Learn about the top five most important pop culture icons in Finland
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Tiina: Welcome back to FinnishPod101.com's All About series! This is lesson 10, Top 5 Finnish Pop Culture Things/Icons You Need to Know About. I'm Ed. |
| Reeta: Hei kaikille! Hi everyone! I'm Reeta. |
| Tiina: In this lesson, we bring you information about the pop culture you can enjoy in Finland. |
| Reeta: That’s right, Finnish pop culture. |
| Tiina: Now, pop culture is an interesting topic to take a look at. |
| Reeta: That’s right – especially for a place like Finland. |
| Tiina: So this is a little record of Finnish pop culture. Let’s start with TV. Finland has many types of TV shows from around the world. |
| Reeta: Yes, in Finland there are TV shows like “Survivor”, right? |
| Tiina: Yes, Survivor – an American TV drama that in Finnish is translated to Selviytyjät. Actually, Finns love American dramas, and many of them are shown on Finnish TV in their original language, with Finnish subtitles. |
| Reeta: Yep, that's right. As well many drama programs, shows like Idol and Big Brother are shown in Finland. |
| Tiina: In Finland there are 3 main broadcasters; YLE, MTV3 and Nelonen (4). All of them have 2-5 different channels. They show all kinds of programs, from kids programs to dramas, news and movies. |
| Reeta: Ok, sounds like there's a lot of choice in TV viewing! |
| Now, let’s talk about popular Finns abroad. |
| Tiina: Well, you might think there are no popular Finns abroad, but actually there are. Most of them are athletes, like F1 driver Kimi Räikkönen, or NHL ice hockey player Teemu Selänne. |
| Reeta: Wow. So those two sports must be famous in Finland. |
| Tiina: Yes, that’s right. And actually there are a lot of good Finnish hockey players in the NHL. |
| Reeta: That's amazing!! There are also some bands that are famous abroad, like HIM, The Rasmus and Lordi. |
| Tiina: Those are some of my favorites! And there are some famous Finns in international politics, like former president Martti Ahtisaari. He won a Nobel Prize for Peace in 2009. |
| Reeta: Yeah, and the architect Alvar Aalto, and the composer Jean Sibelius. |
| Tiina: Yes, they are very famous among people who know about architecture and classical music. |
| Reeta: Ok, let’s go to the next topic. Popular music in Finland. What is popular in Finland? |
| Tiina: Well, in Finland, the most popular genre of music is black metal. |
| Reeta: Ah yes, that's right. Bands like Children of Bottom, Nightwish, Tarja Turunen and Negative are also famous overseas. |
| Tiina: Yep, but there are artists like The Rasmus, Chisu, Jenni Vartiainen, Anssi Kela, Irina and Anna Puu that each represent a different genre of music, and are famous in Finland. |
| Reeta: Tiina, are there any artists from that group that you recommend? |
| Tiina: Well, I like ____, because... |
| Reeta: Great! Now, Let’s move to the next category. |
| Tiina: Yes, we have some famous and popular sports in Finland. What do you say, Reeta? |
| Reeta: Well, as everyone can imagine, winter sports are famous. Skiing, ski jumping, ice hockey and ice skating. Also, soccer and baseball are famous in Finland. |
| Tiina: Wow, even baseball! |
| Reeta: Actually Finnish baseball is a little bit different, even though the field and the basic rules are the same. |
| Tiina: Some other sports where there are famous Finns, are - for example - figure skating and F1 and rally. Kiira Korpi and Laura Lepistö, both figure skaters, are ranked pretty high internationally. In F1 there is Kimi Räikkönen, and in the Rally Markus Grönholm has won the world championship many times. |
| Tiina: Wow, so many talented athletes for such a small country. What about international pop culture? |
| Reeta: Well, artists like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Beyonce are part of popular culture as well as Justin Timberlake, the Black-Eyed Peas, and the latest Hollywood movies. Basically, whatever is popular internationally is popular in Finland too. |
| Tiina: I see. So what’s popular overseas is immediately popular in Finland as well. Now, we have only scratched the surface of Finnish pop culture in this lesson! But unfortunately that’s all the time we have – unless you want this particular lesson to last a couple of hours… |
| Reeta: That’s alright – perhaps another time. Please join us next time for more about Finland and Finnish at FinnishPod101.com! Hei hei! |
| Tiina: Until next time, bye everyone! |
Comments
Hide