165 posts tagged “finland”
- Its portrayal of the immigrant integration challenge: the mother, a low-skilled Finnish immigrant to Gothenburg in Sweden in the 1980's, doesn't speak any Swedish and cannot understand her surroundings, and
- The tackling of the situations a kid growing with two languages and cultures can face: supporting her parents in the local community and being harassed for her background.
After I moved to Finland, one of the things I learned to love was cross-country skiing, so when I was a student and was awarded a small stipend for school achievement, I used that money to buy myself a set of cross-country skis, poles & boots.
Since the past couple of winters have been pretty lousy in southern Finland and I was in Brussels for a year, it had been at least 3 years since I used my skis last time until yesterday. It was, however, like reuniting again with a long-lost friend.
Maybe I should start the Mexican Nordic Combined team? ;-)
My work, of which I usually don't talk about in this blog, can sometimes be great, sometimes frustrating but in the end one of the things that makes it worthwhile is the people.
To have an idea, you can check some of their public blogs:
- erkkola.net
- danielgoodal.com
- finlandforthought.net
- artojoensuu.wordpress.com
- digiantique.wordpress.com
- cognitions.typepad.com
- activefreemedia.com
Monta kertaa olen sanonut että Suomessa ei saa hyvää, aitoa meksikolaista, vaan texmexiä. Kun ei täällä ole laatuisia meksikolasia ravintoloja, suomalaiset ovat vaan tavaneet Santa Maria tai Old El Paso, joka on meksikolaiselle ruualle kuin lohihampurilainen suomalaisille.
Sen takia, tämä kirja on minun puolesta hyvin tervetullut, koska puhuu ruuasta jolla olen itse kasvanut ja löydät siellä melkein missä vaan, ei taco-kuoreista jotka vaan tapasin Pohjois-Europpassa aikuisena.
Helsingin Sanomien arvostelu löydät tästä, ja voit ostaa useimmista paikoista.
Mexican education has a very strong nationalist component, and we are taught to view with a certain suspicion foreign influences, which is quite ironic when you consider that everybody came from somewhere else. Phrases like "México lindo y querido" (beautiful & beloved Mexico) or "Como México no hay dos" (there is no other country like Mexico) are commonly heard, and Mexican naturalisation and investment laws are extremely restrictive, which everybody seems to find normal.
When I moved to Finland, after going throught the whole language and acculturisation process, I realised that many of those views held while and where I was born were rather chauvinistic, when I found similar situations in the country where my home is. Phrases such as "On lottovoitto syntyä Suomeen" (being born in Finland is like winning the lottery) and the sad state of the immigration debate in Finland currently have shown me how wrong the attitudes I encountered when growing up are, since they assume that one group or the other hold a monopoly on truth and are categorically better than the rest.
I'd rather learn the best from everybody I encounter.
We were skiing in Tahkovuori very recently and I was wondering about the amount of Russian tourists to be found unlike the previous times I've been there. Searching a little bit I found this and this article, where they explain that there is a boom in visits of Russian citizens from last year.
If you are looking for a job in Eastern Finland (currently suffering from difficult times in the wood industry), try hospitality and learn some Russian.
