Name: Just how different is life in Finland for an American?
Uploaded: 2026-03-02T04:17:11.000Z
Duration: 8 min 13 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

I've lived in Berlin, lived in Prague, been to London, all these international cities and Helsinki doesn't have like the glitz and glamour of those cities, but

Adverbs of degree

Helsinki is really like a hidden gem, I think.

I'm from Salisbury, Massachusetts and I've been living in Helsinki now for over a year.

Cody is one of over 5 million U.S. citizens living abroad.

He's made his home in Finland known for its happiness ranking, strong welfare system and famously reserved people.

But has he adjusted to the Nordic way of life?

What's the one Finnish tradition he can't quite get around?

And how did he break the ice with the Finns?

Cody is in Finland working as a golf course manager.

A job he landed by reaching out to the boss.

After finding it online, he knew he wanted to move to Europe long term after, after spending time in Berlin and Prague.

I had a little checklist of things that I wanted.

I wanted to move somewhere in Europe, more northern.

I wanted to learn a new language, somewhere that likes hockey.

And then the lastly was somewhere where the weather was decent.

Finland kind of ticked all the boxes that I know that I was looking for.

The visa process was actually really easy for me.

Luckily when I applied there's a special expert visa that's good for two years.

I just sent everything to show that I have higher education and higher experience in this field.

I got an answer within eight minutes that my visa was approved.

Now working in Finland, he's noticed differences in working culture and paid time off.

Like every Finn, I have five weeks holiday, that's normal.

So I take one in the summer and then four in winter.

So obviously in the US that's not really a thing.

You know, when I was in the US I had 10 days holiday here.

It's big work, life, balance, really important here.

Cody's apartment is located in the center of Helsinki.

He pays €1,350amonth for 47 square meters.

Slightly above average, but normal for a place near the city center.

The kitchen here, it's kind of all open, so kitchen, dining room slash living room.

Kind of unique thing, especially here in Finland is it gets really cold in winter.

Everything's double window, double pane to keep cold out and noise.

Then of course bathroom here and then bedroom off to the side.

Some friends have sent me, like, memes from the US on Instagram.

It's like the reason why Finns are so happy is because everyone uses the bidet.

But we have not yet embraced that part of the Finnish culture yet, I guess.

Other Finnish quirks include drying racks above the sink.

The most finished thing about this flat building and most flat buildings is the sauna that's in the basement.

You want me explain, like, what you do and when you.

Before you go in, you're supposed to take a shower and you normally go naked, but

It's about 80 Celsius in here for the Americans.

I couldn't tell you what that is, but it's just really hot.

So pouring water of the stones makes it even hotter.

Few things are more finished than the sauna.

Now it's actually really hot and it's kind of boring.

Maybe a couple more years, then we'll get there.

While Koti is still getting used to the sauna routine, Finnish cuisine hasn't fully won him over yet either.

Restaurants in Finland are known to be expensive.

His favorite is a Latin American spot where he meets his friends.

Sometimes I find finished food to be a bit bland and maybe that's very biased because in the us, if everything's like, on steroids, the food, the flavors, the.

Coti found his community through work and playing ice hockey.

Adjusting to the more introverted fins took some time.

Well, making friends here, just like anywhere, when you're an adult, it's difficult, so there's that.

I don't want to say they're not cold by any means.

They're just a little shy and outer shell.

Did they find them to be very extroverted when they first met?

You made it pretty easy for me to get to know you.

And has Coty been able to get by just speaking English?

If you just live in the city, Helsinki or Tampara or.

Yeah, you can get around with just English, but I also think it's not rude, but

kind of disingenuous to living in a new, new country, new culture.

Because as much as we can laugh and have fun at work in English, it's just different.

Like, these guys have a different personality in their native language.

I would say that he should just have more courage, actually, to speak Finnish.