Finnish studs

so... what exactly is this a picture of!? nokian talvirenkaat

Well the title might have generated a few unusual search hits, and you may be worrying what exactly that aggressive and phallic looking thing is (especially if you were trying to get here), but don't worry it's nothing like that - nor is this post about a suomea remake of the 1970's film of Jackie Collins' book...   

Instead, ask yourself - if you could hear winter approaching what would it sound like?

Since the beginning of the month, walking alongside the roads as the evenings draw in, I have increasingly heard the winter creeping up on us.  That is the crunching-hiss of studded talvirenkaat (winter tyres) on passing cars, almost like a distant gravel drive.  Studded winter tyres are allowed from 1 November to the end of March, and winter tyres (not necessarily studded) are obligitory between 1 December and Feb 28th (or whenever weather conditions are considered bad enough to need them). I imagine if we actually had a car that tonttu creature would be complaining we haven't changed tyres yet...

Other essential winter items are engine block heaters, so the car will actually start (so that's what those posts in all the carparks are), and super anti-freeze in the windscreen wash (there is one called superpiss - I kid you not).  Passing the Finnish winter (ice) driving test helps too I guess. It is often said that the combination of snow, ice, lonely gravel roads, studded tyres, and the terrifying 'I was here first' rule for joining traffic, is the reason for Finland's unsurpassed output of rally and race drivers (well except this year). 

Luckily for us (admittedly occasional) cyclists there also studded winter bike tyres available (as shown in the picture if you hadn't realised) - and if you have ever gone down on a bike on ice or snow you will appreciate that.  I just need to decide if I am really going to take my bike out in the cold & dark before buying some... I mean there's lots else to do inside...

Race for the Finnish

Not quite a Ferrari... from Favourites.

Hei, miten menee?

Hyvin, kiitos. Entä sinulle?

Ei hulumpaa...

Well that was an exciting race.  I think.  The problem is that as we don't have MTV3 Max (a pay channel) to watch the races live we have to nip round to Konna's dad to watch it... on RTL.  In German.  Oh well.  But at least we avoided the manic Finnish commentator, Matti Kullonen*, getting hysterical (sorry more hysterical than usual) when the Brit passed the Finn and the Finn crashed. Apart from shady web TV streams there doesn't seem like an easy way to get a live english commentary here, so I just have to watch, wonder and read about it later.

Anyway, what I was really going to talk about is minun suomen kielen kurssi (my Finnish language course).  I've started at level 1 of Finnish for Foreigners at the Helsingin Seudun Kesäyliopisto and am hoping to get to level 4 by Christmas.  At 90€ (£70) per course/level it's not exactly cheap, but amazingly I qualified for a 50% discount/bursary opintoseteli thing (or first two free depending how you look at it) - and this was only discovered because Konna went to the toilet when I was registering, and noticed a sign in Finnish only that said this support was available on request... 

No, se on maanantai, tiistai ja keskiviiko illalla...

So, it's on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday evenings, from 17:30 until 21:15 and so far I've had three lessons, and although I covered all the topics before (so far), I sure glad I'm not coming to it completely green (like at least one of my classmates...).  

Not only is it taught suomeksi (in Finnish, think about that for a minute) but the course goes much quicker than the one I did at Westminster; which was taught in English. For instance we are already dealing with Genitive and Imperfect forms (eg. sade + vesi -> sataa vettä: literally 'rains water') which we took about twelve lessons to get to in the UK.  And there is a reason for this: it is a Finnish Grammar course.  This, it seems, is how Finnish is taught here, which means picking up vocabulary and conversation skills is a somewhat secondary consideration (although the teacher does make us talk quite a lot and checks we know new words as we come across them). Also three hours in the evening (we do get a 45 min break) is pretty full on if you have been working all day, plus kottitehtävä (homework) to do each day - so there are some advantages to being 'between jobs'. Can't wait for the exams either.

The group is quite mixed: there are britti (3), intialainen (3), virolainen (Estonian) (2), puolalainen (Poles) (2), amerikkalainen, somali, filipiiniläinen, sveitsiläinen (Swiss), portugalilainen, saxalainen saksalainen (German), etc, and a pretty even mix of ages and gender. Interestingly (maybe unsurprisingly) most speak good English already, which gives us all a fall back in case of total confusion (which I suspect may happen increasingly), but I have yet to find out how many are working for Nokia...

Nähdään!

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*Matti Kullonen is Finland's answer to Murray Walker, (although unfortunately that doesn't include being retired) and is notorious for similar levels of ridiculous hyperbole and frequent foot-in-mouth tendencies.... here are some clips of his best work.