Things to know about Helsinki/Finland

1. Finland has 2 official languages: Finnish and Swedish (since Finland used to belong to Sweden). From what I’ve been told, if a town has a Swedish-speaking minority over 6%, then all public signs and services must be offered in both Finnish and Swedish. Since I don’t speak either, it doesn’t help me at all, but it’s cool. The pictures below are street names - the top name in Finnish and the bottom name in Swedish.



2. When I walked into the hotel on Saturday afternoon, the front-desk clerk greeted me with a “hey.” I thought this was a little informal, but hey, what do I know. Then, when I went to dinner on Sunday night (dinner Saturday night didn’t count since it was a Thai restaurant and they spoke English with everyone), the hostess greeted me with a “hey” as well. As it turns out, Finns use the greeting “hei” (hello or hi) which sounds like “hey.”

3. As much as I hate to eavesdrop, I’ve been hearing the same word over and over again in conversations. I somewhat figured out its meaning by the context (yes, you can determine context even if you don’t understand anything that is being spoken). So, yesterday I asked Kim M., a guy I’m working with AND a Swedish speaking Finn, what it means. I was right – the word is “joo” pronounced “yo” like “yo, Adrian!” (Kim says it’s not pronounced “yo,” but I can only detect a minor difference when he says both words). Anywho, it means “yeah,” or “uh-huh.” Yo!