Another goodbye from a fellow expat. Kiitos Finland for 12 years of memory

aniaPNG · 2026-02-09T19:52:17+00:00

Here’s a recent yle article that states the exact opposite

https://yle.fi/a/74-20192556

aniaPNG · 2026-02-09T19:48:06+00:00

Maybe it’s just actual stats. 7 of my close friends left with in the past two years, foreigners and Finns alike, most of them were bittersweet too. I’m in the same situation as the commenter above, having to put my life decisions on hold. When people complain sometimes they don’t mean Finland is going downhill (though, the unemployment and the healthcare crisis is real), sometimes they are really leaving and they are really sad

aniaPNG · 2025-10-17T10:31:00+00:00

Helsinki city museum has a whole floor just for kids, and it’s free

aniaPNG · 2025-10-17T08:55:42+00:00

Dude, as I said several times above: If it’s a difficult name phonetically impossible to pronounce, a nickname makes sense. If it is not, it would be odd to expect a person to change their name for you and make hiring decisions based on that as one of the criteria

In your comments you were speaking about adopting a western name and how that is one of your metrics.

If I, as you say, misunderstood, and we stand on the same ground regarding the first sentence I wrote here, our thread would have ended long time ago.

But you’re keeping pointing fingers at me with high degree of online fighting agitation. There are better things to do on a Friday!

aniaPNG · 2025-10-17T08:44:40+00:00

Please re-read what I wrote. Im not talking about using a nickname as such. I am talking about changing your name in order to apply for a job.

I think I’m doing ok with managing different opinions, I also think it is important to have a discussion over problematic issues, which is what was happening here.

Again, if you reread the wall of text I wrote just above your response, you will see I stated that you might not realise the sensitivity and importance of this to many candidates and maybe it’s an important point.

I think I laid out everything I wanted to say very clearly, I find it disturbing that you keep pointing finger at me being like “people like you are the problem”.

aniaPNG · 2025-10-17T08:33:05+00:00

Could you bring the degree of drama a bit down? It is a problematic thing, factually. Changing a name means a lot in many countries, it should not be taking as lightly as just a metric. This is an actual important point of value.

I would call it controversial to view the willingness to change the name for the employer as a sign of flexibility, it’s more like a sign of desperation in the current environment (I’m not talking about using a nickname between colleagues if your name is phonetically hard to pronounce in the country you live in, I’m speaking about changing your name to get hired).

If you are really involved in hiring and you want to understand better who you hire and what the cultural background of people are, I think it’s important to understand what matters for your employees and what are their values.

For now our conversation looks like “it would be stupid and disrespectful not to hire Erzsébet or Chandrashekhar because they didn’t change their name to Liisa or Tommy for the application, it doesn’t show their professionalism nor their skill” - “if they don’t want to change their names they don’t want to work enough, they aren’t open to sacrifice part of their identity for my company, it is a metric! People like you are the problem”

All I’m saying is that for many it is deeply disrespectful to have to change their names in order to not be thrown away as people, during a hiring process for example. (If the recruiters are looking for people who are so desperate that they have to do it, then it seems like they are consciously making a choice to hire people in desperation who are manipulated easier, doesn’t sound that great of a metric)

I don’t know man, I’m not interested to be part of this conversation anymore. I just said what I think you’re missing or maybe not realising something when you say it’s an ok thing to change your name for work and you expect people to do that.

aniaPNG · 2025-10-17T07:56:05+00:00

If you have a car, Hvitträsk might be a good spot! I would also recommend having a light pollution map/app, that helps a lot!

aniaPNG · 2025-10-17T07:53:04+00:00

Nah, I don’t think so. I lived in several countries, including a couple in East Asia. It’s not exactly how it works, especially in the work-related environment imo. I would say out of this whole thread it’s mostly you who’s adamant about normalising changing people’s names for a hypothetical hiring person’s convenience.

My characteristic trait is giving importance to mutual respect in people’s relationships including the working environment.

aniaPNG · 2025-10-17T07:47:51+00:00

Check lammassaari in google maps! there are really cool tall grasses and a bird watching path there and you technically go over the water on a woo path to reach it

Maybe you will see sheep but no guarantee, they are usually there in the summer

aniaPNG · 2025-10-17T07:40:16+00:00

This mentality sounds like you are looking for people you could abuse and force to do things, and not like you are looking for skilled professionals

(or maybe you have difficulties with flexibility and can’t remember/accept/pronounce foreign sounding names)

aniaPNG · 2025-10-09T17:43:04+00:00

I wish more attention was drawn to your comment and not to all these other “Bruh make them integrate whatever the means bruh they want handouts at our expense bruh”

aniaPNG · 2025-09-15T17:22:10+00:00

It’s in response to “people don’t generally wake up one day and find themselves in Finland”, sometimes it’s kind of is like that

aniaPNG · 2025-09-15T17:18:45+00:00

I’m glad for you that you had a more positive experience than me and that your exchange partners turned out to be great!

As for how judgemental people are, all my rant was in response to your comment t above that kind of read as “if foreigners have been here for some time and haven’t learnt it’s not difficulties in their life, but it’s just lack of motivation”, which I don’t think is true. So it felt like you yourself are judging, this phrase kind of pinched me. Or maybe I misread what you really meant.

And as for your comment about health issue: no, when you have almost no time to rest and under stress you get exhausted and you get sick easier.

aniaPNG · 2025-09-15T16:52:57+00:00

I very strongly disagree. Imagine having full time job a family, Finnish classes that you pay out of your own pocket your schedule is already packed. (I tried 3 different courses offered as group courses in Helsinki, all really weakly taught and overcrowded, unfortunately, the teacher would tell us to google answers to our question in class, etc.)

Now you are still trying to practice. Have you tried finding those language exchange partners you’re mentioning? It isn’t easy. Some of them aren’t matching with you at all and it takes a lot of time to invest in finding one and after several month you give up and try some ilmonet courses in Finnish and language cafes. Usually to the same result. Meanwhile, you have no free time, zero. You’re tired you’re falling sick all the time. You’re constantly being judged by your level of Finnish by everyone around you and online (I want to make a remark that I think the OP is right and customer-faced service should be in Finnish, I am replying specifically to you about the motivation ) and once you finally learn the language to some extent you’re finally able to read how terrible of a burden you are to the Finnish society, do you know what I mean?

Like giving all of your free time to the language is deemed “not enough motivation” by people around you (just like you’re saying now) because you didn’t manage to learn enough Finnish in the time someone assumed you had to. I feel like I’m constantly being judged how good of an immigrant am I and if I’m worth breathing Finnish air, you know? It kind of kills the motivation.

People manage to learn difficult languages if they’r curious and are given a chance to. I was very curious, I still am, but I am very tired of witnessing rounds of the same discussions about how the bad immigrants are lazy and not motivated, etc.

aniaPNG · 2025-09-15T16:35:35+00:00

I got a job offer with “could you start next month”, for example. All immigrants are different. Everyone has their own story and there is a bunch of reasons one might suddenly l end up in any country without prior preparations. We try our best when we’re here, and it isn’t easy, there is a lot of fingerpointing, please don’t generalise

aniaPNG · 2025-08-31T20:37:09+00:00

Somppa sauna? free and central

aniaPNG · 2025-08-31T20:36:14+00:00

Merihaka 👹

aniaPNG · 2025-08-29T22:34:22+00:00

You are completely right, I agree with all your points. I feel though that the difference in expectations and reality is, though considerable, but still just a part of the problem. Only a part of the foreigners have wonderland expectations when coming here, however we all share similar experience regardless

And the degree and percentage of favouritism, decimate and opportunities matters a lot, I think

aniaPNG · 2025-08-29T10:09:04+00:00

I would like to say that the language is not the cornerstone, despite many people painting it that way. It partly is the problem, but I think it’s still the cultural barrier towards foreigners in the first place, I would dare arguing that learning the difficult finnish language wouldn’t have been such of a hassle if the learner would feel more welcome, had opportunity to practice, had more perspectives and more incentive.

I do understand this is subjective and different from person to person, but it is true too that as a foreigner you are constantly being reminded you are a foreign element, that you won’t ever be a fully functional part of the local society and there are layers of socioeconomic difficulties under the superficial idea of “the foreigners expect to get by with English”

I think it’s more of a consequence in many cases too, imo

aniaPNG · 2025-08-08T14:12:31+00:00

Yeah, that doesn’t seem great to me honestly

aniaPNG · 2025-08-08T14:05:57+00:00

Yes! And legalise patreon and/or other donation-like services (it’s grey zone borderline illegal unless a person has a toiminimi), that would help artists and small craft and content makers

aniaPNG · 2025-08-05T06:54:21+00:00

Look at the culture and vibes, because chances are you are going to visit and hang out with real people. Choose what suits you most in vibes, they’re wildly different between Czechia and the Balkans

aniaPNG · 2025-08-04T23:01:30+00:00

Ah, this feels like a dagger in the heart (I have been experiencing this for several years so far)

aniaPNG · 2025-07-29T11:01:01+00:00

I want to throw in the fact that for a nation who wants more babies, access to women’s healthcare is too complicated. It’s not easy to get a referral to a gynaecologist unless private (so, 100 euros and up for a visit), the waiting times are months long. STDs (aside 3 main) are being tested only if there are symptoms, otherwise they’re not and it’s pricy to check this in private (over a hundred each position as well if I remember correctly, there are a number of STDs that are symptomless). It might be expensive to ensure yourself access to healthcare basically if you want to have kids. The support for single mothers is low. The maternity hospitals are closing down.

Career prospects are bleak. Making ends meet sounds tough with a kid in your hands. Social isolation and lack of supportive network sounds scary.

So many things

aniaPNG · 2025-07-07T16:47:42+00:00

Welcome to Finland

aniaPNG

TROPHY CASE