Ain't you quite Finnish yet?

[marko_the_rat]

I got a package in the mail today from the Finnish Immigration Service. After waiting the better part of a year, they've approved my application for Finnish citizenship! (This doesn't affect my Australian citizenship of course; I wouldn't do it if it did.)

Ohessa Maahanmuuttoviraston päätös Suomen kansalaisuudestanne.

I'm embarrassed to admit that my Finnish is pretty rusty, but I think that says something along the lines of "Has achieved emigrant (or outside of Finland) Finnish citizenship."

So why did I do it? Just to keep my options open, in case I ever want to visit or move to Europe. (Finland is part of the European Union.) It's quite ironic; ristin has American citizenship which I would really value and I have European citizenship which Ristin would really value. How can we swap? :)

Comments

[marko-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Don't worry. I have trouble doing it too and I was born in the language! I am seriously glad I didn't have to pass a Finnish language proficiency test to get my citizenship. If the person I'm speaking to speaks too quickly (all Finns do IMO) or uses a slightly different accent to my parents I get lost very quickly. I filled in my application in Finnish to make it more authentic but I needed a lot of help from my parents to do it.