Seeking help

[dedringerforelvis]

Hi.

[Hank W.]

Only thing required right now is a high typing speed, resulting in reading through a variety of pages readily available off "search" here, answering the puzzling questions about residence and so forth...

[dedringerforelvis]

Thankyou for the reply, i may need to rephrase the question however. I would like to hear from any english people that have succesfully moved to and work in helsinki, if you could tell me any problems you encountered or give me any hints or tips i would be very grateful, of just tell me your story, i would be grateful of that just as much. More or less anything thats not so sarcastic as the other replies i have got so far, now that would be a bonus. take it easy and i'll look forward to any replies. cheers.

[otyikondo]

Thankyou for the reply, i may need to rephrase the question however. I would like to hear from any english people that have succesfully moved to and work in helsinki, if you could tell me any problems you encountered or give me any hints or tips i would be very grateful, of just tell me your story, i would be grateful of that just as much. More or less anything thats not so sarcastic as the other replies i have got so far, now that would be a bonus. take it easy and i'll look forward to any replies. cheers.

Mr Ringer, there is nothing remotely sarcastic about the response you have received from Mr Hankie. He is merely advising you to make use of the thousands and thousands of hints available in the bowels of this forum by using the "search" function and a few well-chosen keywords. It's good advice, albeit a laborious exercise for you.

Mr Hankie is a veritable fount of wisdom for newcomers, possessed of a patience that would make even Job envious, but the scope of reference of your request is very broad indeed. It will require quite a lot of typing from someone to give you everything you want, and "just telling you their story" may seem like a lot of work to no very good end.

However, in brief:

Finland is not an easy touch. It is a somewhat isolated country with a largely homogeneous population only now coming to terms with an influx of foreigners; some may experience this as excessive curiosity, sullen hostility, or downright xenophobia. Threads on xenophobia are legion on here.

Finland has a language that is "different" if not downright difficult, and whilst you can make yourself very well understood in English, you cannot make yourself very employable. This is an important consideration. The job market is not going to welcome you with open arms - unless you have a very specific niche skill, and very high qualifications indeed. Finns tend to pride themselves on their education system, and having a middling degree from the University of South-West Staffordshire (formerly Lanchester Poly, formerly Coventry Tech) does not set personnel managers' hearts aflame.

Finland has (probably) no more and no less annoying bureaucracy than most other places, but since it is a NEW bureaucracy to new arrivals, it will seem cumbersome and designed to throw you off your stride. A search on "bureaucracy" or "red tape" will probably throw up lots of fun threads on this topic, and a few good flame-wars.

Some things here will seem rather expensive. Other things will appear to have access to them unnecessarily restricted. Alcohol fits both of these categories.

Certain aspects of the taxation regime will leave you open-mouthed with either disgust or astonishment. Egalitarianism rules, bringing a measure of societal stability and cohesion but a sense among some that initiative and entrepreneurship - oh, alright then, "getting rich" - is frowned upon. Post-Thatcherian loadsamoney England it ain't. Yet.

The summer can be divine. The winter won't kill you. November might.

I'm getting bored with this already.

Personally, I found the first ten years the most difficult. After twenty years, everything goes swimmingly. Unfortunately, you tend by then to have forgotten all the useful tips and tricks you used to survive during the first ten years.

Good luck on your search through the archives.

[neil]

[dedringerforelvis]

Mr otyikondo, I'm very grateful for your information, this is the first time one has joined a forum, I recentley joined the Finn Guild and they have pointed me in this direction, I just wanted to communicate with someone who had actually moved succesfully. I am 26 years of age, Im currentley studying the finnish language at a language school, i hope to move to thicken up my progress by being submersed around the language, my tutors and i agree that this would be much more beneficial. You mentioned that employment would be difficult if my knowledge of finnish is limited, does this apply to all levels of employment? Are you refering to jobs of all standards? I am a very effective sales assitant in the musical instrument trade, i worked as a technician in a theatre for five years, constructing lighting rigs and operating live sound re-enforcement systems, now im a senior sales assistant in an independant store in the city, i provide educational demonstrations of many instruments and hi tech recording devices, i trained as a sound engineer in a proffesional recording studio, i have produced and mixed albums for artists on numerous occasions, I can teach guitar of which I've been playing for 14 years and unique instruments such as banjo's too, I wonder if finns are partial to a bit of banjo now and again? hmmm maybe not in november when the human digits are likely to be frozen numb and less responsive. Myself and a collegue are visiting Helsinki for a brief holiday next week to visit friends and to have a look at any musical instrument retailers and how they do they're buisness. Its an idea to look at opening up an outlet, I have no idea how possible a venture like this or wether it could sustain itself but we have very good contacts with many respectable distributors world wide and could most certainly provide high quality pieces at very affordable prices. To be completely honest i just want to get there and learn the language, that is my prime directive. I have no university degree's, i can imagine that is going to be a black mark against studying finnish over there and paying for it is the only option maybe for someone like myself. If i have to i'll two and fro between the uk and finland until my knowledge of speaking finnish grants me the status of being employable. i really appreciate your information and please feel welcome in replying back, so far your the only person who has moved to finland that i have spoken with. Thankyou for your time and all the best.
Tomas Whitehouse

[Hank W.]

Well see now luv; if you'd told all that up front it'd been far much easier to guesstimate what kind of a tool you are to want to move to Finland. The crystal ball gets a bit murky whether if you are some zit-nosed teenager orgasming over Ville Valo or a pensioner wishing to go boink some reindeer in the wilderness. What problems am I going to face? Answers starting from "Not knowing how to buy a bus pass because I've never been outside Kidneypond in my life"? You think a brickie from Newcastle and some posh London investment banker will have anything remotely resembling experiences, eh?

Now for what comes to wishing to learn Finnish - the question a Finn will ask you of course is "why the hell for?" - but its true you can at best learn it in the country. There are language courses at various levels and at various prices - but even the open university courses aren't more than a few hundred. No O-levels required for Finnish, maybe perhaps insanity and a masochistic streak.

As far as your situation/plan goes I think its on a pretty solid basis. Much more of a solid basis than usually people straight off a ryanair after a hot blonde wishing to settle in some obscure village whom nobody knows even exists. Now of course the music industry / theatre guys are in their own niches so to get contacts you need to network. I you'll be in town on Saturday we're having a bit of a pubcrawl then, but in any case PM me for my number and I think can hook you up with a theatre lighting guy and I think we can dig a few music guys up as well.

And, never mind the cold, you should play the banjo indoors anyhow so as not to scare the penguins

[DarkStar]

I have been staying near Helsinki for three days now and not a single penguin in sight.

[Hank W.]

Damn banjo players

[littlefrank]

>>>Damn banjo players<<<

Might find gainful employment on the west coast, if he can drive a tractor as well.

[soda]

I disagree about the language issue in relation to employment - I think it all comes down to how focused you are on getting a great job - that can be tough.

But teaching guitar, working around stage sets, or maybe doing some cleaning or something - sure why not?

I reccomend the Uni Helsinki Language Centre courses, which have 6 levels from 0 to Fairly Damn Hard, and take you about a month full time or 3 months part time to complete each level. So 2 years is reasonable to complete it.

No visas needed for the EU, but you do need to report to Mastraati to register here and get a tax number.

[therese]

If you want some basic tips, I created a website when I first arrived in Finland all about things like supermarkets and bus stations. It was written about Oulu (a city in the north of Finland) but a lot of the information is generally applicable to Finland
Go to http://www.cwc.oulu.fi/~ian/oulu/Ouluindex.html

If you want some stories, I have been writing a column on an Australian website about living in Finland.
Check out http://www.crikey.com.au and go to the bottom of the home page and and hit the google button for search crikey for "Therese Catanzariti"

Hank is right - the way to get a job in Finland is contacts and talking to people who know people. Its a small country and everyone went to university with everyone else, so things like "advertising jobs in the paper" is only for official EU jobs or publicly listed companies. You need to get hooked in to the music crowd. Helsinki has a few high end music equipment and hi-fi shops - maybe you can come visit and have a chat to them...

Therese

[Alicia]

Might find gainful employment on the west coast, if he can drive a tractor as well.

We can always do with a few more tractor drivers causing traffic problems on the goat track we call European Highway 8. Glasshouse or fox farm experience essential. Send him our way and he might even learn some Swedish "på köpet".

[khu]

We should compile this thread into a book for distribution as travellers leave Helsinki Vantaa Airport. "So You Just Met a Hot Blonde (or, How Can I Return to this Nordic Paradise?)"

[littlefrank]

>>>"på köpet".<<<

I'll have to ask some friends who are also from Vaasa what this means, the only good thing I can say about my Finnish is that it's better than my Swedish.