Swedish parts of Finland

enk · Post by **enk** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 3:28 pm

Häh? How come I only seem to run into people that speak *Finnish* in Sweden?

-enk

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sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:13 pm

MHH wrote:Hah, it's been always the same for me. I could speak Swedish, but then Swedish superiour -complexed people would have an upper hand on discussions. I have sometimes even said in Stockholm (I recall one post office) "It's quite OK for you to speak Swedish, while I replay in English..." and the discussion went quite smoothly. Once it was amazing in one hotel in Stockholm, as the staff though I'm American - untill one of our drunken Uni student bunch went asking for Sauna (9 am.)... Talk about difference in Swedish service to a Finn vs. American!

So how did the service compare?

I haven't made any effort to learn Swedish, as they all speak English ... and I don't live there... though it should be quite easy, at least many of the nouns look like funny German.

Your post office story reminds me, (can't remember if I mentioned it already on Finland Forum), once when using the Metro in Stockholm, the ticket guy didn't speak any English... only Swedish or French, not the sort of place I'd expect to use French as a common language... but it worked fine!

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:28 pm

BTW theachers lied to us also in maths lesson. I have never ever derivated anything in real life. Then again those guys wo could do flycrap equations couldn't do statistics, probabilities or figure out if 200 zloty is more or less than 2000 old liras

I can get what needs to be counted out of a verbal problem, but don't ask me to count it

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:38 pm

Hank W. wrote:BTW theachers' lied to us also in maths lesson. I have never ever derivated anything in real life. Then again those guys wo could do flycrap equations couldn't do statistics, probabilities or figure out if 200 zloty is more or less than 2000 old liras I can get what needs to be counted out of a verbal problem, but don't ask me to count it

Calculus is very useful, especially integration... areas under curves etc.

Of course I don't do this myself... usually done by software, but those writing the software must presumably understand calculus to make the software work

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:39 pm

sinikala wrote:areas under curves

I think theres liposuction for that

Mark I. · Post by **Mark I.** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:46 pm

sinikala wrote: So how did the service compare?

Well, first I went asking them if it's possible to go to sauna with my friends. A clerk went "of course, we'll just put it on". Then one guy of our group went asking for towels, and they realized we were all Finns and didn't have room at the hotel, and said no sauna for you. Hearing that I went to the desk and insisted I'v been promised sauna, and told we're willing to pay for it. Few hundred of cronas, and to sauna we went.

(So, perhaps this room customer thing was also playing a part there - but the attitude towards me changed also dramaticly ("...han är inte amerikansk gäst, bara en finnjäveln...")

sammy · Post by **sammy** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:55 pm

sinikala wrote:Calculus is very useful, especially integration... areas under curves etc.

No doubt about that, and although I'm nowadays just about as useful in maths as a chimpanzee (on my good days, I can just about count my fingers, provided someone's not wearing my gloves and thereby interfering) I think I can at least on some level appreciate the lure and fascination towards mathematics as an abstract intellectual discipline.

I studied the notorious laaja matematiikka at lukio (I'm of course stretching the semantics of the verb "study" rather close to breaking point here), but having just about cleared the fail-mark I decided that maths-related subjects were not a walk of life I would take. So, having ritualistically burned (honestly!) my maths books after the ordeal, I embarked on a de-memorising mission which proved quite successful. Not that there was so much there to de-memorise, come to think of it. However today I couldn't derivate an equation if my life depended on it.

But, as said, that's not to say calculus/maths is useless or rubbish...

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:58 pm

sammy wrote: I studied the notorious laaja matematiikka at lukio (I'm of course stretching the semantics of the verb "study" rather close to breaking point here), but having just about cleared the fail-mark I decided that maths-related subjects were not a walk of life I would take. So, having ritualistically burned (honestly!) my maths books after the ordeal, I embarked on a de-memorising mission which proved quite successful. Today, I couldn't derivate an equation if my life depended on it.

I think we must compile here a list of "common Finnish traumas"