Morjes!

Welcome to my blog. I write about fitting in, sticking out, and missing the motherland as a serial foreigner.

Another Finnish pandemic glossary

Another Finnish pandemic glossary

Here are some more words/phrases I’ve learned during this pandemic (first glossary here).

on altistunut - has been exposed. You do not want to see this in your school message inbox next to your kid’s name (I’ve seen it twice).

maski - mask. Sometimes Finnish is easy! Masks are now mandatory on public transportation and are strongly recommended just about everywhere else, including at schools in grades 4 and up. Compliance is very high.

karanteeni - quarantine. By the above logic, this should be easy but it’s just different enough that I always end up butchering it.

hengitysoireita - respiratory symptoms. There are signs in health centers directing people with hengitysoireita to different waiting rooms, or signs on other businesses saying people with any hengitysoireita should not enter.

riskiryhmä - risk group, like people with diabetes or lung conditions or other diseases that would compound coronavirus effects.

siirtyy etäopetukseen - another phrase you don’t want to see in your school message inbox: moving to distance learning. The middle schools and high schools in Turku are currently on distance learning until the end of the month.

tartunta - infection/case. You see this in reports about the number of cases a certain area is experiencing.

koronavirustesti - coronavirus test (or koronanäytteenotto)

koronaväli or turvaväli - safe/social distance. The kids at school say koronaväli (they use it almost like kids used to say “eww, cooties!!”); official signs say turvaväli.

koronavirustilanne on vakava - the coronavirus situation is serious. We’ve been seeing a lot of this lately in Finland because the number of infections has really increased.

rajoitus - restriction. Bars and restaurants are closed except for takeout right now, for example.

rokotus - vaccine! Turku has administered one shot to 15% of its population so far. The pace has been slow because of the delays in delivery that the whole EU has been experiencing.

March 2021 books

March 2021 books

February 2021 books

February 2021 books