The Kasper Stromman Design Blog

Top 5 Finnish proverbs

Finnish proverbs aren’t generally the most cheeriest around. We here at the Kasper Stromman Design Blog picked our top 5 from the highly depressive read Suomalaisia viisauksia ,published by Kustannus Kolibri in 2005.

5. Noone is anyone, and some aren’t even that.
So someone clearly got out of bed on the wrong side? Look, we understand you were having a rough day, but that doesn’t mean you go and make something like this into a proverb which people then go around quoting for hundreds of years. Even if you’re grumpy you have a responsibility for future generations.

4. Suffer, suffer, and you will get the brightest crown.
So what kind of crown are we talking about exactly here? Is it made out of a precious metal? Do not tell us this is some kind of metaphor, and at the end of the day there is no actual crown at all. Because that would be really depressing.

3. Children are happy when they are fat.
If this is still the case Finnish kids must be amongst the happiest in the world, because doctors tell us great achievements have been made in recent year in terms of raising the general body mass index. Yey fatness!

2. Minor diseases are cured by eating.
This may be true, but where do you draw the line? Sure, everyone knows you can cure syphilis by eating a sandwich, but what about, say, leprosy? Our advice is have something to eat and then go see a doctor just in case. 

1. It is great when you are approaching death.
We give up.