Finnish IRL

Finnish where it happens

The phrasebook side. One ordinary scene from life in Finland at a time, with the language that actually turns up in it - what gets asked, what you say back, and the move that marks you as a foreigner.

Everyday errands

The shop Most of a Finnish supermarket runs without speech. The words you need are the three moments it does not. 12 phrases

Social life

The work coffee room Your meetings are in English. The ten minutes around the coffee machine are not, and that is where the team actually is. 13 phrases The sauna There are rules, none of them are posted, and breaking them is more embarrassing than any word you could mispronounce. 10 phrases At the mökki The summer cottage is where the English stops being automatic. It is also where the good part of Finnish social life happens. 12 phrases

Officialdom

Kela and the paperwork Finland does officialdom well and does it in Finnish. The service is often in English; the envelope in your letterbox is not. 14 phrases The health centre The doctor probably speaks English. The booking system, the recorded menu and the text message do not. 12 phrases

Why these and not a phrasebook

A phrasebook gives you your half of the conversation. The problem is never your half - it is the answer coming back faster than expected, in a form you have not seen written down. So every page here gives you the script: your line, their likely line, and what you say to that.

Each one also names the trap - the specific move that is normal where you are from and reads wrong here. Usually it is not a wrong word. It is talking when nobody expected you to, or apologising before a sentence in a way that hands the whole table over to English.