✅ Finland has some unique ways of life that might feel unusual to foreigners. In this video, we explore five things that are completely normal in Finland but can seem a bit strange to outsiders. Whether you’re planning to visit, move, or are just curious about Finnish culture, these insights might surprise you!
✅ In Finland, small talk is usually avoided, unless, the conversation involves talking about weather.
✅ It’s also surprising how many Finns utilise biking as their primary mode of transport, even during harsh winters.
✅ Then, there’s mökki life, the Finnish love for countryside cottages. Many Finns escape the city to relax in remote cabins, often with no running water or electricity. How weird and fascinating!
✅ Another surprise for foreigners? Adults drinking milk with meals.
✅ Lastly, we talk about Finnish sauna culture and nudity. Saunas are a huge part of Finnish life, and it’s completely normal to go in without a swimsuit, even with parents and friends.
🟢 WATCH NEXT: https://youtu.be/TG5B3BFZX1s?si=72c87mIOHhFJdYMQ
🔥 Shop our E-books: https://coupleofexpats.com/shop/
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
0:57 Lack of small talk
3:01 Biking in Finnish winters
4:09 Finnish summer cottages aka mökki life
5:46 Finns drinking milk with meals every day
6:32 Nudity and sauna
8:15 The end
🟢 LET’S CONNECT:
Website: https://www.coupleofexpats.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/couple_of_expats
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@couple_of_expats
#lifeinfinland #finnishculture #visitfinland
44 Comments
Which one did you find the most surprising? 🤯Watch next ➡https://youtu.be/TG5B3BFZX1s?si=zEiFKglYybIRcya0
Since you have a career in advertising and might not be aware of the role of advertising or promotion in general in the Finnish milk consumer marketing, I'll include the following rough translation of an excerpt from a Wikipedia article:
"Valio started systematic advertising in the 1920s, and in 1929, the Suomen Kulutusmaitontuotajain liitto, together with the Milk Inspection Association, founded the Suomen Maitopropagandatoimisto, which printed posters promoting the use of milk and delivered to newspapers, among other things, articles about milk written by doctors. Funding came from the Federation of Consumer Milk Producers and to a small extent also from the state. In 1958, Maito ja Terveys ry was founded to continue the work of the Maitopropaganda office."
If you go to the doctor in Finland with a bone problem, they'll almost certainly ask, "Do you drink milk?" There's a lot of cultural pressure in Finland to drink milk.
In Finland it is naturally to drink milk when you eat a proper meal, not just a fast food. It would be strange to drink beer or wine in the middle of the day, and coke and other soft drinks are more suitable when you are just thirsty or you are eating hamburgers. A Finnish alcoholic consumption (close to 80 %) concentrates to weekends after the working week is normally over. Only 6 % of Finns drinks wine with a meal at least once a week. In the restaurants tap water with ice is a common and cheap option if you don't want to drink milk.
As a Finnish person I don't even own a bathing suit.
How to tell how you're not poor enough? You wonder how people go anywhere in rain, snow and -30Cº weather. For some of us it's the only way to go work or anywhere we need to.
I'm a finn and I would never drink milk with a meal. Only a small amount with coffee. Also not many of my friends drinks milk.
Drinking milk is common all Nordic countries and for all ages.
I also bike year around, but i don´t like or enjoy biking in bad wether or winter time. But it keeps me shape and is very cheep way to move around.
Depends about the friends does they go mixed sauna or not. I´ve done it several times and it is not big of a deal for me or my friends to do that.
Talk about the weather is not surprising since it affects how you feel daily
Usually, videos about Finland mention that Finland drinks the most coffee per person in the world, but I haven't seen any video mention that Finland also drinks the most milk in the world, and why not when it's so healthy, and it's especially recommended to give milk and dairy products to growing children as it strengthens bones and joints, among other benefits.
6:15 Everyone has always drank milk in Finland. Dairy products have been an important part of the Finnish cuisine, and milk is natural, healthy and tasty.
There was a short documentary film made back in the 1960s, that listed various statistics of what Finns consume annually, and back then the average Finn drank roughly 300 liters of the white gold per year. In fact, contrary to what many foreigners seem to think, drinking milk is seen as a mature behavior. It can be DIFFICULT to get kids drink their calcium this day and age, with all those sugary poisons being sold at the super.
You can make small talk with people on the street, but usually it's related to needing help looking for a certain place, for example. On the other hand, if you want to talk with strangers about how many days you've been wearing the same underwear, you'll get a "tonnin seteli ilme" from strangers.
when I was a kid, all the Finns took sauna naked. You learned all about anatomy real quick. Then again, I was young in the 1950s, so I guess – like everything else – things have gotten stupider.
How do foreigners react to all the statues in public showing naked bodies with nothing to hide their private parts, just like they were naturally created? Can prudish foreigners take a walk in Helsinki, the capital?
At least I, as a 22 year old Finn, don't drink water basically at all, instead it's either milk or piimä (sourmilk I guess?)
Small talk is useless talk and just a waste of oxygen. If it's part of culture to ask a question without even expecting an answer, then you can leave it unasked.
"How are you" and you don't really want to know, but you just want someone to ask you the same empty question with the same words, so why do you have to do that performance just to make noise?
If you want a Finn to make small talk with you, go sit naked in a sauna with him/her.
Small Talk Is not a conversation its just waisting OTHER Peoples time talking S… Hi from FINLAND 🇫🇮
Why would you keep clothes on when going Sauna? Thats just stupid. And i dont want your dirty swimmingsuit in the Sauna. First you take a shower and then go to Sauna no clothes
I'm a 56 yo Finn and haven't drank milk as it is since I was a teenager. I add milk to coffee and eat food where milk is a part of it, but on meals I always drink something else, like juice or water. The reason is just that I don't really like the taste of milk.
Excerpt and translation from a YLE Akuutti TV2 program from 2012:
Milk has only been drunk in Finland for a hundred years
It would be quite tempting to think that Finns' milk sugar tolerance developed specifically through the use of abundant dairy products, "tolerance". The researchers dismiss the idea, because in fact, the wider use of milk is quite a new thing: milk started to be mostly used as food for adults in Finland only a hundred years ago, after dairying became common.
-Until the second half of the 19th century, cattle were in such poor condition and so poorly fed that there was not enough milk for human consumption. If it was enough, only little children got it, reminds Timo Vuorisalo of the harshness of life in the past.
Why can milk be an essential part of our dining table? The answer must be found in the population history, i.e. at what time the population came to this region and from what kind of areas.
-If it is the case that lactose tolerance has been carried along with the population that came here, and livestock farming has had purposes other than milk production here, then it may be that its importance to Finns has been overestimated. In other words, our lactose tolerance is due to the fact that our ancestors came from those areas where it was more important than here, states Vuorisalo in conclusion.
I have been running my own small experiment for some decades in Finland.
I look at the faces and eyes of people that I for some reasons expect to be foreigners to see how they react. I don't make it threatening or invading, just a normal look. Perhaps with a smile.
The reactions I see are very diverse. And I wouldn't say that on average its much different from the other people, including Finns. But there are clearly differences by age, gender, religion and ethnic groups. Individual differences however are also significant or the biggest factor.
I suspected much depends on the state of mind and the situation where they meet me. This in mind, I try not to draw too strong conclusions about these experiences. I know this is not a scientifically valid research method.
I'm a city living Finn (Turku), with family living in the northern countryside. In my friend bubble and people I know and see, drinking milk is very rare – I don't really run into it. My quesstimate – and I'm being generous here – is that it wouldn't be more than 10-15% in the city central area. Milk with coffee, yes. As a drink, never. However, different friend bubbles vary, as with everything.
However, when I visit my family, it's a total opposite. I'm the odd one out. My parents consume several liters a week and they're not the heaviest milk drinkers.
Bubbles vary.
🙂
Also, one thing that cannot be underlined too much: Asking is OK. Finns, in general, don't think that everyone should already know what to do. Politely – or even directly, as that's polite in Finland – asking about the etiquette or pretty much anything. We'll help you out.
We still appreciate people to observe and go by the example, however, asking is not wrong.
We also may seem unapproachable, introverted and even blunt. In reality, we're rather warm and accommodating, but we have a ton of silent communication and direct-to-business attitude. More than small talk we share snippets about life, movies, hobbies and likings. Even deep things straight away. But, also, we appreciate being silent together as a display of friendship. Sharing the space, company and connection without awkwardness. You know you've befriended a Finn when they and you are comfortable and relaxed with being silent together. When you share that level of connection, you can talk about anything, including deep and shameful things.
We're a small weird bunch and we know it. We're also glad that you're here finding out about our quirks. Enjoy your stay! 😊
University students, depending on where though, have a custom going to sauna all together, men and women, and naked. You don't have to, if you don't feel comfortable.
Here in Finland employees in pharmacies are instructed to immediately reach customers when they come anywhere exept the prescription waiting area. And that is almost infuriating. Most finns feel urge to run away from those "attacs" or to be visibly annoyed. If a Finn needs help he/she will EVENTUALLY ask for it. First we MUST be allowed to try ourselves.
Other than unFinnish pharmacies, one can usually be comfortably by themselves in public.
Yes, this may sound almost humor, but in reality, it is dead serious.
We choose who we want to be in contact to. But. If one gets a Finn as a friend, the whole thing changes.
We have always lived here not very close to each other, and we had to be able to survive by our own. But if someone becomes our friend, we could literally die for that friend if needed. That was also part of surviving.
My father's uncle was a prominent bear hunter in then still Finnish part of Karelia. Once he had a misfire when a bear charged towards him, and the bear grabbed him by his head. Luckily the bear got hold only of his thick fur hat, only the teeth made wounds to his head. But his friend attacked the bear with a rifle using it like a bat, he could not shoot as the two were so close to each other. The bear then moved just enough to be safely shot. Now, how many would attack a standing 2 meters tall angry bear?
Hitting it to head with a rifle butt? Only stupidly loyal Finns…
Mixed sauna, both genders nude is common thing in Finland. Doesn't happen all the time, but yeah there ain't nothing unusual about it. People don't go there to stare at each others, so there is nothing uncomfortable about it.
In the cities and younger generations there are more and more people who'd rather not drink milk with their meals. At the same time, many are so accustomed to it that even when they become vegans, they crave a glass of plant milk with their meals. : D
For example, I haven't seen any school or university cafeteria without at least cow milk, oat milk and water as drink options. Some serve also juice, sparkling and/or flavored water and my favourite, kotikalja – a "home-brewed" beer that's mostly non-alcoholic.
I do not remember when i have drink milk with dinner….. as a finnish person.
I would never go to sauna with some one i do not know, not even with my adult children. I go to sauna with myself only. As a finnish person.
I can have small talk if i am in that mood. I can be in silence too with somebody, thats ok, too.
When i was young, i was bikeing also in winter time, never for 30 years now.
I do not have any cottage, i am in city all the summer.
Prejudice tends to shape perception. I don't think most expect random people to all smile at them at busy international airports anywhere in the world but since you've landed among those who don't smile every solemn face is indicative of a common trait… Traveling abroad I've seen some serious and introverted and some exuberant and open people everywhere. A tourist should also remember that those are friendliest to you are probably out to scam you or rob you.
Of course there's some truth behind the trope. Especially among men it's about not being seen as phoney and dishonest or sucking up and placating. We even have saying: "even a snot nose can grow into man but not one who laughs for nothing" but not many people here would look at you like a retard if you happened to smile at them for no reason. Try Eastern Europe and Russia for that.
Often a Finn might not smile at a stranger while talking because they're so concentrated on understanding a foreign language since no one knows Finnish as well as on being grammatically correct.
In finnish swinning halls there used to be a sign next to sauna asking you to remove your swimming pants or any clothing before entering to sauna. They said it's for hygiene reasons. Swimming halls considered any piece of clothing unhygienic in a sauna, i think it was about chloride producing gas when heating up or something. This was over ten years ago though.
If you live in Turku, you are still a city girl. If you would live in the small village or in the actual countryside you would definately notice the difference, totally different athmosphere.
Why would you stop cycling in winter? I avoid cycling in rain, but otherwise I cycle. However I have to admit that cycling 15km to my work when it was -30 was a bit too cold, but my car didn't work.
When it comes to Sauna it's kind of a spectrum. I went to hamg out with some people and the four of us went naked mixed gender, but a few years later at a party, we did all go naked but we took women and me turns. I think it was also natural because we didnt all fit at once anyway and there were some larger age gaps. I don't think anyone wore a bathing suit
I think not having small talk is kind of exaggerated, since there is the classic weather talk with the co-workers and at least some small talk people tend to do with their neighbours. I've had many occasions where random strangers just start talking some random things too, so it does happen in some quantity. I would not use bike in the winter either, going to mökki I do like, I drink milk because it is the best neutralizing drink for your taste buds in my opinion. Water does not wash of the taste of the food from mouth that well. Nudity in sauna is another thing that is more common probably with families that had constant access to sauna through out their life, I personally think there is nothing sexual about going to sauna naked with anyone, but my sisters do tend to wear bikini when not going in to sauna with their significant others and own children.
Suomalaiset ei tykkää paskan puhumisesta ja teko pyhyydestä.
In the long series of "Millennials are killing an age-old tradition", like golf or wedding rings, there has been similar tendency regarding Finnish summer cottages. They are often expensive liabilities, sometimes in a different part of the country and require quite a lot of manual labor for upkeep. Renting one for weekend per summer is getting more popular. And back in the day cities tended to look almost abandoned during Midsummer, with everyone either on their cabin or one of the many festivals, but nowadays there are actually quite a lot people just staying in their homes.
1) Small talk. Yes, Finns chatter idly among themselves. Just change the language to Finnish and you'll notice the difference. As a foreigner, you assume that everyone is fluent in your language, English. 2) Cycling in the winter is of course a matter of dress and is successful if your bicycle is equipped with studded tires, for example. The reason may be maintaining your own health or poverty (cannot afford your own car or public transport) or environmental values: a short distance can be covered more easily by bike than by a V8 pickup truck. 3) I skip. 4) The milk used in Finland is completely different from that used in the United States. Finns think that milk is a good source of protein. Fast food restaurants, of course, offer sugary lemonades like in America. Education about health has been successful. 5) In the sauna, you are naked with your family, but when a teenage girl starts to get in shape, it is no longer possible to go with the family at the same time. Men are naked with each other, as are women, but strange men and women use swimsuits or towels, for example. Swimming pools instruct you not to go to the sauna in swimwear. It's a hygiene issue. As a Finn, the things you listed were hilariously distorted, but it's of course fun to see how you see things. 😀
l lived my early years in animal farm, and drunk milk every day – at least one liter. It is just so good tasting and fats make it like to be food substitute. But milk is now expensive, that l try to limit my milk consumption in cities to less than liter per day. Just mere water as drink while eating feels like it misses something. Water is just lubrication. But milk is something more. Whole (red) milk, not that watered down blue or light blue milk. And even red milk doesn't have that exact feeling you get drinking milk straight from the farm. And homebewed "kvass", coca cola… l dont like bubbling. Neither l have ever tasted coffee, and l only drink tea when visiting at friends.
If you don't go to sauna naked, l feel that all sweat and dirt goes to towels or costumes whatever l'm wearing. It feels dirty. Sweat must be run down from body to floor freely, especially even if you wash a bit water on your body if you mistakely threw too much water on stove. Edit: l also suggest to watch finnish koff ad: "koff sauna reklam" for jokes. (he says in finnish, that "more logs", and other man says "put door closed, it feels coldy!")
Small talk in the service industry in America drives me nuts . Just let me order/ buy my thing and leave me alone , I don't know you and I am not interested in chitchatting with you . Thank god for no-small-talk- Finland