About Very Finnish Problems

I'm Joel Willans. I came to Finland over twenty years ago, initially because of a Finnish woman who later became my wife and stayed because the country turned out to be super interesting once you understood what was actually going on.

Very Finnish Problems began because I couldn't stop trying to explain Finland to people.

Why nobody talks on the bus. Why silence isn't awkward. Why minus 25 is described as "fresh." Why an entire nation can sit in a wooden room in extreme heat, completely naked and completely at ease, but finds small talk at a party faintly threatening.

Somewhere along the way I realised Finland doesn't need parody. It just needs context.

What started as dry observations about sauna, winter and social discomfort became two books: 101 Very Finnish Problems and More Very Finnish Problems, and a community of over 1.3 million people who either live here, used to live here, married into it or are quietly considering it. I've written about Finnish culture for media as diverse as the Sunday Times, YLE and Cosmopolitan, and had short fiction broadcast on BBC Radio. The books were published by Gummerus. They're still the best explanation I've managed.

Finland is regularly ranked as the happiest country in the world. It's also a country where eye contact is rationed and small talk is treated like a minor inconvenience at best. That gap is where the humour lives.

The Shop

At some point people asked for something real. Not a souvenir. Not an elk on a mug. Something that actually felt Finnish.

Perkele. Sisu. No niin.

Sauna rules nobody explains but everyone obeys. The specific satisfaction of being left alone without it being considered rude. The word for the feeling after a good sauna when there's no equivalent in any other language because no other culture needed one.

These aren't slogans. They're cultural passwords. If you know, you know. If you've just moved here, you will.

The shop exists for people who take Finland seriously. In the VFP tradition, that means taking it seriously enough to find things funny.

If you've ever sat in comfortable silence and thought, yes, this is fine, you're in the right place.