Courses / Career & employability

Workplace Finnish

Your first months in a Finnish workplace: introductions, coffee-room culture, meetings, Slack and email register, your employment contract decoded, and how to keep learning on the job.

25 min · 8 pages · practice task · quiz · part of Working in Finland

Start this course free Already have an account? Open it in the portal

Sponsor this course

What you will be able to do

Skills you add to your Herizon profile when you finish: Finnish, Workplace Communication.

The introductions and questions that carry you through your first week
Coffee-room culture: what Finns talk about, and how to join in at A2
Your employment contract (työsopimus) decoded: koeaika, TES, työaika, lomat, irtisanomisaika
Meetings in Finnish: following along, agreeing, disagreeing politely, and buying time
The written register of Finnish workplace chat and email, which is shorter and warmer than you would guess
How to ask for help early and say no professionally, the two speech acts that protect your trial period
A working system for growing from B1 to working-fluent while employed

Who it is for

Members who just signed a Finnish employment contract or are about to, including HIP interns starting their placement. Roughly A2-B1 Finnish assumed. Every phrase comes with an English explanation. Even if your workplace runs in English, the coffee room, the contract and half of Slack will not. This course pairs with the Trial Coach in your Career tab: the phrases here are for the same first months the coach tracks.

The situation you work through

Olena, a customer service specialist from Ukraine, uses Finnish at work for the first time during her first week at Kuura Energia in Tampere: the hallway, the coffee room, a standup, a chat message and an email.

Your practice task

In one working day, use Finnish for three real things: send one chat message or email you would normally write in English, say one sentence out loud (a confirming summary in a meeting, or the ask formula when you are stuck), and make one agreement with a colleague (Finnish by default with an exit to English, or a weekly Finnish lunch). Submit the three Finnish sentences exactly as you used them, what each person answered, and two sentences on which was hardest and what you would say differently next time.

Illustration from the course Workplace Finnish

What is inside

Your first-week phrases
The coffee room
Your työsopimus, decoded
Meetings in Finnish
Slack, Teams, and email register
Asking for help and saying no

and 2 more pages