FOR ROMANIANS AND BULGARIANS - DO NOT COME WITHOUT PLANNING

[Hank W.]

Well, apparently there has been some news down on the Black Sea beach that Finland has opened the labour market and there are a lot of jobs here.

Yes but no. They forgot the small print: YOU NEED TO SPEAK FINNISH to get a job. And the jobs are mainly for specialists and people with experience and education. The more you are a specialist you can maybe find a job you do not need to speak Finnish.

Another thing is that nobody will help you. They will say: look in the internet. So if you can not find the job from http://www.mol.fi from Romania you cannot find the job any easier in Finland because they say "look in the internet". And most of the offices tell you to go to the internet and fill in an application. Also recruiting in Finland takes a long time, not 2-3 weeks, maybe 2-3 months. So if you want to come here to sit and count the trees it is OK, but it is cheaper to sit in Romania as Finland is very expensive.

So do not just fly over and expect the job to attack you in the airport. You spend one year circling in Helsinki and they will say "look in the internet" even at the government job centre. And there are no private job centres as they are illegal. And any kind of housekeeping job requires the more manual labor and less training the more you need Finnish language.

I am writing this as I now have some nice Romanian people at my house getting to know the reality of life, and the newspapers today had articles of Romanians and Bulgarians coming like beggars with no money without any planning or any idea of the reality of life in Finland. Yes there are jobs but nobody said anything about getting hired.

So do not come here and come an example of stupid people in the newspaper. Gather as much information beforehand, plan well and get all the papers translated atleast into English.

Plan and gather information beforehand. Arrange interviews beforehand. Come here and ask questions.

(If someone wants to translate this into Romanian and Bulgarian just for a warning for those who have ideas of Finland but not about the realities of life)

[pollymincheva]

Hey Hank!
I could translate this in Bulgarian but I don't see a point in it. The people who come unprepared in my opinion are people who don't even have a computer or know how to use one or have Internet access. And there are very few people in BG who speak Finnish. They only teach it in Sofia university as an extra course under Scandinavian studies... and they barely learn anything as far as I know.
I suppose some really desperate people would come unprepared. Trying to pay their heating bills or something Heating is so freaking expensive in BG it's crazy.

[Hank W.]

Heating, I am planning to get a trip to Sunny Beach and you ask for heating?

BTW the most asylum seekers in Finland were from Bulgaria you should really do something

[ashish]

Traducerea in romana a textului postat de Hank:

"Se pare ca au existat niste stiri pe linga Marea Neagra cum ca Finlanda si-a deschis piata muncii si acum sint o multime de oferte de munca aici.

Da si nu. Au uitat sa mentioneze: TREBUIE SA VORBESTI FINLANDEZA pentru a primi in loc de munca. Si locurile munca sint in general pentru specialisti si oameni cu experienta si educatie. Cu cit esti mai specializat, cu atit ai mai multe sanse sa gasesti, poate, un loc de munca in care finlandeza nu e obligatorie.

Un alt lucru de mentionat este ca nimeni nu e dispus sa ajute. Raspunsul pe care il veti primi va fi: Cautati pe internet. Deci, daca nu gasiti o oferta pe internet, pe site-ul http://www.mol.fi, cit sinteti inca in Romania, nu o sa o gasiti mai usor in Finlanda pentru ca vi se va spune sa “cautati pe internet”. Majoritatea firmelor va spun sa mergeti pe internet si sa aplicati de acolo. Mai mult, recrutarea in Finlanda dureaza mult, nu 2-3 saptamini, ci uneori chiar 2-3 luni. Deci, daca vreti sa veniti aici sa stati si sa numarati copacii e ok, dar e mai ieftin sa stati in Romania, pentru ca in Finlanda toate sint foarte scumpe.

Deci, nu luati primul zbor incoace si nu va asteptati sa va gasiti locul de munca in aeroport. Veti sta un an prin Helsinki si va vor spune “cautati pe internet” chiar si la oficiul fortelor de munca. Si nu exista oficii de plasament private, pentru ca sint ilegale. Si in orice tip de slujba, cu cit e nevoie de mai multa munca manuala si mai putin training, cu atit mai mult se cere limba finlandeza.

Scriu asta pentru ca deja au aparut citiva romani simpatici lovindu-se de realitatile vietii aici, si ziarele de azi publicau deja articole despre romani si bulgari veniti aici ca cersetorii, fara nici un ban, fara planuri si fara cea mai mica idee despre realitatea vietii in Finlanda.Da, exista locuri de munca, dar nu a spus nimeni ca cineva va va si angaja.

Deci, nu veniti aici sa deveniti un exemplu, ca cei din articolele din ziare. Adunati cit mai multe informatii inainte, planuiti bine si traduceti-va toate ziarele macar in engleza. Aranjati interviurile dinainte. Veniti aici si puneti intrebari. "

I translated this in Romanian, because I really think Hank is right. I know most Romanians won't even read this, but it might help the few who will.
The Romanian media is full of news about the job offers here and the reality is different. Hank has a point.

Hank, I didn't translate the part about the Finnish-Romanian-Finnish dictionary, as we actually have one Most Romanians can get it in almost any book store, at the Finnish embassy etc. We have a conversation guide too.

ru

[Hank W.]

Thanks Ru, you're a star

BTW we found the dictionary, quite new 2006 - Though a bit useless... the dictionary is missing most all of the professions, and it translates lâcâtus as locksmith into Finnish. A lacatus-mecanic has not even seen a lock, it is hienomekanikko in Finnish (I think). Damn, glad we caught that one

Oh, just now, he works on the frezâ... Finnish says kampaus - so womens hairdressing???

I hope the Bulgarian dictionary is better

Oh, anyone have Romanian-Finnish conversation guide for sale?

[enk]

To be slightly petty, if these people don't come, then I won't have
as much work to do

-enk

[littlefrank]

'then I won't have as much work to do'

What you've read all those books already?

[Hank W.]

Well, I don't its too nice for these people to be standing in a meter of snow and count the trees.

[EP]

Heavens, it is so like Latin. A lot more like Latin than Italian is.

[Hank W.]

Thats why they call themselves "Roman"

[enk]

What you've read all those books already?

Not quite Halfway through the box. Managed to leave the middle
pages of Len Deighton's Yesterday Spy somewhere though Took
me a while to realize why the two scenes didn't quite go together
Decided it was time to go to sleep then

Alas, now that winter's here, I'm going to have to go back to knitting
socks and whatnot for the chil'ren. Less time to read *sniff*.

-enk

[ashish]

Thanks Ru, you're a star

BTW we found the dictionary, quite new 2006 - Though a bit useless... the dictionary is missing most all of the professions, and it translates lâcâtus as locksmith into Finnish. A lacatus-mecanic has not even seen a lock, it is hienomekanikko in Finnish (I think). Damn, glad we caught that one

Oh, just now, he works on the frezâ... Finnish says kampaus - so womens hairdressing???

I hope the Bulgarian dictionary is better

Oh, anyone have Romanian-Finnish conversation guide for sale?

Hmm... and I always thought a "lacatus" really is a locksmith... "Hienomekaniikka" sounds more like "mecanica fina" to me... but then I might be wrong.

"Freza" in Romanian really means "womens hairdressing" - what's the word in Finnish for the "freza" you were thinking of?

The 2006 dictionary is just an improved edition of an older one and I personally think it's not so bad... They're still working on it, so it's good that we at least have that. The conversation guide... you can buy that one from ARF (Association of Romanians in Finland, but there's not much in English there...) If anyone wants to buy it, I can help

[Sopheline]

Heavens, it is so like Latin. A lot more like Latin than Italian is.

I have to try learning this one Italian today is less like Latin was because it's actually Florentine. When they were working on unifying the country, there were so many dialects with so little in common; some kind of Latin was used for literature but there was no national language really. So they made it that the Florentine dialect was the one to be taught everywhere, and that developed into "national" Italian as it is today. I had to read a book called "I Promessi Sposi" which was actually written a good while before the unification; but the author chose to write it in Florentine as he believed it would be the language which all Italians would eventually speak.

...I think that's pretty much correct. Why is this information still in my brain?

[Hank W.]

Hmm... and I always thought a "lacatus" really is a locksmith... "Hienomekaniikka" sounds more like "mecanica fina" to me... but then I might be wrong.

Well, he has a diploma from some "technical highschool" and he is a "lacatus-mecanic"... I think it might be "asentaja" or something in Finnish but has never seen a lock and been working as "lacatus", so I guess the jargon is a bit different.

"Freza" in Romanian really means "womens hairdressing" - what's the word in Finnish for the "freza" you were thinking of?

Freesi it is jyrsin and the person is jyrsijä, but if you look that up you get a rabbit or hampster. There is a "sorvi" = "lathe" and then there is a "jyrsin" ="milling cutter " what you use if you are a CNC-machinist. Not a frisyyri

The conversation guide...If anyone wants to buy it, I can help

OK, need one please.

[ashish]

Okay, Hank... you win maybe it's not the best dictionary It helped me a lot, though... And anyway, let's face it, Finnish and Romanian are not the most common languages... it's good that we have something.

I'll send you a pm when I have details about the conversation guide.