Wrong Identity

Honestly the fact that they're acknowledging Denmark, Sweden, and Norway as separate countries is a massive leap forward.

@Zeterai especially for America.

@Zeterai ...Wait. What...?? I thought this whole time they were states or provinces of Scandinavia! ;p

@Zeterai I'm impressed as long as people know that they are actual countries, and not just cities in each other.

USA: Too bad for the Japanese that Nokia went bust, they--

Finland: (sigh) It was a Finnish company.

USA: Huh. Well, don't feel bad. You invented the sauna--

Finland: No, I didn't.

Canada: Hmmm, well, the Molotov cocktail---

Finland: The Spanish invented it. I just gave it a name.

USA: Hmmm. Well, there's ABBA---

Finland: Swedish.

Canada: IKEA--

Finland: Swedish.

USA: Vodka---

Finland: (annoyed) Russian! (mutters) We just like the stuff...

Canada: Uh.... No offence, but what did you guys invent?

Finland: ...................................................Wife-carrying?

USA & Canada: .............................................................................................................................What?

@DarkMage7280 Angry Birds. Ice skates, Soumi submachinegun.

@fiendishrabbit Oh yeah, forgot about the Suomi SMG.
I forgot about the Suomi SMG!

@fiendishrabbit And let us not forget about Lordi.

@DarkMage7280 You did invent a language with 15 cases. That has to count for something. Or did you just take the hungarian ones and dropped 3?

@Neuntausend My educated guess is that we were just drunk.

@DarkMage7280 Isn't that the case with a lot of things?

"Why?"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time."
"How could THAT have ever been considered a good idea?"
"... I ... seem to recall a large beer barrel?"

@DarkMage7280 Maybe you guys thought it sounded fun for singing? If there is something my travels to Finland and Estonia taught me is that Uralic people love singing.

@Neuntausend Wait, wait wait. 15 cases? But... how? And... HOW?! And... what?

@IcePhoenix Easily

'@DarkMage7280' Well, at least Linux. Whole internet, practically every supercomputer, something like over 90% of servers uses it. And even Predator drones that are bombing the ISIS runs Linux.

@real-cool-cat Actually, Linus Torvalds is a Fenno-Swede :S

(Pedantic note: "Linux" is properly only the kernel, the GNU project made it a complete OS. And then it's distributed in ∞ - 1 flavors: Debian, Ubuntu, Trisquel, Fedora, Mint, Gentoo...)

'@wiseesiw' Fenno-Swede actually means a Finnish person, who speaks Swedish as his native tongue. In my city 25% people are fennoswedes and some of them have never even been in Sweden, their parents just teach them usually both Finnish and Swedish languages. Linus Torvalds was born in Finnish capital, Helsinki.

So Fennoswede is not Finnish-Swedish or Swedish-Finnish, Linus Torvalds or his parents have not had Swedish citizenship as far as I know. Fennoswede is not a term like "Irish-American", it comes from the times when Finland was part of Sweden. It's more like a term "Anglo-Saxon". Like you wouldn't say that Bill Cosby or Michael Jordan are not Americans, they are African-Americans.

Pedantic note: I'm even now using a Linux-based distro with custom kernel I've implemented myself. ;)

'@real'-cool-cat
The difference is American isn't an ethnic thing, whereas Swede and Finn are. To describe something as American is to describe strictly a nationality.
"African-American" and "Irish-American" have nearly the same exact connotation, and Anglo-Saxon uh...not seeing how that's relevant to Fennoswede?

Are Fennoswede's people who have a history of ancestors coming from Sweden originally? Or were they just Finns whose history involved picking up the Swedish language? If it's the former than uh... Swedish-Finnish would be pretty accurate. The latter I guess not really and you'd be right.

'@sagas' Well, practically I am partially Fennoswede, My great grandfather spoke only Swedish.

You see, Finland was part of Sweden almost 500 years or so, and then as autonomic part of Russia then only around 100 years before we became independent. So practically Finns and Swedes are same people. More than Hawaiians are Americans, definitely. And more than Samuel L. Jackson is American, he definitely has ancestors outside American soil. Well, every human originated from Africa, but my Great grandfather was Fennoswede and we can probably look my family tree back 400 years and my ancestors lived on around this same area and definitely in Finnish soil, that back then belonged to Sweden.

That is completely different thing than Finnish-Swedish in a sense, that somebody would move here from Sweden and receive dual nationality, which normally take at least five years, but Swedes can get it in 2 years.

If that made any sense but yes, Fennoswedes are Finns, there is no question about that. And as I have all my life lived in city, where there are 25% of Fennoswedes, they really, I mean really dislike being implied that they are not Finns (possible exception with some Fennoswedes that live in Åland, that may consider themselves more Swedes and they have autonomy). I think it's about the same kind of no-go than saying in America, that black people aren't really American.

So Fennoswedes are 100% Finns, they are simply linguistic minority. Any Finn that can or can learn how to speak Swedish, can become Fennoswede by filling a simple form to authorities and change your native tongue. I speak Swedish well enough, if I do that, every letter from government and so will come to me in Swedish language etc. All government officials here are required to speak both Finnish and Swedish and they must past the test, since those are our official languages.

@real-cool-cat Well, you got me.

Due to my syntactical inadequacy, I managed to imply that Fenno-Swedes aren't Finnish. Of course they are!

(That's what I get for being pedantic.)

'@wiseesiw' Well, he is now Finnish-American anyways. :)

But as the last verse of this parody song of Finland (in tune of our national anthem) says, not even Fennoswedes like to be called swedes. "Just don't dare call me Swede". :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHmKDXLdpak

@DarkMage7280 Wife carrying is Finnish? I did not know that.

@ThemePark The world championships are held annually in the village where I grew up.
It originated with a local robber in the 19th century who had a habit of stealing livestock, sacks of flour, and, occasionally, women, and carrying the loot on his back, and his gang following suit.
Although he was apparently quite a looker with the bedroom skills to match, so a lot of those women went along willingly.

@DarkMage7280 Wait a second, the Sauna isn't Finnish? So who the hell invented it then?

@Lord_Skata

Most likely the Russians, or their predecessors, the Novgorodians.

LEGO, anyone?

@LouThunders Yes, LEGO ! :-)

Please guys, some people think our country is the one making the nukes. XD

To clarify, that's our Nasty Northern Neighbour and not us. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

@Lumoseo too true.

Still waiting for something containing iceland and the EU cup...

What did Grendel have for breakfast...

Just a couple Danish.

YOU MADE LEGOS! LEGOS THAT GENERATIONS OF PARENTS HAVE HAD THE DUBIOUS HONOR OF STEPPING ON WITH THEIR BARE FEET!

@star3catcher Lost every war in the last 400 years; invents legos as revenge.

@supriseyaoinosebleed As is tradition

@supriseyaoinosebleed It's the long con!

Fun fact:
The Great Dane is called "dane" because of French&English racism against Germans - they refused to name the dog breed after Germans. In German it's called Deutsche Dogge.

@Finn123 Interesting!

@CrazyNorwegian my cousin still calls it the "douche Dog" from when he heard how the germans say "Germany" on TV. Dafuq do they air over there? did they not already know this???

@TheMadKingEnDanska Lol, idk xD In Croatia it's "Doga"

@Finn123 Atleast they didn't give it a bad sounding name, instead of something like 'The Jewish dog'.

@Finn123 That happened with a lot of "German" names during the first world war. The German Shepherd dog became the Alsatian, for instance. Even the British royal family changed their dynasty name from SaxeCoburg-Gotha to Windsor.

LEGO.
Nuf' said.

You guys made Lego.