Starting a job on Monday- Help please

[Mattlill2000]

From my experience in construction work sites is that for the first few days the Finns are quiet. They won't talk to you unless its absolutely necasary. Then after a few days the nod of the head comes meaning hello and welcome. Then small chat or what you can make with your limited Finnish. Then after a week you will become friends. It takes a while but the friendship here means something.

[donald]

Last time I went to sauna at public swimming pool, there were note by the sauna's door: "Ei uimahousuissa saunaan!" = "No swimming trunks in sauna!"

thats because the chlorine in the water in wet trunks is poisonous

Umm, not only, also try to immagine a swimming pool full of people with their swimming trunks soaked full in ass sweat...

[Tiwaz]

Umm, not only, also try to immagine a swimming pool full of people with their swimming trunks soaked full in ass sweat...

And which is also why you got and shower before you go to sauna and then after you get out of sauna and into the pool. And again shower after you get out of the pool.

[craiced]

I must have had a completely rare and unique experience working in the construction section. I started on Tuesday morning. The guys were a little quiet but mainly because they were shy about spekaing english and I had only been in the country 2 weeks so my Finnish was and mostly still is non existant. On Wednesday the guys had started talking more and 1 of them offered to pick me up in the mornings because we started pretty early. Thursday we went out for a beer after work together and on Friday i was invited to one of the guys birthday parties.

Some of the friendliest people I have ever met. Just keep your head down and work hard and you will be respected. The rest will come. Its four years later and I still work with these guys occasionally when they need a hand and I still go out for a few beers with them too.

[portinos]

hello, as an irishman myself, i discovered that it takes time and patience. finns take their time to open up and at some point if you are lucky, they can be the best of friends. i am here 11years and gathered a wealth of experience, i learned to adapt, as i hope you can to.
adam

[Cloudberry]

Waiting for an update on how things are going!

[johngibbons6155]

Well, i`m back from Levi now, couldn`t update sooner as i had no internet.

It went better that expected (Kind of), But i still havn`t really had a chat with anyone. On my first day people were just looking but wouldn`t even say hi even after i said it to them! But it`s getting better now.

Lunch time is the worst though, I just sit there on my own .

On the plus side, the company have rented us out cottages to stay in and there really nice, nothing beats a Sauna after 11.5 hours on a construction site!

I`m sharing with only one guy so far but i think two more are coming next week. Funny thing is that the guy i`m sharing with will talk to me and teach me Finnish in the cottage , but kind of ignores me at work

I`m really to tired to give more details at the moment!!!

I hope it goes better next week!

[Karhunkoski]

oh, and the "traditional" hole in the ice is reserved for tourists... I mean you can do it if you want but I am not *that* crazy

You're just being a southern city pussy Hank!


Our avanto club has lots of members and is very popular. We have a names book to record who's been, and it fills quickly.

[EP]

Lunch time is the worst though, I just sit there on my own

You are sitting alone because they would feel unconfortable if they had to try to speak English. Contruction workers are not usually the world´s best linguists.

Just be straightforward. Walk to the table and say that you would like to sit there and listen when they speak Finnish. You would get used to hearing it and could start learning faster. That way you don´t have to sit alone, and they don´t feel that they have to try to speak English.

[onkko]

... but wouldn`t even say hi even after i said it to them!...

Are your coworkers from lapland? did you notice they look you and do subtle nod. Thats "Hi how you are today, nice weather isnt it" in lapland

Funny thing is that the guy i`m sharing with will talk to me and teach me Finnish in the cottage , but kind of ignores me at work

Its normal, i assume you speak english with him? "ohh how good im speaking, will others laugh if i try to speak?" but its easier when youre together. And of course work is for work not for chat

And in lunch time just sit with them, dont wait for invite because no one invites. they respect your will if you sit in other table or did you mean about language?
Language barrier could be bad if they dont feel comfortable to speak english, try to break ice with your finnish.

[johngibbons6155]

Well, truth be told, they should not be expected to speak English and i understand that, I did meet two guys there that did speak English to me , and the first thing to come out of their mouths was " I don`t speak good English ", but i could understand every thing they were trying to say.

I did initiate a conversation with the basics that i do know, and his reply went straight over my head so i just said "joo" and laughed - it seems to work most of the time ( even though he could have just said his mother died )

I`ll be working on the basics a lot this weekend as I don`t want next week to be the same as the last !

[EP]

It takes ages before one understands language that is spoken on native speed. I had had 6 years of English at school, and when I went to US as an exhange student it still took me four months before I really understood what people said. So I suspect one week does not make a big change. Sorry.

When you say or ask something in Finnish, you can add "puhu hitaasti" (speak slowly) so people understand that they should slow down. It will take time before you can hear separate words from people´s speech.

[onkko]

Basic construction worker vocabularity
You hurt yourserf bit, something wents bit wrong etc. minor accident = Perkele, Helevetti or v!%# (you can add "voi" in start but not needed)
Major accident = Voi saatanan perkeleen helevetin v!%#! (repeat if needed, you can mix all other words than voi what is firs only)
Thats start

You climb on roof and drop your hammer = "perkele!"
You climb in roof and fell down = "Voi saatanan perkeleen helevetin vittujen vittujen perkele!!"

And if you say those near your mom she will wash your mouth with soup so be warned, construction use only.

[johngibbons6155]

One thing that did piss me off about the new job was the fact that all of the replies you guys have made about the Finnish work ethic is that everyone works hard and to be honest, i didn`t see that at all on this site.

Maybe in a different line of work this may be true or with a different construction company or a different crew in a construction company. I didn`t see this "Finnish work hard" thing that you were all talking about. Maybe it`s just that the people on the site have been with the company a long time and just seem to relax about the daily tasks. I pretty much busted my ass all week and believe it or not i did get a couple of compliments on the work i did ( which i know is rare )

Everyone on the site seems to wander along until there is a job that needs to be done, they take about 30 mins to get the tools for the job and spend what seems like an eternity on doing the job ( the foreman said the job was behind , not a surprise ).

At any one time if i could see 10 men on the site , about 4 of them are actually working.

Sorry for the rant, i`m tired and had a couple of "lapin kulta"

[EP]

Well, that is Lapland style