Recently Hatty and I were invited to speak on the YLE English language podcast “All Points North” about mental health issues in Finland. The whole experience reminded me that while many foreign born people living in Finland enjoy and listen to this podcast, many more are unaware that the service even exists, or even what YLE is. I thought it would be useful to write about what is available in YLE for those who might be unaware, as it is a great tool for people to help with feeling more integrated as a foreign language speaker in Finland, and therefore more at home with living here.
When I arrived in Finland many years ago I learnt about YLE as soon as I put the TV on, because at that time there were no streaming services and no other entertainment options other than free-to-air TV. I realise that now many people don’t even own a television and get all their media and TV viewing on platforms like Netflix and HBO.
But in YLE (Yleisradio: the Finnish national broadcaster) we have a local TV, radio and news services that can tell us about our lives as we actually live them in Finland. For example today I learnt about the “cool neighbourhood” status of Vallila vs Kallio by listening to another recent All Points North podcast. As well as hearing about places which I visit all the time, I also learnt a bit about the history of Kallio, Pitkäsilta and of Helsinki in general. Hearing people talk about Finnish life in English helps me feel connected to where I spend my time in my daily life. It’s also handy if I want to send information to family back home if you want them to better understand your life in Finland.
YLE News in English is a news website that has good summaries of current Finnish news items that can be important to know about (i.e. changes in migration law, schools and English language education, childcare strikes). The journalists work hard every day to bring the news in English to the foreign speaking population of Finland. They also have news in Finnish, Swedish, Sami, Russian, Ukrainian and Estonian.
It’s also useful to know that you can listen to English language news on the radio each day. Yle News broadcasts in English daily on Yle Radio 1 (3:55 pm) and on Yle Mondo (3:30 pm Mon-Fri, 3:29 pm Sat-Sun). In Helsinki Radio YLE 1 is
87,9 MHz and YLE Radio Mondo is FM 97,5 MHz. You you can find the frequencies for other parts of Finland here: https://yle.fi/aihe/a/20-204089.
The most fun thing though is the recent addition of English subtitles to lots of TV shows on YLE Areena, the free streaming platform for YLE. A recent hit show called “Queen of F*cking Everything” has English subtitles, so you can follow along as a stressed 40-something Finnish woman lives her life out in Töölö, Kalasatama and Malmi, among other places familiar to those of us living in Helsinki. I also find it valuable to watch local TV series to get an insight into Finnish cultural phenomena, like how societal classes are in Finland and how different people might live behind the closed doors of apartments. Another good one is MS Romantic, a series about a Silja Line-type boat and everything that can go wrong onboard (this one only has Finnish or Swedish subtitles). You can also see foreign TV series on YLE in original languages like English, French, Norwegian and Spanish. I’ve been able to watch lots of quality Australian TV shows this way and have appreciated being able to do it for free as well.
I recommend that you check out YLE’s offerings if you haven’t had a chance before, and highly recommend it as a way to feel a bit more connected and local to Finland.