In the language center at the university of H, there is a Swedish teacher by the name Ros, and it is NOT Swedish. Not [ruus] but [ros].

BTW, the woman in your picture does not look Finnish. There is something very unFinnish in her eyes and mouth. Or is it the nose? Anyway, she doesn’t look Finnish.

I’ve been told I have a finlandssvensk nose and skin. My pure-Finnish parents were surprised to hear that.

What the fuck is a “finlandsvensk nose and skin”? Skin???

Usually the name after the “-” is the husbands’ name…..

Finlandsvensk skin and nose must refer to too thin skin and “nirppanokka” – direct reference to a nose and means minx?

Joking aside, cultural differences in hairstyle, fashion etc. can really make a difference. Take an average Finnish woman to a beauty saloon in Hollywood and she’ll surely come back looking more like an American than a Finn!

I agree. Doesn’t look like a Finn to me. Wrong nose, mouth and eyes. On the other hand, I don’t look like a Finn either.

Yeah it’s probably her name by marriage…I’m a Finn but apparantly look nothing like one (?!)

Pete, it was a finlandssvensk nirppanokka saying it to me so I don’t think that’s what she meant, she was just trying to explain why she thought I was finlandssvensk. I have no idea. My skin is not that thin, after all, I’m married to a local politician whose party I really really do not endorse. My skin used to be very nice But now as I’m 35 years old my skin is getting old too!

Looks Spanish or French to me. But yes, the name is definitely Finnish (could well have been Roos-Lehtinen at some poin)t.

There are Uusitalos, Keskinens, Wainios, Torkells, Helanders and so on in Cuba. Only they don?“t necessarily look very Finnish nowadays (The ones I have seen on TV were black).

100 years ago Finns started colonies around the world, from far-eastern Russia to the jungles of Paraguay. They were usually based on some -ism and quite utopistic. Just a couple of weeks ago there was a program about an old hermit in Paraguay. He still even spoke Finnish.

There were two colonies in Cuba, and the descendants nowadays live in Florida or Cuba. Some in Finland.??

You can read about it in a book named Kohti parempaa maailmaa by Teuvo Peltoniemi (Otava 1985).@

In this representation http://www.house.gov/ros-lehtinen/biography.htm it is said: “In the Florida Legislature she met and married Florida Representative Dexter Lehtinen, who later went on to become the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.” I would say, that Ros is the maiden name of Ros-Lehtinen, and her husbamd has Finnish roots.

This woman has a bit of a tan, maybe this is why you think she doesn’t look Finnish?

No. She has dark eyes (which is beautiful, but not typically Finnish), arched and narrow nose, and wrong kind of mouth.

Did you not see when she was interviewed in Finnish TV some time last year? She told her husband was of Finnish origin.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is well-known here in the Finnish-American community. She is a Hispanic-American who married a Finnish-American.

Maine has quite many inhabitants of Scandinavian origin… they even have Simply Scandinavian store in Portland!

Hanna, good to hear that you have thick skin as I was just teasing you – but shouldn’t you take your finlandsvensk friend’s comment as a compliment, after all they’re so proud of their looks, social status etc…

How do you get HBO in Finland???

Although she’s only an honourary Finn, I disagree, she definitely has something Finnish in her looks!

The whole conversation about “does/does not look like a Finn”, with derogatory comments like “pure-Finnish”, “wrong kind of nose, skin” etc, sounds baffling to me.

Of course I recognize the fact that Finland is a country that has gone through a prolonged period of homogeneity in its recent past and that the majority of Finns are white, blue- or green-eyed, etc, but I’m a Finn myself and think that Finns, too, come and go in all different colors and looks. Finns don’t all look or sound the same. Finns don’t all eat or talk the same. And having a nose, mouth, eyes, whatever that looks not so “typically Finnish” is not wrong – it has nothing to do with “wrong.”

Congresswomwn Ros-Lehtinen’s mother was a Sephardic Jew, whose parents had emigrated to Cuba from Turkey. Mother Amanda Adato later converted into Christianity. Cuban-born Ros-Lehtinen’s husband is of Fännäsh origin. Mainly because of her multi-cultural and multi-religious background, Ros-Lehtinen is one of the most liberal Republicans in the Congress.

Not all Finns do have ‘nirppanokka’ and translucid skin! Ros-Lehtinen could well be an ordinary Finn from Uusikaupunki. : )

Erratum:
Ros-Lehtinen’s husband is of Finnish origin, not ‘Fännäsh’.