“Eteen­päin, sanoi mum­mo lumes­sa” – The Finnish Say­ing That Guides Van­ni’s Life in Oulu

Oulu has giv­en Van­ni more than a new address: it has become the place where she built a fam­i­ly, a career, and a sense of belong­ing. Orig­i­nal­ly from Indone­sia, she now works in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion and uses Finnish in her every­day life.

When we arranged this inter­view with Yovan­ni Yusak Silalahi, bet­ter known as Van­ni, she was in the mid­dle of an Alias board game at Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu’s Net­work­ing evening.

Lis­ten­ing to her con­fi­dent­ly explain words in Finnish and chat effort­less­ly with oth­er play­ers, it was hard to believe that only a few years ago she arrived in Fin­land with­out know­ing a sin­gle word of the lan­guage.

Today, 35-year-old Van­ni works as an Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tor in an Oulu day­care cen­tre. She uses Finnish every day at work and has built a life, fam­i­ly, and career in North­ern Fin­land. In her free time, she enjoys read­ing, watch­ing movies, lis­ten­ing to music, and paint­ing.

“Com­plete­ly Oppo­site of Indone­sia”

Indone­sian-born Van­ni first came to Oulu in Decem­ber 2019 to mar­ry her hus­band. When the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic began short­ly after­wards, the cou­ple decid­ed that Fin­land would become her per­ma­nent home.

– I did­n’t know any­thing about Oulu before meet­ing my hus­band, she recalls.

– I had only heard that Oulu is locat­ed in North­ern Fin­land and that it is a cold, dark place, the com­plete oppo­site of Indone­sia.

Com­ing from Ban­dung, a vibrant city of mil­lions of peo­ple, the move was a major change. She admits she felt ner­vous at first, espe­cial­ly because she has asth­ma and won­dered how she would cope with the north­ern cli­mate.

How­ev­er, Oulu quick­ly won her over.

– I loved this city almost imme­di­ate­ly. Oulu is calm, silent, and sur­round­ed by nature. There are no traf­fic jams, and life moves at a slow­er pace.

Sur­pris­es Along the Way

While Fin­land’s win­ters often sur­prise new­com­ers, for Van­ni one of Oulu’s biggest sur­pris­es was some­thing else entire­ly.

– Mos­qui­toes, she laughs.

– I was amazed by how many mos­qui­toes there are and how warm the sum­mers can be.

Anoth­er sur­prise was the absence of sky­scrap­ers. Com­ing from a large Indone­sian city, she was used to see­ing tall build­ings every­where. In Oulu, the sky­line looks very dif­fer­ent.

Despite these dif­fer­ences, she dis­cov­ered unex­pect­ed sim­i­lar­i­ties between Oulu and anoth­er city she once called home: Hama­mat­su, Japan.

– Both cities are large enough, yet not too big or too small, so I don’t feel iso­lat­ed from the world.

Learn­ing to Slow Down

Liv­ing in Oulu has changed the way Van­ni looks at life.

– Oulu taught me to slow down, be patient, and enjoy life. Not every­thing has to be a com­pe­ti­tion. I also learned how to use pub­lic trans­port, since I nev­er used bus­es in Indone­sia.

She has also embraced aspects of Finnish life she nev­er imag­ined she would. Nature is becom­ing a big­ger part of her every­day life. She jokes that she can now even use a tra­di­tion­al Finnish out­door toi­let “huus­si” at a sum­mer cot­tage.

“Oulu taught me to slow down, be patient, and enjoy life.”

Although she still con­sid­ers her­self more of a city per­son, she appre­ci­ates how easy it is to expe­ri­ence nature in Oulu.

– There are forests every­where, she says with a smile.

– Maybe that’s also why there are so many mos­qui­toes.

Build­ing a Career Through Finnish

One of Van­ni’s great­est achieve­ments has been learn­ing Finnish.

She arrived in Fin­land with no knowl­edge of the Finnish lan­guage and began study­ing through an inte­gra­tion course. Short­ly after­wards, she went on mater­ni­ty leave and spent sev­er­al years at home car­ing for her chil­dren.

In 2024, she decid­ed it was time to con­tin­ue her stud­ies. She enrolled in anoth­er inte­gra­tion pro­gramme and stud­ied Finnish inten­sive­ly for five months, reach­ing lev­el B1 and pass­ing Fin­land’s YKI inter­me­di­ate lan­guage test.

She then start­ed voca­tion­al stud­ies in a reg­u­lar Finnish-lan­guage class for future child­care pro­fes­sion­als.

– The class I attend­ed was a nor­mal class, not one specif­i­cal­ly for immi­grants, she says.

– I had to under­stand and speak Finnish all the time. It was­n’t easy. The lan­guage bar­ri­er was dif­fi­cult for me and affect­ed my well­be­ing, but thank­ful­ly I sur­vived.

Her deter­mi­na­tion paid off. She com­plet­ed her stud­ies ahead of sched­ule and now works in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion, using Finnish every day.

When asked about her favourite Finnish phrase, Van­ni does­n’t hes­i­tate.

“Eteen­päin, sanoi mum­mo lumes­sa.”

The expres­sion rough­ly trans­lates to “For­ward, said the grand­moth­er in the snow.” It’s a Finnish way of say­ing: “Keep mov­ing for­ward, even when the sit­u­a­tion is tough“.

For Van­ni, the say­ing rep­re­sents her entire jour­ney.

– It reminds me that I just need to keep mov­ing for­ward. Even small steps are progress.

– Find­ing a job was chal­leng­ing, as there were not many oppor­tu­ni­ties in my field. Thank­ful­ly, I even­tu­al­ly found a posi­tion in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion that I tru­ly enjoy. The work­ing hours are well bal­anced with my fam­i­ly life, and the role gives me the work-life bal­ance I val­ue. I work to live, not live to work.

“Oulu is friend­ly”

When asked about her best mem­o­ries of Oulu, Van­ni’s answer is sim­ple and heart­felt.

– I mar­ried the love of my life here. My chil­dren were born here. I built my home here. I have a new life here.

For any­one con­sid­er­ing a move to Oulu, she offers hon­est advice:

– Mov­ing to a com­plete­ly new place is scary at first, and it isn’t easy. But the good thing is that Oulu is friend­ly.

After almost sev­en years in the city, Oulu is no longer just the place where Van­ni lives. It is the place she proud­ly calls home.

Text: Annakaisa Vääränie­mi

We’re look­ing for inspir­ing sto­ries from Oulu

If you know a per­son, com­pa­ny or com­mu­ni­ty with a strong inter­na­tion­al mind­set, let us know. We’re always hap­py to high­light local voic­es with a glob­al touch.
Send us an email: annakaisa.vaaraniemi(a)businessoulu.com

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