just no that big on sauna. I only use it once a week with a mild heat of 70c and i don't even use a "Vihta". "Vihta" is collection of small branches tied together in specific way with leaves attached and it's used to whip yourself while in sauna. The logic is that whipping yourself with a single branch in extreme heat is an awful idea but if you do it with 50 branches tied together it's kinda relaxing.
There was a sauna championship contest here that was run from 1999-2010. The idea was to measure who can stay the longest in 110c sauna. A game of retarded chicken. In 2010 the sauna was exceptionally brutal and that led to death of a Russian contestant. He was one the last two and they were assisted out of the sauna after 6 minutes. The Finn that was with him went in to a coma for 6 weeks, but ultimately recovered. The cause of death for the Russian was 3rd degree burns in combination with painkillers and skin lotion (a form of cheating).
The 2010 championship went to a contestant that walked out of the sauna unassisted before the last two. The Finn that went to a coma was a 5 time champion, but as far as we are concerned for us it's admirable to stick around till you almost die, but walking out on your own is worth more. Those were the rules and we don't like rewarding stupidity. Oh and the Finn wasn't cheating in any way, he was just rightfully stubborn (we can't let Russians win even if they are cheating).
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...p-russian-dead
6. Tenth of all Finnish descendants live in the US. Most of them migrated in the 19th century as result of famine and poverty. They generally got along well with the natives. To the degree that whenever there was any unrest Finnish dwellings were left alone. I assume the reason was in the similarities. They both had their form of steam rooms, neither can understand property rights and they both enjoy their alcohol.
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/f...ousins/9087943
In the 19th century there were fine drinking establishments in the north that refused to serve Indians or Finns. I assume that was because some Indians can't handle their alcohol and become violent, while some Finns can handle their alcohol and become violent.
To this day, if you own property in forests, lakes or rivers in Finland anyone can camp, forage and fish there as long as they don't litter, cut trees or make noise. It's something called "jokamiehenoikeudet". It translates to every man's right's and a variation of it is fairly common in Northern Europe. The premium for owning forests is timber and hunting. Everything else is free and protected by law for everyone.
7. Other points i'll add if i ever get around to it.