How Finnish are you?
Finnish meme, snatched off fellow Hyperboreans (and edited slightly because of the clumsy English):
[x] Both of your parents are Finns
[x] You were born in Finland
[ ] Your last name ends with -nen or -la/-lä.
[ ] You know at least five people whose names are Matti/Pekka/Juhani/Liisa/Susanna/Elina.
[ ] Your name is Matti/Pekka/Juhani/Liisa/Susanna/Elina.
([x]) You're an alcoholic (used to be, rarely drink these days and usually not as much as I used to)
[x] You've been depressed/you're depressed or you know at least five people who have been/are depressed
[x] It's a big media thing when some foreign B-class celebrity mentions your country (Well, this is a question about the Finnish media, not me, isn't it? To them, it *is* a big thing.)
[x] To you, "tan" means that someone stands out from the snow blanket
[x] You are extremely interested in what foreign people think about your country
Scores: 7
[x] You like pea soup and you know on which day of the week it should be eaten and what dessert should be eaten with it
[x] You love chocolate and/or salty liquorice
[x] You love rye bread
[x] You have bought fries and sausage from a junk food kiosk. (What about mince and rice meat patties? Or lortsy? Those are even more Finnish.)
[ ] You've fought in the junk food kiosk line
[ ] You drink more than just one cup of coffee in a day (no, but huge amounts of diet cola.)
[ ] You eat potatoes almost every day
[x] On Independence Day, you should light up two candles and watch how the President shakes hands with celebrities and others for two hours
[x] You still recall the ice hockey world championships year 1995 (bloody hell, I do, and I am not even into hockey--the nation went crazy)
[ ] You still recall how "ajaa hiljaa sillalla", said by Aino Ackté, was chosen as the most beautiful sentence in the universal expo in Paris in the year 1900 (Well, not many people alive would remember hearing it at the time, would they? I think I heard the story from my Finnish teacher as a kid, though).
Scores so far: 13
[ ] You do Nordic walking (no fucking way.)
[x] You listen to heavier music (must admit I do, but not as much as I used to when I was a teenager)
[ ] You watch formula 1 and/or ski jumping
[ ] You gather berries and/or mushrooms
[ ] You or your family got a summer cottage (we used to, though)
[x] You celebrate midsummer/juhannus
[x] You regularly go to sauna
[ ] Hugging is something that lovers do
[ ] You speak English to a foreign person even though you know he doesn't understand Finnish. On the other hand, you speak Finnish to the foreign when you know that he doesn't understand (This question makes no fucking sense.)
[x] Most of the songs that are not in a minor key are bad (Ha! I don't like cheery songs that much, though.)
Scores so far: 17
[ ] You have something made by Marimekko (they're overrated.)
[ ] You own a product with the Unikko print on it (ug, no.)
([x]) You have Iittala's/Arabia's/Hackman's dishes or other kitchen tools (I used to own vintage Arabia cups I salvaged, but not any more.)
([x]) You read Donald Duck (I used to, as a kid, like most Finnish kids. It's the biggest comic mag in here.)
[ ] You love Moomins (just never that big on them. I found them too grown-up and too clever for their own good when I read them as a child and got irritated by that. They somehow came across as smug. I did like the stop-motion animations, though; they had this gorgeous eerie feel to them.)
[ ] When speaking about the President, it's 'it' and when speaking of a pet, it's 'she/he' (Nope. I don't think calling pets he or she is all that popular, and seems ridiculous when even people are referred to as "it". Using those pronouns usually makes you look like... I dunno, crazy cat lady-ish, like you are presenting your animals as children or something. And it somehow sounds slightly condescending because it's the formal way of referring to someone. Colloquially, everyone is an "it".)
[x] You think that lakes are not exotic
[ ] You know that in the morning, no one's supposed to speak
[x] You wait for the green light even though there aren't any cars in the street
[x] You think it's completely normal that when on a walk, you don't meet any living person
Scores so far: 22
[x] It's too cold inside if it's not at least 20'C (Yes.)
[x] It's hot outside when it's 20'C (Yes.)
[x] Less than 65'C in sauna is cold (Brr, definitely.)
[x] You can be outside without wearing a hat
[x] You know at least five different words for "snow"
[x] If a stranger smiles at you, you suppose that he's drunk or a foreigner (Or like Jem said--he's hitting on me)
[x] To you "European" means someone who's from Western Europe, but not someone who's Nordic
[x] Silent moments between conversations are something normal and do not bother your at all (YES.)
[x] You apologize when you're late for even one minute
[x] You understand that 'm' means 'yes', 'nngg' means 'no' and 'mnt' means 'good morning'
Total amount: 32
So, is that 64% or something? Ho hum. At least that passed the time...
[x] Both of your parents are Finns
[x] You were born in Finland
[ ] Your last name ends with -nen or -la/-lä.
[ ] You know at least five people whose names are Matti/Pekka/Juhani/Liisa/Susanna/Elina.
[ ] Your name is Matti/Pekka/Juhani/Liisa/Susanna/Elina.
([x]) You're an alcoholic (used to be, rarely drink these days and usually not as much as I used to)
[x] You've been depressed/you're depressed or you know at least five people who have been/are depressed
[x] It's a big media thing when some foreign B-class celebrity mentions your country (Well, this is a question about the Finnish media, not me, isn't it? To them, it *is* a big thing.)
[x] To you, "tan" means that someone stands out from the snow blanket
[x] You are extremely interested in what foreign people think about your country
Scores: 7
[x] You like pea soup and you know on which day of the week it should be eaten and what dessert should be eaten with it
[x] You love chocolate and/or salty liquorice
[x] You love rye bread
[x] You have bought fries and sausage from a junk food kiosk. (What about mince and rice meat patties? Or lortsy? Those are even more Finnish.)
[ ] You've fought in the junk food kiosk line
[ ] You drink more than just one cup of coffee in a day (no, but huge amounts of diet cola.)
[ ] You eat potatoes almost every day
[x] On Independence Day, you should light up two candles and watch how the President shakes hands with celebrities and others for two hours
[x] You still recall the ice hockey world championships year 1995 (bloody hell, I do, and I am not even into hockey--the nation went crazy)
[ ] You still recall how "ajaa hiljaa sillalla", said by Aino Ackté, was chosen as the most beautiful sentence in the universal expo in Paris in the year 1900 (Well, not many people alive would remember hearing it at the time, would they? I think I heard the story from my Finnish teacher as a kid, though).
Scores so far: 13
[ ] You do Nordic walking (no fucking way.)
[x] You listen to heavier music (must admit I do, but not as much as I used to when I was a teenager)
[ ] You watch formula 1 and/or ski jumping
[ ] You gather berries and/or mushrooms
[ ] You or your family got a summer cottage (we used to, though)
[x] You celebrate midsummer/juhannus
[x] You regularly go to sauna
[ ] Hugging is something that lovers do
[ ] You speak English to a foreign person even though you know he doesn't understand Finnish. On the other hand, you speak Finnish to the foreign when you know that he doesn't understand (This question makes no fucking sense.)
[x] Most of the songs that are not in a minor key are bad (Ha! I don't like cheery songs that much, though.)
Scores so far: 17
[ ] You have something made by Marimekko (they're overrated.)
[ ] You own a product with the Unikko print on it (ug, no.)
([x]) You have Iittala's/Arabia's/Hackman's dishes or other kitchen tools (I used to own vintage Arabia cups I salvaged, but not any more.)
([x]) You read Donald Duck (I used to, as a kid, like most Finnish kids. It's the biggest comic mag in here.)
[ ] You love Moomins (just never that big on them. I found them too grown-up and too clever for their own good when I read them as a child and got irritated by that. They somehow came across as smug. I did like the stop-motion animations, though; they had this gorgeous eerie feel to them.)
[ ] When speaking about the President, it's 'it' and when speaking of a pet, it's 'she/he' (Nope. I don't think calling pets he or she is all that popular, and seems ridiculous when even people are referred to as "it". Using those pronouns usually makes you look like... I dunno, crazy cat lady-ish, like you are presenting your animals as children or something. And it somehow sounds slightly condescending because it's the formal way of referring to someone. Colloquially, everyone is an "it".)
[x] You think that lakes are not exotic
[ ] You know that in the morning, no one's supposed to speak
[x] You wait for the green light even though there aren't any cars in the street
[x] You think it's completely normal that when on a walk, you don't meet any living person
Scores so far: 22
[x] It's too cold inside if it's not at least 20'C (Yes.)
[x] It's hot outside when it's 20'C (Yes.)
[x] Less than 65'C in sauna is cold (Brr, definitely.)
[x] You can be outside without wearing a hat
[x] You know at least five different words for "snow"
[x] If a stranger smiles at you, you suppose that he's drunk or a foreigner (Or like Jem said--he's hitting on me)
[x] To you "European" means someone who's from Western Europe, but not someone who's Nordic
[x] Silent moments between conversations are something normal and do not bother your at all (YES.)
[x] You apologize when you're late for even one minute
[x] You understand that 'm' means 'yes', 'nngg' means 'no' and 'mnt' means 'good morning'
Total amount: 32
So, is that 64% or something? Ho hum. At least that passed the time...