Staying in Finland

I am staying in Finland from May to September. It's my research activities with Professors in Finland. Before forgetting, I am going to write something about it. I have visited following cities:

• Pori, Finland,
• Helsinki, Finland,
• Turku, Finland,
• Tampere, Finland,
• Lapland, Finland,
• Stockholm, Sweden,
• Malmö, Sweden,
• Copenhagen, Denmark,
• Billund, Denmark,
• Odense, Denmark,

Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to visit Norway and Iceland. Anyway, I have enjoyed staying Scandinavian countries.

People in these countries speak English well. Especially for younger generation, they speak English very fluently. For example, about half of the TV programs are spoken in English with the subtitles in their own countries. Because they are not large countries, English communication is necessary in their daily life.

They have still own currency. Finland accepts EURO as a country, but SKK (Sweden krona), DKK (Denmark krone), NOK (Norway krone) are used in respectable countries. And of course they have own languages. Norwegian and Danish languages are similar for each other, I felt. Swedish language is mainly used in Sweden and several area in Finland. Finnish language is very difficult in these languages, because it is agglutinative language. One word varies for many ways.

Scandinavian countries are known as high-taxes and high social welfare. I guess one reason is the less population and strong spirit. They are relatively small countries in the world. But I feel that they have strong spirit to keep their life.