Question for Finns

[Schumin Capote]

Was Kekkonen as dreamy as we've all been led to believe?

[montrith]

I'm not sure about dreamy, but the guy was fit as fuck. There's a whole bunch of anecdotes about him basically beating Soviet diplomats into submission simply by making them go on ski trips with him, or taking them to sauna and ice-hole swimming. One of the cities where I used to live had an indoor pool where across one wall there was a quote from him in huge letters. "Any reason that keeps us from exercising is just an excuse."

[Schumin Capote]

Kekkonen definitely comes across as a badass and I love the idea of him taking Soviet officials skiing and then wearing them down into submission. My grandmother hated Finns and used to tell my family that, "the Finns are clannish and carry knives." We all thought she was crazy, but after doing some research I came across the Puukojunkkari, who seem to match what she was complaining about. I know there were a lot of Finns in Minnesota, but she never really elaborated on what triggered her hatred of Finns, but to be fair she hated a lot of people.

Were Husky Rescue or Kemopetrol ever big in Finland? I got to meet Husky Rescue once, they were really nice and Reeta-Leena was gorgeous.

[Runic]

"the Finns are clannish and carry knives."

Like that's supposed to be a bad thing!

Still waiting for an answer to my bread post. Also what sort of dogs do you guys mostly have up there?

[Schumin Capote]

"the Finns are clannish and carry knives."

Like that's supposed to be a bad thing!

Still waiting for an answer to my bread post. Also what sort of dogs do you guys mostly have up there?

Knives, hating Russians and Swedes, goaltending, and their weird version of baseball are what make them Finnish. I'm hoping to go to Helsinki at some point and I know that I'll be disappointed when it doesn't live up to the expectations set by Hel-Looks.

Edit: Fixed link.

http://www.hel-looks.com/

[montrith]

Still waiting for an answer to my bread post. Also what sort of dogs do you guys mostly have up there?

I thought I answered you already, but here it goes again: We have bread and it's fucking delicious. My grandma used her stone oven to make bread until she had to move house.

The most popular dogs are retrievers, especially Labrador and Golden. Hounds are also quite popular in the countryside, as is the Finnish Spitz. In towns you see mostly smaller dogs. Corgies seem pretty popular, as well as different types of terriers. What you don't see as much are those fancy dogs with really long coats that take a lot of trimming to look nice, possibly because even in cities there's still lot of places for doggies to get mud all over them.

Were Husky Rescue or Kemopetrol ever big in Finland? I got to meet Husky Rescue once, they were really nice and Reeta-Leena was gorgeous.

Husky Rescue I know practically nothing about, but Kemopetrol is one of those things that were popular when I was younger. Not really my thing, but they were on quite a lot.

[crow]

What is going on in this map?  Why is Finland the land without AIDS?

[Psammetichus]

Finland doesn't need AIDS, they already got a ton of aid from Nazi Germany. Yeah, that's right Finland, I've seen your Air Force staff flag.

(By the way, of all the European countries fighting the Second World War, can you name the only three European capitals which were never occupied? London, Moscow, and... Helsinki.)

[montrith]

I haven't seen that chart before, but I'm assuming the data for Finland just was not available. The estimated HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate for Finland is 0.1%, if my sources are correct.

Finland is actually one of those countries who suffered from the Nazis spoiling a well established symbol that had a different meaning before they adopted it. The swastika had been the symbol of the Finnish air force ever since they acquired their first plane and the actual logo was designed by one of our most celebrated artists, Akseli Gallen-Kallela. However, after WWII the flag you linked to was retired and the swastika was replaced with a golden eagle.

[Runic]

How popular are beards in Finland? Because I keep hoping that they'll come back into popularity over here, so I'd like to know if our countries can be beard-bros.

[Goose Goose Honk At Me Now]

What are popular pet names in Finnish? Do you give pets people names or are there equivalents of "Fluffy" and "Buttface" and the like?

[montrith]

Beards are really a question of taste. About 40% of the men in my family have facial hair of some sort. As for me personally, I'd say nothing suits a mans face like a neat beard, so I encourage you in your beard related activities.

"Musti" is the dog name that's roughly equal to the English "Spot". Pets here usually either have slightly exotic people names or just general pet names. Our first dog was called Tupsu ("Bunch of hair/fur"), which is fairly common I'd think. I know a person who named their dog Delete and my cousins had a (male) cat called Snorkmaiden, so it's really up to the person doing the naming. Hint: Don't let a 6 year old kid do the naming or you'll end up with a dog with more names than anyone else in the family.

[Baldr]

There's an international exam called the PISA, where 15-year-olds from different countries are tested on math, science, and language.  Until 2009 Finland was pretty much ranked first on the PISA exam, and even though you've fallen in the rankings you still beat every western country.  A lot of East-Asian countries also rank near the top, but they basically engage in child abuse to get those scores, and no one wants to emulate them.  I see news articles all the time about Finnish schools and how we should be emulating them.

So what was it like to grow up with the Finish education system?

[montrith]

I'd imagine it's pretty much like in any other school in many ways. One thing I can imagine being different was that we spent a lot of time outside the classroom. Sometimes our teacher would give us assignments and then we'd be free to find a nice spot or nook inside the school to work on it. We also did lots of stuff outdoors, like camping or skiing. I don't know much about how schools are outside Finland, but I always liked the fact that we could do a lot of stuff at our own pace. My teacher would let me read books or work on extra projects while he spent time with the kids who were struggling with the main assignment. Teachers have a lot of freedom here concerning learning methods, so if you get someone cool you can actually get to know them and bond with them.

Oh, and lots of holidays. We've got 2 1/2 months of summer vacation alone.

[crow]

Does Finland have any crazy Christmas characters like Black Peter or Krampus?