My last blog post was way back on March 15, 2020 as the pandemic was getting serious, and I was preparing to get out of Finland. I ended that post ("Helsinki life under the coronavirus" -- https://hellinghelsingissa.blogspot.com/2020/03/helsinki-life-under-coronavirus.html) by saying "the following weeks should prove interesting." Little did I know how interesting. And little did I know that I would be back in Finland two years later…arriving during the Omicron crisis as the pandemic raged on. And, finally, little did I imagine taking up this blog again.
I debated whether I should. After all, life had really
changed and was no near where the normal we once had. I could do a blog dedicated
to how Helsinki is still doing under the coronavirus, but the thought of that
theme depresses me. I decided I would take up this blog again, however, as long
as I did not make the coronavirus the focal point. It's the new normal, and I
cannot avoid the subject, but I will not let it take over all I do. So here
goes. The blog continues for 6 months more.
Of course, my first entry on this non-virus-based blog has
to touch upon the virus. I won't describe the problems of moving temporarily from
the US to Finland during a growing Omicron wave because there are enough people
writing about how simple things have become major undertakings. My first post will
be how coronavirus has made it hard(er) for me to speak Finnish.
Do I speak Finnish well? If you can say a 3-year-old child in America
speaks English well, I suppose I qualify, although I would not be able to win a
debate with any 3-year-old Finnish toddler. But I am trying, and I have the
desire this time in Finland to make a breakthrough. After all, I have been
studying and practicing. On my first full day today in Helsinki, I needed to accomplish
a simple task…and this time I was determined not to let the excellent English
skills of most Finns in Helsinki deter me.
I needed to buy two temporary tram tickets called a day ticket
(vuorokausilippu) from a local store, an R-Kioski, where one can buy such
things and much more (which is maybe also a future topic). So, my verbalization
could be quick and simple. I needed to say:
"Good morning, I would like to buy two day passes."
Which in Finnish is:
"Huomenta, haluisin ostaa kaksi vuorokausilippuja."
It is much easier than it looks for someone like me who has
been, as you know, studying and practicing.
Out in public I go, all masked up with my N-95 and second mask
firmly in place, for a three-minute walk to the nearest R-Kioski on a cold 20-degree morning. I am silently practicing in my head my one-line performance.
After thirty seconds, my glasses are so fogged that I pocket them and continue
walking even if now legally blind but at least able to distinguish light and large shapes. After four more minutes I enter into the correct store (I know I
said this was a three-minute walk, but I added time to the journey by becoming
legally blind en route). I carefully shuffle up to the counter where the
clerk is waiting for me to make my wishes known. Here is my big chance to
impress a Finn with my Finnish, what I have been working on for almost two years,
and so I strongly squint my eyes somewhere in the direction of the clerk and say:
"Huomenta, haluisin ostaa kaksi vuorokausilippuja."
But it does not come out that way.
This was my first time to speak Finnish with a tight double-mask
combination that restricted my jaw from opening more than 1/2 inch and muffled any
sound coming out of my mouth. I had not studied and practiced under these
conditions. What I said sounded more like this:
"Hoomoontoo, halooon oostoon kooky vookoolippooo."
The clerk looked perplexed, maybe even a bit worried about
this blind man who was making odd noises -- the same reaction I used to get back when I first started speaking Finnish in Helsinki, before I
learned that your Finnish pronunciation cannot stray from acceptable standards
or else you are just making incomprehensible noise. Oh my….
Long story short: I got my tickets. I resorted to somehow
saying in English DAY TICKETS loudly through my masks, and the clerk understood
my muffled sounds -- as all Finnish clerks can, because muffled English is a
lingua franca here where muffled Finnish just will not get you very far. Or any tram tickets.
I have some work ahead of me…but I will get back on the stage again.
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