Possibly moving to Finland in a few months

[Sisupoika]

I also reckon that it's unrealistic to think that almost the whole country speaks good English. Apart from no work experience I do know Finland fairly well and having been countless times to many different places throughout the country (I even got married there) and obviously outside Helsinki I wouldn't agree with him. Let alone those many people who perhaps speak good English but are just too shy to even try. But that you or I disagree with what he said still doesn't mean that he's an idiot.

If you talk about integration I might agree with you quite easily. For how I have known Finland and the Finnish culture thus far, I'd agree that it's basically impossible.
But you are talking about survival, right? However difficult it might be to find a job etc how can you say that it is impossible to survive without Finnish? Doesn't make much sense to me.

I am losing interest in reading some of you. Sometimes it even looks like you might be able to offer useful comments, but most of the time it seems that all what some of you do is working hard to scare the hell out of people as if that were your mission in life, and be offensive at almost every opportunity without any reason. Mah. Why do you even bother writing?

[Sisupoika]

BTW, I am a little more relaxed about work since it looks like the company don't want to lose me and are available to let me work from Finland. I might even be able to carry on with the same job, and fly in once or twice a month to check my team.
Also, the new CTO is based in Denmark, so I can meet him there too (=shorter flights) when needed. I am hoping this goes well of course for obvious reason... it's nice to think I wouldn't have to worry about work too from day 1.
But perhaps it's a little too soon to be sure of everything...
Anyway if I do keep my job I will basically set up a company in Finland and invoice the company in the UK, so I guess there will be some other side benefits of doing this. Wish me luck!

[Kutittaa]

People come onto a forum because they are asking for help. Those who choose to assist do so entirely on their own investment of time/will/whatever. None of us are here to bake you a cake and tell you that everything will be ok. You either choose to accept our 'advice' for what it is (advice). Or you choose to act like a moron as do many of the people who come in here by, posting a bunch of crap that none of us honestly could care less about, about our attitude towards people who ask for help.

I for one, am not here to tell anyone that life is simple. If I believe that 'everything will be ok' then I will say that. If I don't think it will be so, then I will say otherwise. Regardless, from me, you get the truth and/or my honest opinion. Not some sugar coated crap story that you would like to hear.

When people give you their opinions after you have asked for help what you do with their advice is entirely up to you. It is after all, almost always only the posters 'opinion'.
I will only speak for myself.

I don't care how often you think you have been here, or how much you think you know the language, or even whether you married or not here. You may, or may not be able to survive without Finnish but the point remains, it will be an extremely uncomfortable life, for yourself and the others whom you expect to speak English if you honestly do not wish to learn Finnish here. Butchering up my opinion for what it was, just a bloody opinion is stupid.
I also think that it would be quite pathetic of someone to move anywhere and not wish to assimilate into the country's culture.

If all of us post in more-or-less the same way, does that show that we are all idiots, or does that show that we may all know what we are talking about and that you are the idiot? Hmm... JFFT.

With that,

Good luck.

[Sisupoika]

Kutittaa,

thanks for your response. I agree that people come here to ask for help and, believe me, I appreciate that you, as well as many others, take your time to come to a forum and try to give advice and help. I think we all are thankful about this. What I was trying to say is that lots of responses read to me like "don't come here!" more than anything else, almost regardless of the particular situation of this or that person, that's why I said it looks like at times some of you are here just to scare the hell out of people.

When in another thread a teenager guy with no Finnish and no skills nor experience in any job nor any qualifications at all said he was planning to move to Finland without any particular reason, your responses read like "that's crazy". Well, unless the guy is rich and doesn't have anything to worry about living there, I totally agree with all of you in such cases and it's good that you try to warn them not to make decisions that might put them in trouble. However there are also people who do have some resources, who either have money (so they might even be able to cope for a long time without any jobs) or some good skills or experience or qualifications to sell and therefore would hopefully have chances to settle down there with a job and all the rest, albeit it might take time, and these people might even be a little familiar with the language in some cases, and anyway these people might have to move to Finland not because they are crazy but for a reason such as family etc.

Nobody is asking anyone to bake their cake and say that everything will be OK although this is not true; it is definitely useful to help them understand that moving to Finland isn't easy for a whole lot of reasons, but just telling everybody regardless of their case something that reads like "don't come here! you won't make it as it's impossible to survive without this or that" isn't very helpful either. What would be really helpful is giving these people advice that might help them get there, IMHO, and I am sure that you and others who have gone through the same kind of experiences can definitely help.

On the other hand, using so easily labels such as "idiot" whenever someone says something you don't agree with doesn't help any discussion either. You could just respect other people's opinion a little more and explain why you don't agree from your experience, keeping in mind that your experience etc might be even completely different from that of others. I have been in touch with some other users of this forum and also some Facebook groups who have moved to Finland and have settled down fairly well within a few months, and have found a job fairly soon. None of these people, I think, had particular skills that couldn't be found easily, and none of them - from what I understood - speaks any Finnish. So not everybody stays there in Finland without integrating or without finding a job within a reasonable time, so just saying that "you cannot survive without Finnish" is IMHO an exaggeration at least.

When you say that you find "pathetic of someone to move anywhere and not wish to assimilate into the country's culture", I totally agree.

[Pursuivant]

Theres also this tendency for people who have " worked it all out" coming to ask confirmation and assurance for their - sometimes quite harebrained plans. Then they get all stroppy when they don't get the answer they want. At the end of the day its calculating probabilities of different possible scenarios. Like for a general "what usually happens" scenario being able to keep your job and working remote - seems to be a rising trend, but still nothing that can be counted as an option unless its a fact.

[Kutittaa]

Sisupoika that is a really long post.. en jaksa enä...

If you are in any way, or if anyone is in any way dissatisfied with any of my, or any one else's responses here then well...

Sorry but there is no warranty, disclaimer or any other sort of 'duty of care' here... so tough cookies.
Take my advice or leave it, take other's advice however you wish and take it up with them.

People have just as much right to take my advice in any way they want, as I do to write it in the first place. Especially when they're the ones asking for it.
I don't think anyone has to justify anything It's certainly a little crazy that some young people want to come here, especially so unprepared. It's always healthy if people reassess the situation.
Being told 'you're crazy' is the best way to put someone down the right road.

As for others, you might not realise but there are a lot of idiots who come onto the forums here.