Finnish language - Lexicon

Verbal suffixes are extremely diverse; several frequentatives and momentanes differentiating causative, volitional-unpredictable and anticausative are found, often combined with each other, often denoting indirection. For example, hypätä “to jump”, hyppiä “to be jumping”, hypeksiä “to be jumping wantonly”, hypäyttää “to make someone jump once”, hyppyyttää “to make someone jump repeatedly” (or “to boss someone around”), hyppyytyttää “to make someone to cause a third person to jump repeatedly”, hyppyytellä “to, without aim, make someone jump repeatedly”, hypähtää “to jump suddenly” (in anticausative meaning), hypellä “to jump around repeatedly”, hypiskellä “to be jumping repeatedly and wantonly”, hyppimättä “without jumping”, hyppelemättä “without jumping around”. Often the diversity and compactness of this agglutination is illustrated with istahtaisinkohan “I wonder if I should sit down for a while” (from istua, “to sit, to be seated”):

• istua “to sit down” (istun “I sit down”)
• istahtaa “to sit down for a while”
• istahdan “I’ll sit down for a while”
• istahtaisin “I would sit down for a while”
• istahtaisinko “should I sit down for a while?”
• istahtaisinkohan “I wonder if I should sit down for a while”

(Source: sunday)

BBC News - True Finns' nationalism colours Finland election

sunday:

The True Finns’ manifesto indicates they have much in common with right-wing populist parties elsewhere in Europe.
They believe that a low birth rate is not solved by immigration, as that results in problems and foreigners do not fit into Finnish culture. Instead, young women should study less and spend more time giving birth to pure Finnish children.

Because that’s all women are good for, innit.

This is what’s happening in Finnish politics. My first thought Sunday night was that we’re all well and truly fucked. But then I thought about it again.

To some extent I must disagree with the BBC article. They write about the True Finns’ manifesto, which in reality is rather nonexistent. Sure, most of the party is against immigration, but their leader has on several occasions stated that he’s in favour of the current immigration policy and nothing needs to be changed in that area. There are also those who are against abortions and educated women, but really, the most striking thing about True Finns is their lack of consensus in anything.

They have no real political agenda. Why did so many people vote for them? As a protest. I can definitely relate to all the frustration regarding the current, obviously rotten, system and the crooked leaders this country has been following, just not sure if voting for the empty-worded and air-headed True Finns was the right answer.

I hope the next four years will prove their futility and Finnish people will start seeking answers elsewhere. If not, my country may just be well and truly fucked.

I Am Your Finnish Girlfriend: Valentine's Day in Finland

We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day, as such. In Finland February 14th is called ystävänpäivä (= friendship day), and it is exactly what the name suggests. The day has been celebrated since the 80s and it was imported to support an ingenious ad campaign by some heart association or whatever. Since then it has become the second most popular day to send out cards (after Christmas, naturally).

So we do celebrate the day, just not as Valentine’s day. A good little Finn sends all their friends cutesy cards with fluffy animals or something and thus profits mostly the greeting card companies. The day is not usually considered to be special for lovers, though lately this American influenced trend has started to show too.