does Polish language sound for Fins like russian? My wife was today on a hiking trip on Riisitunturi and some Finish family started throving “suka bljad” towards them in Laavu/Autiotupa. We are visiting Finland for 20th time and it happened for the first time.
39 comments
Yeah they would sound similar to somebody who doesn’t speak neither. Sorry that it happened to you. I had some drunk teenagers call me n-word from their car despite me being pretty pale lol
Unfortunately to the majority of people who don’t speak any Slavic languages, all Slavic languages sound like Russian.
Sorry to hear. I can understand how Finns with little exposure to Slavic languages might mix them up. A couple of Ukrainian acquaintances of mine have been harassed on similar grounds.
Sure yes, kind of. Slavic languages has same base. To an untrained ears its hard to separate languages/dialects.
In short, 90 % of Finns cannot speak any Slavic language. They are very different from Finnish and to some degree they sound like each other.
I’m in that 90 % and despite speaking many languages, I cannot reliably tell Russian from Ukrainian, or Ukrainian from Polish. When I hear Polish I’m quite certain it’s not Russian but “one of the others”, but I can understand why someone you run into would make the mistake.
To me, Polish and Russian don’t sound the same at all. Then again, I’ve traveled a lot and heard both languages before.
Also, I’m sorry those asshole verbally attacked your wife.
Some of it does and some of it doesn’t. I believe most Finns would be able to easily determine which one is which if they heard a long sentence in Russian first and then the same sentence in Polish.
I usually have to listen for a moment, but once I hear “kurwa” for the first time I know it’s Polish
To me no, but that’s probably partly because I’ve been to Poland several times and am interested in languages in general.
To other people, slavic languages might be hard to distinguish. Still super ignorant to assume you are Russian
Those kurwa’s! Yes it does sound similar but only idiot’s would say anything about it.
Probably not any more than Russians can tell Finnish from Estonian.
This is just hateful. Even if you can’t separate the Slavic languages, it is just common sense that these people are not bad people. It’s hard to get a visa to Finland as a Russian, and if they were, they have a good reason being here.
Also, we’ve had many Ukrainians here in my part of town. You really have to be knowledgeable in languages to separate Ukrainian from Russian, for example.
What do you mean by family? Like adults and children?
I have polish family members and yes that happens quite often. Slavic languages sound similar to a Finn that can’t speak any of them. There is no exposure to Slavic languages other than russian and the sound differences in Slavic languages might be difficult to even hear for a person native to a language that lacks those sounds.
To people saying that people are dumb for not hearing a difference: get off your high horse.
No one should be harassed. Even if they speak russian. What makes those people dumb is the harassment, not that they lack an education in slavistics.
if it’s teenagers, the only context they’ve heard either is probably probably people in voice chat in online games, which mixed with plain old xenophobia would explain a lot of it.
though from what I remember from playing a lot of CS as a teen, some of my friends actually got really good at distinguishing different languages, even based on accent. so maybe the ones shouting at you should play more lol
You really cannot escape the stupid people, There will always be a few of them among us. Don’t take it personally. 🙂 hope the rest of your trip will go smoothly without more similar “incidents” like this.
For me Polish language is one of the easiest to identify apart of other Slavic languages. Like for me Belarussian and Russian have many similarities, but Polish is not even close.
Thank you all for great answers. The teenagers like the idea of throwing random kurwa in each sentence and we laughed about that and other ideas. We love Finland and wish you all the best. This incident will not change our mind. Hyvä Suomi! Kiitos
Just yell back ” I like this part of sweden, what is it called again? ”
should get them fuming.
I don’t speak either but I can easily hear the difference. Wonder what it’s like for the Ukrainians.
I’m from Helsinki so I’ve been exposed to different languages more tho so that might explain it. Finland is still very homogenous country (like tje other Nordics) and thus [one of the most racist countries in Europe](https://yle.fi/a/3-10531670).
If that ever happens again, just for shits and giggles, call them out. People would be really embarrassed if you tell them that you arent something that they assume you are. I’ve seen this behaviour before by my own parents and I have to tell them that those ppl might understand you so stfu.
I’m sorry that happened to you. Its sad that ppl assume that all slavic ppl are automatically Russian or something. Tbh for me, Polish sounds different than russian, but again, next time try to correct them and possibly call out their racist bullshit bc usually the fellow Finns won’t say a thing about it, they would stay quiet.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t be able to say much, bc I’m a petite woman who is lowkey scared of even the teenage boys in this country so yeah…
I’m half Slovakian half Finnish, learned both when I was baby. No it doesn’t to me but everyone in Ukraine thinks I’m polish for some reason when I try to speak Slovak cause I don’t understand Russian or Ukraine exactly.
To me Polish and other west-slavic languages sound different to Russian. They are like a mix between Hungarian and Russian with their frequent use of some sounds not found in Russian and their different intonation.
Some sentences can sound very Russian (or generally slavic I guess) to untrained ears. I have studied some Russian and work at a school where I occasionally interract with Ukrainian students, so I have more contact with east-slavic languages than most. Most Finns haven’t had contact with a lot of foreigners and assume that everyone speaking vaguely slavic is a Russian.
The most important thing to remember is that ignorant a**holes are found in every country.
Yes, to the uninitiated. First time to Poland it sounded a lot like russian, but after a little time spent there, it became a more distinct language and I can separate between the two easily despite not speaking a word of either. Just say “kurwa bober” and anyone with any knowledge in memes will know it’s Polish.
English accents are the same, very easy to distinguish now who is from Poland just by their accent.
Hope you enjoyed Finland despite this.
Not to me it doesn’t at all because I have consumed a lot of russian language and polish media and known people from both places, but maybe to an very average finn perhaps? Shitty behaviour either way
Yes, all slavic languages sound the same to non slavic speakers.
Jesus effin … sorry for your experience.
Dumb Finns gonna dumb. Especially hiking in the wilderness, people should stick together, regardless of what language they hear.
as a half slavic and finn person, the easiest to separate ukrainian from russian, polish is to listen to their pronouniciation, ie if it sounds like a melody and lots of soft and “sh”sounds – thats most likely ukrainian (they speak very hypnotizingly)
if they speak in one breath, but it sounds like a melody then its probably polish,
if its opposite of these and pronounciation is rough with lots of strong consonants – russian.
and i stand by this.
People are stupid in general and there are lots of racists out there. They could have been Ukrainian refugees… And even if someone actually speaks Russian it’s no reason to assault them.
I can make the difference between Polish and Russian, but I guess they are pretty similar
I’m not a biggot but I don’t think I could tell a difference between Russian, Latvian, Polish and Lithuanian. They all sound very much the same to me.
I’m sorry you had to go through that. You could’ve introduced yourself as a Polish family and they propably would’ve apologised. But then again there’s idiots all over the world.
To me, Polish sounds different from Russian. Tbh it sounds less comprehensible (but also more mystical) since I know some Russian but not much Polish.
But wtf is wrong with people nowadays. I just heard from my non-Finnish friend that her (assumably) inmigrant friend got beaten up by a neo nazi in Helsinki… :S
I understand that people are stressed out but threatening innocent bystanders is not gonna help anything.
As a foreigner who lived in Russia for 5 years, polish does sound a little similar.
My mother is from Poland and my father from Finland. People always used to think she was Russian if she talked Polish to us or if she talked Finnish with an slavic accent.
Sorry to hear this. In this case it was clearly ignorance of the language. On top of that, unfortunately many Finns are xenophobic.
Pretty much everyone in Finland is against the Russian assault on Ukraine. Putin is committing war crimes. We can agree on that.
But even so, what does shouting slurs at tourists achieve? nothing.
No. It doesn’t. But we have our fare share of idiots and morons.
Dont bother with them. I guess she just ran on some hicks who’d hear russian even in swedish.. But yeah, polish and russian language do sound similar if you are used to only english and germanic language
Yes, all Slavic languages have that “Russian” sounding end to their words. I usually just wait to hear ‘Kurwa’ before deciding if it’s polish or not!
Yes and no, the main problems are the association of Slavic languages primarily with Russian and the lack of knowledge of other Slavic languages. Slavic languages like Polish (part of Western Slavic languages) can be hard and difficult to distinguish if you don’t know the difference in pronunciation and vocabulary, even though a western Polish accents sounds more Germanish than an eastern Polish accents and coastal Poland has a Prussian accent. Eastern Slavic is also rounder and jollier than more pompous Western Slavic, which can be heard in the tonal difference if you concentrate on listening, and which also makes Polish sound bit like a Sámi language.
However, Russia’s crime and war agression in Ukraine have unfortunately hardened and embittered the attitudes of many Finns towards all nations speaking different Slavic languages, because the Slavic language is primarily associated in Finland with the Russian language, which is more familiar to many Finns than other Slavic languages. This can sometimes be seen in street scenes, for example, as shouts directed at Ukrainian refugees just because they speak a Slavic language, which is an unfortunate and undesired side effect of the desire to show in Finland that Russia’s military actions are not accepted and those actions have upset the Finns. And in my opinion, a person should never be judged solely on the basis of the language they speak, because it tells nothing more than what language the person in question speaks. And that kind of shouting is not decent behavior and good manners, just like shouting at other people is not in general.