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A guide to freelancing in Finland

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Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#61

Post by fsloth »

rasjani wrote: post #59

Few foss projects and authors that started in this god forsaken country, Finland: Linux - Linus Torvalds. Finn Ssh - Tatu Ylönen. Finn IRC - Jarkko Oikarinen. Finn. Dovecot - Timo Sirainen. Finn. Robot Framework - Pekka Klarck. Finn. And maybe not fortune100 or even 500 companies but companies like Nokia, F-secure, Futuremark have had their global impact. And Yeah. These are old tech already but saying that no innova…

I'm a bit familiar with finnish industrial history. Finland has a history of massively innovative companies that were decades ahead of their competition in several sectors. The thing that they did not have, was capital funding, so they could not grow, and experience of global markets to have the know how to grow. So they remained small shops, with one or two big industrial clients who did not care to help them grow, and the world caught up with them.

The ones that managed to grow, are exceptions. Nokia and Kone are probably the more familiar ones (look at the next elevator you ride, there's a 50/50 chance it's made by Kone).

Finland is a capital poor country but rich in ideas.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#62

Post by misja111 »

skrebbel wrote: post #16
krageon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finnish is an absolutely atrocious language to learn for most people (unless you are already familiar with learning a language with a completely different root, and even then). That part will be hard. I can't comment on the practicality of surviving with only English (or even Swedish, which most of them speak due to historical factors that I will politely gloss over), because I haven't tried.

>absolutely atrocious I just want to underline that, unlike most European languages, Finnish grammar is highly systematic, and so is Finnish pronunciation. Very few exceptions, it feels almost mathematical in nature. There's quite a lot of grammar, putting off non-nerds who think "cases" are hard because after all, they are hard in eg German and Latin (they're peanuts in Finnish). But for a geek with mathy tendencies…

I don't agree that the Finnish grammar is highly systematic. Take instance, the partitive case. It seems to be applicable to a mixed bag of situations with all kinds of exceptions. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partitive_case)

Another example: the inclination of the genitive case to nouns. There is a whole bunch of rules again with many exceptions. (See e.g. here: http://users.jyu.fi/~pamakine/kieli/suomi/sijat/genetiivien....)

(source: I'm also Dutch, my wife is Finnish so I have been trying to learn the language for many years with very limited succes .. )

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#63

Post by kinow »

rasjani wrote: post #59

Few foss projects and authors that started in this god forsaken country, Finland: Linux - Linus Torvalds. Finn Ssh - Tatu Ylönen. Finn IRC - Jarkko Oikarinen. Finn. Dovecot - Timo Sirainen. Finn. Robot Framework - Pekka Klarck. Finn. And maybe not fortune100 or even 500 companies but companies like Nokia, F-secure, Futuremark have had their global impact. And Yeah. These are old tech already but saying that no innova…

Skosmos (used by unicef and EU) and Annif too, both from the national library. https://github.com/natlibfi

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#64

Post by fsloth »

rasjani wrote: post #59

Few foss projects and authors that started in this god forsaken country, Finland: Linux - Linus Torvalds. Finn Ssh - Tatu Ylönen. Finn IRC - Jarkko Oikarinen. Finn. Dovecot - Timo Sirainen. Finn. Robot Framework - Pekka Klarck. Finn. And maybe not fortune100 or even 500 companies but companies like Nokia, F-secure, Futuremark have had their global impact. And Yeah. These are old tech already but saying that no innova…

Also the first graphical web browser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwise.

But like I said elsewhere, Finland is capital poor so the authors did not have resources or the business partners to move it forward.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#65

Post by Hamuko »

climate_realist wrote: post #36

I think people here who look at Finland and Europe in general and see these social programs to help you get ahead are rather blinded by the reality that they only exist for Europeans. As a US citizen who lived in Europe for 5 years, I can assure you that it's a 100% closed game. If you are not from the EU, you can only work for a European. It makes no difference if you have a great idea, or even your own funding, you…

>If you are not from the EU, you can only work for a European.

I was under the impression you can start a business as long as you have a residence permit.

https://www.suomi.fi/company/starting-a-business/foreign-ent...

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#66

Post by Hamuko »

stevekemp wrote: post #11
krageon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finnish is an absolutely atrocious language to learn for most people (unless you are already familiar with learning a language with a completely different root, and even then). That part will be hard. I can't comment on the practicality of surviving with only English (or even Swedish, which most of them speak due to historical factors that I will politely gloss over), because I haven't tried.

It is possible to survive in Helsinki with only minimal Finnish, and work in the IT-industry. In smaller places it might be more difficult, but certainly people here are willing and able to converse in English. Of course I would like to learn more Finnish, but daily life and childcare interferes with regular lessons. (Of course being able to work in English also means that speaking Finnish at work is also difficult.)…

>Ordering food, etc, is something I'd usually do in Finnish although it has to be said a lot of people will either initially greet me in English, or reply to me in English which is a bit frustrating.

I have noticed some establishments to quickly make a judgement call on what kind of language skills you have. I was once in a restaurant, reading over the Finnish menu and the waiter came and asked me if I needed any help translating the menu. I am 100% Finnish (some branch of my family tree extends to the 1700s at least), so I didn't really need it.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#67

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

fsloth wrote: post #61
rasjani wrote: post #59

Few foss projects and authors that started in this god forsaken country, Finland: Linux - Linus Torvalds. Finn Ssh - Tatu Ylönen. Finn IRC - Jarkko Oikarinen. Finn. Dovecot - Timo Sirainen. Finn. Robot Framework - Pekka Klarck. Finn. And maybe not fortune100 or even 500 companies but companies like Nokia, F-secure, Futuremark have had their global impact. And Yeah. These are old tech already but saying that no innova…

I'm a bit familiar with finnish industrial history. Finland has a history of massively innovative companies that were decades ahead of their competition in several sectors. The thing that they did not have, was capital funding, so they could not grow, and experience of global markets to have the know how to grow. So they remained small shops, with one or two big industrial clients who did not care to help them grow,…

>Finland is a capital poor country but rich in ideas

You can replace Finland with pretty much any non US country on Earth. I've met brilliant hard working people all over the world. The only thing they lacked to make it big was capital.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#68

Post by skrebbel »

jolmg wrote: post #44
skrebbel wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>absolutely atrocious I just want to underline that, unlike most European languages, Finnish grammar is highly systematic, and so is Finnish pronunciation. Very few exceptions, it feels almost mathematical in nature. There's quite a lot of grammar, putting off non-nerds who think "cases" are hard because after all, they are hard in eg German and Latin (they're peanuts in Finnish). But for a geek with mathy tendencies…

> if someone teaches you a word or a name, you can simply hear how it's spelled. Is it like Spanish where you can also know how a word is pronounced by how it's written?

Even better, because Spanish has a few letters that change pronunciation depending on context, eg the g in guerra vs Girona.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#69

Post by irrationalactor »

Anybody have experience as to whether this applies to an American living in Finland?

Due to FATCA and the US's draconian tax laws around ownership of foreign investment assets...I'm wondering if it wouldn't make any sense to try to start a Finnish company while holding American citizenship. Assuming it would be a tax nightmare if you start producing any real income.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#70

Post by fsloth »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #67
fsloth wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a bit familiar with finnish industrial history. Finland has a history of massively innovative companies that were decades ahead of their competition in several sectors. The thing that they did not have, was capital funding, so they could not grow, and experience of global markets to have the know how to grow. So they remained small shops, with one or two big industrial clients who did not care to help them grow,…

>Finland is a capital poor country but rich in ideas You can replace Finland with pretty much any non US country on Earth. I've met brilliant hard working people all over the world. The only thing they lacked to make it big was capital.

Well, depends what you compare with. Most european countries have a rich history of industrialization and colonization and hence quite a lot of private capital. Unlike Finland. Of course, there are lots of other dirt poor areas, but if you compare Finland to the segment where it's usually included, i.e. non-iron-curtain-enclosed European states, then in that category it stands out.
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