Ready, steady... GO!

Finland has become a home of strange world championship events. Many weird international competitions, like mobile-phone throwing, swamp soccer, kissing and pea-eating, are held there every year. Last summer the 11^th Wife-Carrying World Championships took place at Sonkajärvi, Middle-Finland.

The history of the contest, mentioned last, starts from the 19^th century, when sturdy men rode to the nearest villages and ran away with the local women. Now days the rules states that the wife can be your own or someone else’s, as long as she is over 17 years old. The winner(s) of 250 metres long track is awarded with enough beer to equal the wife’s weight.

The reputation of Finnish people being a bit serious is about to change, hence there are journalists from European-wide media around, waiting for some delicious news bites.

Changes in manners

Relationships between the young and the elderly have changed in Finland during the past 50 years. A quick look into newspapers’ 'have a say' section gives an impression of youth and the elderly being on the warpath. Both are claiming to have been mistreated by the other. So, what seems to be the problem?

First of all, old people think that the young aren’t as polite as they used to be back in the good old days; they don’t open the doors, give their seats on public transportation or even speak politely to older people. Secondly, youth states the elderly are impatient and rude. Wherever old people go, they want to be first going in or out and don’t mind cheating in queues.

However, relationships between these two groups have obviously changed, but most people still enjoy the enrichment another generation can bring to their lives.

The effects of globalisation in my country

Finland is a free market-economy and therefore it is open to globalisation. For starters, many huge companies have invested in Finland. An advantage is that they bring more competition which leads to reduced consumer prices. It’s quite common that the sub offices are run by Finnish managers.

The second point is that Finland itself has produced several big companies, later developed into global businesses. To name a few of the biggest ones, there are Nokia, Stora Enso, UPM-Kymmene, last two are paper manufacturers, and KONE, which is an elevator manufacturer.

In the 1990s Finnish businesses started translating and using the titles inside the company in English to ease globalisation. My personal touch with globalisation was working at McDonald’s for one year at the beginning of the Millennium :)

Class Report

In our class, there are several nationalities among 21 students. Most of us come from Asian countries like China (6), Korea (6), Taiwan (2) and one from Japan (1); a few come from Africa (two Ethiopians, one Somali) and Oceania (one Tongan, one Samoan) and one from Europe: Finland.

Currently most of our classmates have permanent residency and a few of us are either citizens or international students.

As in our class is a great variety of different origins, the list of different hobbies is quite long, and here are some of them: someone plays computer games and another goes to church; most of us listen to music and some of us like reading books.

This was only a small glimpse of what kind of people we have in our class. I’m looking forward to learning more of my classmates’ history – and why not the present. Cheers…

About me

Hi!
I’m a Finnish guy from Suomenlinna, which is a historical seafortress by Helsinki. I’ve been in NZ since July -07 and my status is an international student. My hobbies are sailing, photographing and doing sports. At Mt Albert campus there are good facilities for doing sports, and staying at the Residential Village gives an opportunity to use them for free.

My family is very dear to me. My parents, two brothers and four sisters, and their relations are all living in Finland so unfortunately I won't see them for a while.

How about education and employment? I’ve been studying a Bachelor’s Degree in Boat Industry in Kotka. Before my BD studies, I finished a Skipper course in Turku Navigational School.

My work history starts from the summer of -97 when I was 15 years selling ice cream in the corner of Piper Park, in Suomenlinna. Since then my other jobs have been e.g. deckhand, sail maker, boatbuilder etc. My future career will be somehow related to water.

As a first language I speak Finnish. Other languages I know at least a little are English, Swedish, German and Estonian. Spanish is in process ;)

Ok, read you later...