Unusual for a European language, Finnish doesn't have many loan words to English or any other languages, with one exception. The sauna was invented in Finland and is a cultural staple of the country.
Finns have a reputation for reticence, thoughtfulness and unemotional behavior. They are quiet, reflective, somber and, for some, seemingly stubborn and standoffish. They are unwilling to speak unless they have something of importance to say. There is a saying that when a Finn says something, they really mean it.
Common physical characteristics of Finnish people include ashy blond hair, blue almond-shaped eyes, small round noses, and round faces.
Finland is often ranked number one for being the happiest country in the world, as the Finns have high incomes, health care for all, and a top education system. Finland is famous for it's stunning Lapland, the northern lights, Saunas, wife carrying, quirky food and for being the home of Santa Claus.
The Finnish grammar and most Finnish words are very different from those in other European languages, because Finnish is not an Indo-European language. The two other national languages that are Uralic languages as Finnish are Estonian and Hungarian.
The Finns as an isolated population
In both cases, genetic drift favors some genetic variants and eliminates others. Finland has a population history characterized by features of founder effect, bottlenecks, genetic drift and isolation.
The Karelian language, spoken in Finland and Russia, is the closest linguistic relative to Finnish and must not be mixed up with the Karelian (south-eastern) dialects of Finnish. There are less than 100,000 speakers of the various forms of Karelian. In Finland, their estimated number is about 5,000.
There's many other safety-related things where Finland ranks highest, including being the most stable country in the world, best governance in the world, the most independent judicial system, safest banks in the world etc.
Finnish stereotypes include the friendly and cheerful Karelians, the humorous and crooked Savo people, and the quiet and slow-spoken people of Häme.
Finland. The people of Finland have one of the highest concentrations of blond hair in the world. In large portions of Finland, 80% of the population has blond hair (and a full 89% of the population has blue eyes).
Finns are proud of their heritage. They are generally resilient, and their country's growth resulted from challenging events that strengthened the nation. Finland successfully grew in the 1980s and became one of the strongest countries in the world in terms of economy.
“Finland as a whole is easy to be thought of as introvert, and Finns are considered shy because our culture is one where we value private space very much,” Korhonen told Shanghai Daily on her recent book tour in Shanghai. “And we also give space to other people,” she added.
Despite having being referred to by some variation of 'Finland' since medieval times, the Finns continue as they have for centuries, referring to their country, and themselves, as 'Suomi'.
A Finn is a person of few words, and the absence of small talk is a well-established cultural trait of the Finns. Meaningless, inconsequential chit-chat is not a part of Finnish conversations. In Finland, silence does not mean muteness. It means there is really nothing to say.
Finland's national animal: brown bear
Bears feature prominently in Finnish mythology, including the national folklore epic Kalevala.
Finns are generally kind and open-minded, even though they can be a bit shy at first. Families are usually small, with only one or two children. In the culture of Finland, people appreciate punctuality, good manners, and practicality.
A recent study has examined Finnish intelligence and personality and found that Finns have relatively high intelligence by European standards, as well as high Agreeableness and Conscientiousness based on proxy evidence (Dutton, te Nijenhuis, & Roivainen, 2014).
A part of Sweden from the 12th century until 1809, Finland was then a Russian grand duchy until, following the Russian Revolution, the Finns declared independence on December 6, 1917.
Finland is full of lakes and forests and is famous for its education system, Angry Birds, the Moomins and design. In the north, Finland has land borders with its Nordic neighbours Norway and Sweden, and the three nations' borders all meet at Treriksröset (The Three-Country Cairn).
The first people to arrive in Finland at the end of the Ice Age were thus the genetic ancestors of today's inhabitants, in other words they were “Finns” who, in the light of the preceding, lived during the Ice Age south of the margin of the ice sheet, in other words in Central Russia (see the Desna, Kostenki-Avdeevo ...
Geographically, Finland could be considered Scandinavian and at one time was a part of the Swedish Kingdom. Most Finns are Lutherans, as Scandinavians used to be. However, Finnish is not a Scandinavian language and Finns are ethnically distinct from Scandinavians.
Finnish is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn because of the major linguistic differences between the two languages. Finnish shares almost none of the same vocabulary as English. It also has a complex grammatical structure that's quite different from English.