How to Fail at Being Finnish: Chapter 1

Ei paskempi

Hello and welcome to the first chapter of what is a very special project for me: the serialisation of my memoir about life in Finland: How to Fail at Being Finnish.

As of 2024, Finland has been ranked the happiest country in the world 7 times running. This news has always taken Finns I know by surprise. As my Finnish father-in-law says: “If we’re the happiest, the rest of you must be really miserable.”

But having lived in Finland for some time now, I think the UN might be on to something.

My full-length memoir tells the story of my first year living in Finland. It’s a very honest but hopefully funny account of my valiant attempt to learn Finnish, my coming to terms with a very different culture, and the things I’ve picked up that really have made me a happier person.

This is my first move away from purely food writing for the newsletter, so I’m sharing it just with paid subscribers. So if you're interested in reading about life in Finland and, among other adventures, the time I accidentally propositioned the local museum curator while flexing my nascent Finnish language skills, then I hope you upgrade to access my first chapter today.

Thanks,

Wil

Chapter 1: Ei paskempi

Do you want to know the hardest part about life in Finland? It’s something far harder than learning the impenetrable language (considered by many the hardest to learn in the world) or the 6 month-long winter (during which the sun comes up for all of 20 minutes before clocking out for the day) or even the mosquitoes that apparently choose Finland as the location for their summer holidays. No, it’s none of these things.