laupäev, september 15, 2007

The Secret to Looking Finnish

After some basic research, I have come to the conclusion that the secret to looking Finnish is a) wearing spectacles, preferably with dark frames to emphasize your intelligence; b) sculpting perfect unisex haircut to avoid traditional gender stereotypes.

Don't believe me? Try here, and here, and here, and here, and also here.

That's it. It's a two-point plan. As for looking like an Estonian, just stuff a potato under each cheek. And remember to smile for the camera.

14 kommentaari:

margus ütles ...

What is the secret to looking Italian?

Giustino ütles ...

Margus,

To look Italian, you must simply believe that everyone on Earth is in love with you and finds you desirable in a certain way.

Look at Silvio Berlusconi. He's short and unattractive. Yet I am sure he believes that he is the most beautiful man in the world. And that is why he able to project such stunning 'Italianness'.

Wouldn't you agree?

Unknown ütles ...

I remember after becoming independent and the borders were open, a lot of Finnish were coming to visit Estonia. I was quite young then, but if I saw a person walking around in Tallinn Old Town wearing fancy glasses, I knew instantly that he or she was Finnish. What I mean by fancy is that the only glasses we could get from the store were with plastic or shiny "golden" frames, the "granny glasses". And yes, most of the Finnish women had shorter hair, making them look like their other half.

Anonüümne ütles ...

Estonian women like to dye their hair. I think more than almost any nationality. When my dad started dating my mom she was a blonde, and then she became a red head and then a brunette. My Dad's uncle thought that he was dating different women... If they are brunette they go blonde, if they have perfectly nice blonde hair they dye it black, or red etc etc.

Tiamsuu ütles ...

You forgot to definte the price range for them glasses. Too expensive, and you risk looking Swedish instead.

LPR ütles ...

I like to guess people's nationalities by their eyes. Very often you are able to tell a nationality by person's eyes. Usually. There are Estonian eyes, Russian eyes, Finnish eyes, ... It is so interesting. Then there's this thing that if a person lives in a different country for too long the eyes change. With more and more Estonians living abroad, this is getting more interesting.

During USSR people used to have these Soviet eyes. No kidding. Bouncers at the bars that were off limits to the Soviet citizens cold tell customers by the eyes. Dress how you may, wear what you want but your eyes betray you.

Next time when doing some people watching, try to guess peoples nationalities by their eyes. See if you can do it.

Giustino ütles ...

All Russians look like Brezhnev.

gaborien ütles ...

I agree with the glasses, maybe each finn gets a pair when they start primary school.

But if I think on hair, it comes to my mind that Estonians dislike their shaded dark blond hair. Some of my estonian friends call it kartulikoor - Aga ma mõtlen see on vaga ilus :) - but they prefer to dye it in a sort of evidently chemical tones.

Kristopher ütles ...

Il Cavaliere has nice teeth, though.

Re Finns, they are so much more homogeneous than Estonians.

I definitely see something Central Asian or Inuit (can't use the word Mongoloid here because of other connotations) behind the glasses whereas Estonians' Altaic roots are much more diluted with Indo-European influences.

stockholm slender ütles ...

Inbreeding, the secret is inbreeding! Our deep forests were largely left alone by invaders, we had only our cousins to marry. Finland actually is a great place for studying genetic diseases as we have many very local varieties, for some reason...

margus ütles ...

desirable in a certain way

umm ... well, I like your blog

margus ütles ...

http://www.postimees.ee/140306/esileht/siseuudised/index.php
compared to this
http://tk.ttu.ee/7198

I'd say moping makes him look Finnish.

Rein Kuresoo ütles ...
Autor on selle kommentaari eemaldanud.
Giustino ütles ...

Agu, that is the kind of stuff I am talking about :)

One funny story is that my wife's cousin Jaanus accidentally put our family name in his address book as "Preatone".

The Italians in Estonia are great, especially that guy that burned his ex-girlfriend's car. Or was it her parents' car?

Anyway, he was very entertaining.