Matti in the Wallet “Matti Kukkarossa” and Other Adventures in Finnish Language Nightmares

By Karoliina Korhonen

Meet Matti, a stereotypical Finn who appreciates peace, quiet and personal space. Among the things that make Matti anxious are receiving compliments, sitting next to a stranger on a bus, and replying to small talk with lengthy descriptions of his day. Matti tries his best to give space, be polite and not bother with unnecessary chit-chat.

Finnish Nightmares have been bestsellers worldwide from Finland to Japan and from the USA to China. Matti figured in The New York Times and in The Guardian, and he even inspired a new term for social awkwardness in Mandarin: jingfen, or “spiritually Finnish.”

Some say learning Finnish is like drinking tar. Nonsense! In ‘Matti in the Wallet’, Matti clings to the Finnish language and tells how our beloved Northern people communicate.

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About the author

Karoliina Korhonen is a graphic designer who lives in the city of Oulu, in central Finland.Korhonen says she is a female ‘Matti’ herself, and that the situations she depicts are largely from her own experiences. According to her, the Matti comics were born by accident, when she drew some sketches for her foreign friends to explain ‘Finnishness’.