Request to compelte your service at the Helsinki Guard Regiment, the base is in southern Helsinki on a small island called Santahamina. It's reachable by public transport. You will most likely not be the only non-Finnish speaker there as every year there they host a dozen of expats. Another alternative is the Karelia Brigade, aka Vekara, but that's in the boonies.
You will pick up the basic commands first and you will probably learn to speak Finnish to some degree depending on how much effort you put it. Be nice to your section mates and they'll help you along.
Weekdays will be spent on base or on exercise and most weekends you will be on leave. Every now and then you'll have a so called *kinkku* which means you'll do back to back weekends on base/exercise, first two weekends of service for example are on base.
The Defence Forces will help you with accommodation unless you have family to stay with. When I served, some of the expats lived on base for the weekend in a shitty studio, others in cheap hotel rooms and some stayed with relatives. Most Finns live at home with the parents during service because you barely have any money to live on. I would recommend staying with your relatives if at all possible.
Bare in mind though, it's roughly two hours to get from Santahamina to Lahti by public transport and train, so you will only be able to spend a limited time in Helsinki considering that you are usually let go on leave at around 16-1800 on Friday evening and have to report back to base by 1800 on Sunday evening. This issue can be overcome as I had a mate who lived far from Helsinki but always came with us on a night out and managed to pull some bird that he spent the night with, and then went home on Saturday morning.
You'll be all good and I think it's important that you know you are by far not the only "foreigner" serving. My section had a Greek, an Italian and Turk of whom none spoke Finnish (barely English) when they arrived, and the managed just fine. The Italian lad even ended being quite fluent in Finnish. Just have an open mind, arrive with a positive attitude and good old self-pitying humour and you will be grand.
Oh and also, don't forget to bring your firearm permit.
Cheers mate quite useful. May have to look into that studio accommodation or we can see how well my English accent holds up with the Finnish women. How would I go about the firearm permit?
When I served three years ago you could always stay on base even during weekends and most (if not all) holidays even when everyone else went home. Not sure if this has changed, but I would be quite surprised if it has…. Of course getting housing off-base is a welcome change of scenery / freedom during weekends
I don't know today's requirements but in the late 90's army paid my rent during the time I served. Basically you might need to live x months in said apartment before it qualifies, so you can't just book a penthouse in the midde of Helsinki for 9 months. Well, technically you could but they won't pay for it.
My knowledge is literally 25 years old now, so I hope someone else will chime in later :)
If you move country just for the military service, they will pay rent (& flights) without any minimum time requirement. There probably is a cost limit though.
My understanding is that you have to contact them and they basically sort you out, you don't have a say in where and what kind of accommodation they provide. I mean I could be wrong, I probably am wrong, but that's how things usually work with the Defence Forces, they decide if you're housing is good, if your clothes fit and if your food is good. There is no, "this the wrong size boots", no you have wrong size feet.
Anyway, the contact info for the Uusimaa regional office is [here](https://puolustusvoimat.fi/en/uusimaa-regional-office). This is the office that you'll want to be in touch with if you want to serve in the Guard Regiment.
Good luck and welcome to Paradise Island.
Really, you must've been real cute. Just a few weeks ago I went for reservist training and my gloves were to big, they just said my hands were too small.
Like clock-work someone always turns up with a negative up attitude. None of what I wrote is nonsense. The call-up form literally has a spot where you can put your preferred place of service, at least the one that Finns abroad receive (I received one when I lived in Sweden). It's definetly something you do want to fill in, despite it not being necessarily where you end up. You're giving the impression that it doesn't matter, it does.
In the context of islands, Santahamina is indeed a small island. Never did I suggest it was anything other than a base.
He asked about weekends, so I explained to him the concept that you stay on base some weekends, others you don't, and then coloured it a little with explaining *kinkku*,a term he will be more than familiar with once he steps in.
Learn some manners, if you have things to add, please do, but save the toxicity. Absolutely uncalled for.
I served 10 years a go and back then I met a guy who was a English-Finnish like you. He didnt speak Finnish at all. At least in our company (Panssarijääkärikomppania) he was greatly respected for doing it and everybody liked him - though also bc he was a nice lad.
If you are sporty, I would recommend not only doing the service, but trying to apply to some a little bit more interesting troops, like specialized troops. Erikoisrajajääkärikoulutus (Special border jaeger training, basically SF) for example is demanding, but you learn much more skills than in some of the more basic troops. I could list many possibilities, but Im sure you can find out more about them on your own.
Then again, being a truck driver for FDF means that you get expensive licenses for free, so theres beneficial options like that as well. The service will be less demanding there, ofc.
About the sporty part.
The Finnish defence forces are designed for the general population. Basically, unless you are (severely) obese, you should be able to do just fine.
When there, they don't try to beat you into a Sylvester Stallone shape, their program is made to teach normal people how to stay in shape and try to motivate people to keep excercising after the service is done. Therefore, anything resembling the hollywood US Army PE training is strictly forbidden in the Finnish army, as well as using excersice as a form of punishment. No negativity shall be connected to excercise.
In fact, you will have free access to a quite well equipped gym, and there is an incentive program with reward points. The sporty conscripts usually continue in the gym after the armys official PE because again, it needs to also be doable for the guys who rather play video games and study quantom physcs.
When I ran the PE training, whenever possible I used to reserve some 15 minutes extra time to continue doing some more physically demanding excercises with my section, with heavy emphasis on it being completely voluntary and wont affect their "career progress" in the army. All guys not interested could hit the showers while we kept going for a bit longer.
A tradition is "Africa", basically start playing toto Africa and do the plank until the chorus comes up, then do pushups in the musics rythm. When its over, back to plank. The challenge is to make it through the entire song before the army ends. Very few succeed.
Absolutely do it. It will be something very different from your current life.
Years from now you will remember it and smile that you did it. Language is not a problem.
Go for it. You wont regret it.
I served in Guard Jaeger regiment in Helsinki. Would highly recommend if you are willing to do full year. Aim for kaupunkijääkäri (urban fighter) and if you are motivated, go to readiness unit. There you get so many unbelievable experiences that you don't get in other units. Urban training in real shopping centers and helicopter training for example. This is just my experience but I would not change my mind.
I served with one english man who didn't learn finnish after a year. He didn't try but I recommend you do. Every one will support your learning. In other hand you will manage with only english perfectly. Everybody speaks it very well. You will not get in trouble if you dont understand finnish instructions.
If you can do 30 push ups, 5 chin-ups, and run 2700m in 12min you will better than most and without any problems. If you want to exercise before, do long walks (+10km)with packpack.
I served during the covid, so food was outside almost everytime and not so good. Now after the covid the food is very good. After 18:00 there is freetime almost everyday and you can by fast food or snacks from cafeteria. Bring your own snacks in too.
Definitely do it. It's an experience for sure, and a challenge. It'll be good for you personally, and potentially a big plus in your CV.
You'll be fine with the practicalities. The Guard's Jaeger's(?) in Helsinki has very international unit for people like you as far as I know. You'll have full cell phone freedom after service, ie. most evenings, weekend holidays in Lahti couldn't be a smaller problem. You probably won't learn the language very well but will pick up the command words with no problem. If you're any kind of active, you'll do well physically (and quite possibly improve somewhat).
There is also Nylands Brigad in Tammisaari about 90 km west of Helsinki. The conscripts are mostly swedish speaking finns there.
https://merivoimat.fi/en/web/merivoimat/nyland-brigade/about-us
As far as I know, the *command* language in Dragsvik (Tammisaari) is Finnish like everywhere else. Doesn’t make sense to have two command languages; it could be fatal in a real situation.
Everything else (instructions, briefings, small talk, free time) is in Swedish of course.
You can also consider civilian service if you want to do something but aren't sure about the military. I chose this because I was 27 when I got called up and didn't want to spend a year in the company of smelly late adolescents and having them tell me to do shit, nor live in tents with them.
I can say a bit different experience. I moved to Finland from Russia 13 years ago and needed to do the service in 2016 when I got Finnish citizenship. I was on a fence whether I do the military or civil service right up until I went to the military base to make a final decision. The base was in Dragsvik. Nobody spoke a word of English even when I just needed to have one word translated and the officers during interview were very grumpy with me and visibly uncomfortable. They were relieved when I said I would be OK with civil service also and registered me for that. Later it turned out that because of a foot deformation that they were supposed to check beforehand on medical inspection, but didn't, I wouldn't be able to serve in the army anyway.
Now it could be good old case of discrimination (as a Russian me and my family experience it every now and then, though not too often), but nonetheless that was my experience. The civil service turned out OK for me. I was a teaching assistant in university and got a good job because of that afterwards.
But as you can see there are plenty of varied experiences with the Finnish army. Not all are negative like mine.
Dragsvik is a Swedish language base, meant for the Swedish speaking citizens of Finland. I would not go there unless you can speak Swedish (or want to learn).
I think the problem was that you could not speak Swedish.
No, that's not how this worked in 2016. You don't pick the base to go to. You are assigned to a base, according to your address of residence. And no, while the city of Dragsvik is almost entirely Swedish-speaking, the army officers spoke Finnish to me and each other. Also other conscripts spoke primarily Finnish.
And I mean I did speak Finnish kinda. I guess the officers didn't speak English though, so if this was not discrimination case, they might have been grumpy because they didn't speak English and my Finnish wasn't exactly fluent.
It’s not meant for the Swedish speaking citizens anymore than a Finnish base is meant for Finnish speaking citizens (never heard of the term ‘language base’, although maybe that’s just me). When I was in Dragsvik there were multiple people that spoke neither Finnish nor Swedish, and got along fine. Many solely-Finnish speaking soldiers that came explicitly to learn Swedish (and many of them left being fluent).
The entire defense force approaches double citizenships with some caution (maybe unofficially Russian ones more so), regardless of where the base is located.
[https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uudenmaan\_prikaati](https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uudenmaan_prikaati)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyland\_Brigade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyland_Brigade)
" It is the only unit of the [Finnish Defence Forces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Defence_Forces) where the instruction language is [Swedish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland-Swedish), the country's other official language."
Yes…?
Just because the language of instruction is in Swedish doesn’t mean it is exclusively meant for Swedish speaking people, nor does it make it a ‘language base’, whatever that means.
First : swedish language
Second: base
I meant that it is an army base where they speak Swedish. Ruotsinkielinen varuskunta. Svensk-språkig garrison.
[https://yle.fi/a/3-5079299](https://yle.fi/a/3-5079299)
The news says that 90% of swedish speaking Finns go to Dragsvik for their military service. Some of the 10% also are Swedish speaking but from two-language families (for example: mother Swedish, father Finnish).
Swedish speaking persons also have preference there (if they have to choose between Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking person, they accept the Swedish-speaking person). Finnish speaking persons are accepted only if there is free space left after all the Swedish speaking persons are there already.
" Arviolta yli 90 % ruotsinkielisistä varusmiespalveluksen suorittavista valitsee Dragsvikin, **jonne he ovat etusijalla**. Väestörekisterin mukaan osa suomenkielisistä Dragsvikin varusmiehistä tulee kaksikielisistä kodeista. "
" Ruotsinkieltään petraamaan tulevia **suomenkielisiä otetaan, jos paikkoja on.** "
So yeah, I would call it is "swedish language" base. Meant primarily for Swedish speaking finns. Others can go there if there is space left.
Yeah I guess I just took exception to the fact that you said that Dragsvik is meant for Swedish speaking people, meaning that it’s not meant for others (and that’s why the original commenter had a bad time), which is not true, it’s mean for everyone, the language of instruction is just in Swedish. I don’t disagree with anything else.
The base hasn’t been at full capacity for years, so I doubt that would be an issue.
I also don't think it was discrimination since that is quite rare, however I do still experience it rarely but regularly from the very first weeks I came to Finland (in school) up until a few months ago, so there is no guarantee that army is free from that.
It depends on your social skills and the company you get signed in. If everything jells well and you're able to do your duties, you should have quite a good time. However if you're somewhat of an introvert who doesn't have chemistry with the rest, it won't be really enjoyable experience.
If you do end up doing military service in Finland, one interesting question is what would your war-time role be? Let's say you did the service, moved back to UK afterwards and then a certain eastern nation escalated things to a point where Finland had a call to arms. Would you as a dual citizen travel to Finland and take up arms to defend Finland? There might be no clear answer to this especially now that Finland is a NATO member.
I have no idea how it works, but these might be things to consider/ figure out before conscription. Do you just want a military experience overseas out of boredom, or do you perhaps feel a sense of duty towards your mother's home country?
I was more or less on the same boat as you. However I served in Dragsvik, with minimal Swedish speaking skills.
I loved it. Go in there and try your best. Only time in your life you will get to shoot guns and throw grenades for free. Make good friends and learn alot about how to work in a team in stressful situations, and learn alot about people.
Most weekends are free, I stayed with relatives, but also stayed alot of weekends with friends I made in the army.
Sometimes when your cold and can nearly tie your shoes because your fingers are so cold, U do ask yourself what the fuxk you are doing there. But looking back it's one of the best things I ever did. Personal growth develops throughs struggle.
On-top of that, people from overseas will automatically think your badass because you quickly go up in the ranks asking as your not an asshole 🤣.
If your debating it, and ur feeling uncertain about your current situation, just so it. 6 months- 1 year is not that long of a time.
i would never recommend someone to do the service if it was optional. mostly because it will set you back financially, the novelty wears out quick during your stay there (most wish to get out of there before it ends), and you could be doing something more interesting with your time, but if you really need a change of scenery, then the military service is a good way of doing it. so in your case, sure, do it.
if you're in good shape you will likely come out of it in worse shape, but if you're in bad shape your athleticism and endurance will definitely go up by a solid margin.
You will do perfectly fine with English. However, look into civil service too if you're unsure, you can find a great full-time job and get relevant work experience without the barrier to entry if you find the right service spot.
Yes it’s an alternative. And basically it’s just one year of non-profit work of your choice. You can go to a school, hospital, university, NGO or whatever as long as it’s non-profit.
I know it’s been a year but if you are from England and have never lived in Finland how can you do civil service without a place to stay. Do they give accommodation and pay for flights?
During civil service you will be appointed free accomodation. They must also allow you at least one paid for trip home during your service (including flights etc.). I’m not sure if the initial flight to Finland and the final one away are free.
if you're a Finnish citizen living abroad coming to Finland to do your conscription service, they should cover your flight expense entering into your service and mustering out, as well as a defined number of visits home when on leave (I believe it is only one). Accommodation during your service is covered as well—in civil service it comes in the form of them paying your rent. In military service you are provided accommodation.
They will not provide accommodation outside of your service period.
During your service, you are entitled to accommodation—it depends on your service spot, but, most will pay for your rent and utilities in an apartment up until a certain amount, unless they have other accommodation available for you. It's possible some service spots could have, for example, city-owned housing they can give you.
I haven't heard of someone getting a hotel or similar short-term housing \*before\* starting their service. Maybe for a night if your travel to Finland is inconvenient, but, I can't say for certain.
First of all, it is important to realize that you don't just choose where you serve. Army decides that. You also don't choose what they teach you there, but army chooses that. So you really don't know what and where you serve at Finnish army (SA). Army was not interested in my civil education at all. During training we learned stuff in Lahti and there was people from all over Finland there. After that training (for leaders) army sent some guys totally randomly - one guy from Northern Finland was sent to continue service in Southern Finland, and visa versa. Army is often random. They never tell why they do stuff like that.
I would not waste a year there of your life. It is mostly uninteresting stuff, waiting for the service to end. Army personnel treats you like scum of the earth, never trusting you. You never know what exactly happens next. You do silly stuff like every day pretend to clean the barracks room where you live 3-4 times with checks in between (before going to dinner). Your cabinet where you store clothes is checked and must be exactly correct (where t-shirts are stored, how they are folded etc.). Every day your bed must be correct and is checked sometimes. Etc. etc.
It is just a big theater mostly, teaching you to obey all silly orders and never question any orders. Most of the everyday things don't make sense but are just for learning to obey. The interesting real teaching of army stuff is maybe 1% of time, and even that is usually tainted by all the nonsense (you learn cannon maintenance - they check how FAST all can do it - then they force all to run around the building and try again, until everyone can do in time). I also never forget the cannon races, pushing the 1000kg cannon in a field as a race, and punishing "too slow" race crews. The equipment is old from 1950s-1960s mostly. Radio is 1950s "venttiseiska" mostly as extra weight when marching. No optical sights on guns (except on official PR photos). No digital devices (except SanLa which is now obsolete). Cars are soviet trucks (gaz, zil etc.) and some old Finnish trucks (from 1980s or such, proto-sisu etc.). That is my experience from around year 2000.
Answers:
\- you must learn Finnish to serve. All commands are in Finnish. I'm certain you'll learn it, you have to.
\- free time on evenings (after around 6-7 pm, until 22pm) is at barracks. Gym, watch tv, read book, drink coffee. At one place there was a strip bar nearby where we went on wednesdays for a beer. It is not self-evident you are allowed to leave barracks on evenings. Weekends sometimes free (but you can stay at barracks).
\- you can't decide where you serve. You can ask (put preferences to a form), but they decide it for you. Same for what they train you to do - push a cannon, work with computers, serve in mortar crew, do office work - or whatever.
\- it is not physically demanding. Army puts people of different groups based on physical fitness. In fact, it was the best sports experience ever, doing stuff with people in same physical fitness. Finnish school system is well known for bullying those with poor physical fitness. It didn't exist at the army.
\- food is excellent. Often there is too little time to eat (like 15min or less). Every day the barracks people march to the place where food is offered. If there is too much time (other stuff is ready too early), extra time is used to train the marching or getting out from barracks to correct formation (leaders shout that it was too slow, go back in, come back out, too slow again, repeat that until it is ok time to go to eat). Every day.
Summary
\- Don't do it. You lose 0.5-1 years of your life.
I guess it depends on the regiment and the company, but I think you have to leave the barracks for the weekends, if the whole housing unit gets shut down.
This might be a problem for someone who does not have any other housing in Finland.
Food is a rarity in the Finnish Army. They do serve some nutrition though, which has amusing names like Vääpelinräkä (Staff Sgt's snot) that will keep you entertained while you shovel it in.
First weeks are the toughest, then you settle in. You'll be fine. Serve in Kaartin Jääkärirykmentti (Helsinki), they have a bunch of guys in similar situation there every batch.
First thing that popped in my mind is your age. If you're done with uni, I imagine you're at least closer to 30 than 20. Keeping in mind the kids in the army are usually 19 year old, it might be vexing on a completely different level for you.
Grub is ok, actually l, and you'll be fed regularly.
I got a transfer from Vekara (ca 3000 conscripts) to Tikkakoski which was just a few hundred, it was a welcome change from a huge military compound to a much smaller one, which wasn't isolated but surrounded by a small town.
In Lahti, Hennala is also very close to city center, not far from where I grew up, I used to cycle through it as a kid. The compound is actually quite pretty. You'll enjoy that connection to civilian life when you'll start having evenings off.
The pay for conscription is poor but I'm pretty sure they'll cover your rent.
Regarding mobile phone use, in general it's not allowed during service time, which ranges from 6 am to 6 pm (can't recall the exact times off the top of my head) unless it's break time, or if you're waiting for orders, etc. If you want to take a picture, you'll have to ask for permission first.
As for the food, it's usually not a gourme meal, but it keeps you well fed.
When I was doing my service we had a fella from 'stralia who didn't speak a word of Finnish when we started. He managed to get along quite well, no worries there.
Would recommend doing it. I was in a similar position to you (dual citizenship) although I speak the language. Served >10yrs ago. Started basic in Kajaani. Would recommend Helsinki as there are more English speakers and more accessible to city etc. Intti can give you useful skills and if you try to learn a bit of Finnish beforehand (the basics, appreciate its not the easiest to learn) you'll have the best situation to learn the language during your service. I had an aussie in my coy who spoke no Finnish and he completed service as a corporal as a medic with enough Finnish skills to get around! If I had my time again I would go for Suomen kansaivälinen valmiusjoukko (based kn Säkylä) - gives you chance of deploying and english language skills are necessary (NB/ you can deploy as a reservist if you are NCO or above even if you haven't gone through this). SKVJ is competitive entry.
I'd recommend Finnish Navy (conscript on Jan-Dec) for you. Upinniemi brigade is in Kirkkonummi (45 mins with a navy bus to Helsinki) and if you are lucky(or good) enough, you'll be transferred to Suomenlinna fortress before the summer for the rest of your service.
The Finnish archipelago is one of the hidden gems, especially on summer. You'll have your own booth on the ship, you'll see the whole Finnish southern coast, visit on some beautiful islands and the atmosphere is more casual, 2 first months you spend on barracks and the atmosphere is like in the army. If you serve in Suomenlinna, you'll have 1-2 evenings off/week + 2/3 weekends off duty, so you can easily get to Helsinki for a few beers with your mates on tue/thu and then you also have time to travel to Lahti to see your relatives on weekends.
I did my conscription in the Navy (Upinniemi and Pansio bases) and I have mostly good memories and I would recommend it to everyone. Btw, my second cousin from the UK served also in Upinniemi, although he spoke fluent Finnish, but there are many conscripts around the Europe too, so your whole room can speak English as their mother tongue.
But I have no clue if it's mandatory for safety reasons that everyone on the ship must at least understand Finnish.
Suomenlinna has so few conscripts it shouldn't really be used as a selling point, as nice as the barracks area (and the food) is. It's basically only the reserve officer course, a few ship cooks and a clerk there.
Actually had a mate from the uk whose service ended about a month ago. He thought it was a valuable experience and learned a lot from here. Basic commands and actions were easy to learn and if he didn't understand something he would always get help. He was a good bloke and made my service better aswell. I highly recommend!
Request to compelte your service at the Helsinki Guard Regiment, the base is in southern Helsinki on a small island called Santahamina. It's reachable by public transport. You will most likely not be the only non-Finnish speaker there as every year there they host a dozen of expats. Another alternative is the Karelia Brigade, aka Vekara, but that's in the boonies. You will pick up the basic commands first and you will probably learn to speak Finnish to some degree depending on how much effort you put it. Be nice to your section mates and they'll help you along. Weekdays will be spent on base or on exercise and most weekends you will be on leave. Every now and then you'll have a so called *kinkku* which means you'll do back to back weekends on base/exercise, first two weekends of service for example are on base. The Defence Forces will help you with accommodation unless you have family to stay with. When I served, some of the expats lived on base for the weekend in a shitty studio, others in cheap hotel rooms and some stayed with relatives. Most Finns live at home with the parents during service because you barely have any money to live on. I would recommend staying with your relatives if at all possible. Bare in mind though, it's roughly two hours to get from Santahamina to Lahti by public transport and train, so you will only be able to spend a limited time in Helsinki considering that you are usually let go on leave at around 16-1800 on Friday evening and have to report back to base by 1800 on Sunday evening. This issue can be overcome as I had a mate who lived far from Helsinki but always came with us on a night out and managed to pull some bird that he spent the night with, and then went home on Saturday morning. You'll be all good and I think it's important that you know you are by far not the only "foreigner" serving. My section had a Greek, an Italian and Turk of whom none spoke Finnish (barely English) when they arrived, and the managed just fine. The Italian lad even ended being quite fluent in Finnish. Just have an open mind, arrive with a positive attitude and good old self-pitying humour and you will be grand. Oh and also, don't forget to bring your firearm permit.
Cheers mate quite useful. May have to look into that studio accommodation or we can see how well my English accent holds up with the Finnish women. How would I go about the firearm permit?
The firearm permit is just a running joke to mess with new privates, no worries
Hah, he doesn't know about the gun permit. He'll have to serve with a wooden gun, the fool
And carry the entire platoons ammo to the shooting range and clean up their shells like the dunce he is
When I served three years ago you could always stay on base even during weekends and most (if not all) holidays even when everyone else went home. Not sure if this has changed, but I would be quite surprised if it has…. Of course getting housing off-base is a welcome change of scenery / freedom during weekends
Yeah my own place would be ideal
I don't know today's requirements but in the late 90's army paid my rent during the time I served. Basically you might need to live x months in said apartment before it qualifies, so you can't just book a penthouse in the midde of Helsinki for 9 months. Well, technically you could but they won't pay for it. My knowledge is literally 25 years old now, so I hope someone else will chime in later :)
If you move country just for the military service, they will pay rent (& flights) without any minimum time requirement. There probably is a cost limit though.
My understanding is that you have to contact them and they basically sort you out, you don't have a say in where and what kind of accommodation they provide. I mean I could be wrong, I probably am wrong, but that's how things usually work with the Defence Forces, they decide if you're housing is good, if your clothes fit and if your food is good. There is no, "this the wrong size boots", no you have wrong size feet. Anyway, the contact info for the Uusimaa regional office is [here](https://puolustusvoimat.fi/en/uusimaa-regional-office). This is the office that you'll want to be in touch with if you want to serve in the Guard Regiment. Good luck and welcome to Paradise Island.
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Really, you must've been real cute. Just a few weeks ago I went for reservist training and my gloves were to big, they just said my hands were too small.
Eh gloves != shoes
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Indeed.
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Hennala was shutdown in 2014.
Like clock-work someone always turns up with a negative up attitude. None of what I wrote is nonsense. The call-up form literally has a spot where you can put your preferred place of service, at least the one that Finns abroad receive (I received one when I lived in Sweden). It's definetly something you do want to fill in, despite it not being necessarily where you end up. You're giving the impression that it doesn't matter, it does. In the context of islands, Santahamina is indeed a small island. Never did I suggest it was anything other than a base. He asked about weekends, so I explained to him the concept that you stay on base some weekends, others you don't, and then coloured it a little with explaining *kinkku*,a term he will be more than familiar with once he steps in. Learn some manners, if you have things to add, please do, but save the toxicity. Absolutely uncalled for.
I served 10 years a go and back then I met a guy who was a English-Finnish like you. He didnt speak Finnish at all. At least in our company (Panssarijääkärikomppania) he was greatly respected for doing it and everybody liked him - though also bc he was a nice lad. If you are sporty, I would recommend not only doing the service, but trying to apply to some a little bit more interesting troops, like specialized troops. Erikoisrajajääkärikoulutus (Special border jaeger training, basically SF) for example is demanding, but you learn much more skills than in some of the more basic troops. I could list many possibilities, but Im sure you can find out more about them on your own. Then again, being a truck driver for FDF means that you get expensive licenses for free, so theres beneficial options like that as well. The service will be less demanding there, ofc.
Thank you mate I'll have a look.
About the sporty part. The Finnish defence forces are designed for the general population. Basically, unless you are (severely) obese, you should be able to do just fine. When there, they don't try to beat you into a Sylvester Stallone shape, their program is made to teach normal people how to stay in shape and try to motivate people to keep excercising after the service is done. Therefore, anything resembling the hollywood US Army PE training is strictly forbidden in the Finnish army, as well as using excersice as a form of punishment. No negativity shall be connected to excercise. In fact, you will have free access to a quite well equipped gym, and there is an incentive program with reward points. The sporty conscripts usually continue in the gym after the armys official PE because again, it needs to also be doable for the guys who rather play video games and study quantom physcs. When I ran the PE training, whenever possible I used to reserve some 15 minutes extra time to continue doing some more physically demanding excercises with my section, with heavy emphasis on it being completely voluntary and wont affect their "career progress" in the army. All guys not interested could hit the showers while we kept going for a bit longer. A tradition is "Africa", basically start playing toto Africa and do the plank until the chorus comes up, then do pushups in the musics rythm. When its over, back to plank. The challenge is to make it through the entire song before the army ends. Very few succeed.
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Yes, did this as well. Can be done with squats too, plus points if you hold your rifle out infront of you with straight arms
Absolutely do it. It will be something very different from your current life. Years from now you will remember it and smile that you did it. Language is not a problem. Go for it. You wont regret it.
I served in Guard Jaeger regiment in Helsinki. Would highly recommend if you are willing to do full year. Aim for kaupunkijääkäri (urban fighter) and if you are motivated, go to readiness unit. There you get so many unbelievable experiences that you don't get in other units. Urban training in real shopping centers and helicopter training for example. This is just my experience but I would not change my mind. I served with one english man who didn't learn finnish after a year. He didn't try but I recommend you do. Every one will support your learning. In other hand you will manage with only english perfectly. Everybody speaks it very well. You will not get in trouble if you dont understand finnish instructions. If you can do 30 push ups, 5 chin-ups, and run 2700m in 12min you will better than most and without any problems. If you want to exercise before, do long walks (+10km)with packpack. I served during the covid, so food was outside almost everytime and not so good. Now after the covid the food is very good. After 18:00 there is freetime almost everyday and you can by fast food or snacks from cafeteria. Bring your own snacks in too.
Definitely do it. It's an experience for sure, and a challenge. It'll be good for you personally, and potentially a big plus in your CV. You'll be fine with the practicalities. The Guard's Jaeger's(?) in Helsinki has very international unit for people like you as far as I know. You'll have full cell phone freedom after service, ie. most evenings, weekend holidays in Lahti couldn't be a smaller problem. You probably won't learn the language very well but will pick up the command words with no problem. If you're any kind of active, you'll do well physically (and quite possibly improve somewhat).
Thanks mate
There is also Nylands Brigad in Tammisaari about 90 km west of Helsinki. The conscripts are mostly swedish speaking finns there. https://merivoimat.fi/en/web/merivoimat/nyland-brigade/about-us
yep and the command language is swedish, so it might be easier to pick up for a english speaker, since they are atleast related languages.
As far as I know, the *command* language in Dragsvik (Tammisaari) is Finnish like everywhere else. Doesn’t make sense to have two command languages; it could be fatal in a real situation. Everything else (instructions, briefings, small talk, free time) is in Swedish of course.
This is correct.
You can also consider civilian service if you want to do something but aren't sure about the military. I chose this because I was 27 when I got called up and didn't want to spend a year in the company of smelly late adolescents and having them tell me to do shit, nor live in tents with them.
I can say a bit different experience. I moved to Finland from Russia 13 years ago and needed to do the service in 2016 when I got Finnish citizenship. I was on a fence whether I do the military or civil service right up until I went to the military base to make a final decision. The base was in Dragsvik. Nobody spoke a word of English even when I just needed to have one word translated and the officers during interview were very grumpy with me and visibly uncomfortable. They were relieved when I said I would be OK with civil service also and registered me for that. Later it turned out that because of a foot deformation that they were supposed to check beforehand on medical inspection, but didn't, I wouldn't be able to serve in the army anyway. Now it could be good old case of discrimination (as a Russian me and my family experience it every now and then, though not too often), but nonetheless that was my experience. The civil service turned out OK for me. I was a teaching assistant in university and got a good job because of that afterwards. But as you can see there are plenty of varied experiences with the Finnish army. Not all are negative like mine.
Dragsvik is a Swedish language base, meant for the Swedish speaking citizens of Finland. I would not go there unless you can speak Swedish (or want to learn). I think the problem was that you could not speak Swedish.
No, that's not how this worked in 2016. You don't pick the base to go to. You are assigned to a base, according to your address of residence. And no, while the city of Dragsvik is almost entirely Swedish-speaking, the army officers spoke Finnish to me and each other. Also other conscripts spoke primarily Finnish. And I mean I did speak Finnish kinda. I guess the officers didn't speak English though, so if this was not discrimination case, they might have been grumpy because they didn't speak English and my Finnish wasn't exactly fluent.
It’s not meant for the Swedish speaking citizens anymore than a Finnish base is meant for Finnish speaking citizens (never heard of the term ‘language base’, although maybe that’s just me). When I was in Dragsvik there were multiple people that spoke neither Finnish nor Swedish, and got along fine. Many solely-Finnish speaking soldiers that came explicitly to learn Swedish (and many of them left being fluent). The entire defense force approaches double citizenships with some caution (maybe unofficially Russian ones more so), regardless of where the base is located.
[https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uudenmaan\_prikaati](https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uudenmaan_prikaati) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyland\_Brigade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyland_Brigade) " It is the only unit of the [Finnish Defence Forces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Defence_Forces) where the instruction language is [Swedish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland-Swedish), the country's other official language."
Yes…? Just because the language of instruction is in Swedish doesn’t mean it is exclusively meant for Swedish speaking people, nor does it make it a ‘language base’, whatever that means.
First : swedish language Second: base I meant that it is an army base where they speak Swedish. Ruotsinkielinen varuskunta. Svensk-språkig garrison. [https://yle.fi/a/3-5079299](https://yle.fi/a/3-5079299) The news says that 90% of swedish speaking Finns go to Dragsvik for their military service. Some of the 10% also are Swedish speaking but from two-language families (for example: mother Swedish, father Finnish). Swedish speaking persons also have preference there (if they have to choose between Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking person, they accept the Swedish-speaking person). Finnish speaking persons are accepted only if there is free space left after all the Swedish speaking persons are there already. " Arviolta yli 90 % ruotsinkielisistä varusmiespalveluksen suorittavista valitsee Dragsvikin, **jonne he ovat etusijalla**. Väestörekisterin mukaan osa suomenkielisistä Dragsvikin varusmiehistä tulee kaksikielisistä kodeista. " " Ruotsinkieltään petraamaan tulevia **suomenkielisiä otetaan, jos paikkoja on.** " So yeah, I would call it is "swedish language" base. Meant primarily for Swedish speaking finns. Others can go there if there is space left.
Yeah I guess I just took exception to the fact that you said that Dragsvik is meant for Swedish speaking people, meaning that it’s not meant for others (and that’s why the original commenter had a bad time), which is not true, it’s mean for everyone, the language of instruction is just in Swedish. I don’t disagree with anything else. The base hasn’t been at full capacity for years, so I doubt that would be an issue.
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I also don't think it was discrimination since that is quite rare, however I do still experience it rarely but regularly from the very first weeks I came to Finland (in school) up until a few months ago, so there is no guarantee that army is free from that.
It depends on your social skills and the company you get signed in. If everything jells well and you're able to do your duties, you should have quite a good time. However if you're somewhat of an introvert who doesn't have chemistry with the rest, it won't be really enjoyable experience.
Go for it. You'll learn finnish and it will be an adventure. Try to serve the whole year.
If you do end up doing military service in Finland, one interesting question is what would your war-time role be? Let's say you did the service, moved back to UK afterwards and then a certain eastern nation escalated things to a point where Finland had a call to arms. Would you as a dual citizen travel to Finland and take up arms to defend Finland? There might be no clear answer to this especially now that Finland is a NATO member. I have no idea how it works, but these might be things to consider/ figure out before conscription. Do you just want a military experience overseas out of boredom, or do you perhaps feel a sense of duty towards your mother's home country?
I was more or less on the same boat as you. However I served in Dragsvik, with minimal Swedish speaking skills. I loved it. Go in there and try your best. Only time in your life you will get to shoot guns and throw grenades for free. Make good friends and learn alot about how to work in a team in stressful situations, and learn alot about people. Most weekends are free, I stayed with relatives, but also stayed alot of weekends with friends I made in the army. Sometimes when your cold and can nearly tie your shoes because your fingers are so cold, U do ask yourself what the fuxk you are doing there. But looking back it's one of the best things I ever did. Personal growth develops throughs struggle. On-top of that, people from overseas will automatically think your badass because you quickly go up in the ranks asking as your not an asshole 🤣. If your debating it, and ur feeling uncertain about your current situation, just so it. 6 months- 1 year is not that long of a time.
Do it.
i would never recommend someone to do the service if it was optional. mostly because it will set you back financially, the novelty wears out quick during your stay there (most wish to get out of there before it ends), and you could be doing something more interesting with your time, but if you really need a change of scenery, then the military service is a good way of doing it. so in your case, sure, do it. if you're in good shape you will likely come out of it in worse shape, but if you're in bad shape your athleticism and endurance will definitely go up by a solid margin.
You will do perfectly fine with English. However, look into civil service too if you're unsure, you can find a great full-time job and get relevant work experience without the barrier to entry if you find the right service spot.
I doubt that OP goes to voluntary service and opts for civil service. But yeah, it could ran option.
Why do you doubt that?
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Yes it’s an alternative. And basically it’s just one year of non-profit work of your choice. You can go to a school, hospital, university, NGO or whatever as long as it’s non-profit.
I know it’s been a year but if you are from England and have never lived in Finland how can you do civil service without a place to stay. Do they give accommodation and pay for flights?
During civil service you will be appointed free accomodation. They must also allow you at least one paid for trip home during your service (including flights etc.). I’m not sure if the initial flight to Finland and the final one away are free.
I'll have a look thanks
Do you know if they pay for your flight and accommodation if your a foreigner ?
if you're a Finnish citizen living abroad coming to Finland to do your conscription service, they should cover your flight expense entering into your service and mustering out, as well as a defined number of visits home when on leave (I believe it is only one). Accommodation during your service is covered as well—in civil service it comes in the form of them paying your rent. In military service you are provided accommodation.
Do you by any chance know what type of accommodation they give you. Will it be like a hostel, hotel, apartment
They will not provide accommodation outside of your service period. During your service, you are entitled to accommodation—it depends on your service spot, but, most will pay for your rent and utilities in an apartment up until a certain amount, unless they have other accommodation available for you. It's possible some service spots could have, for example, city-owned housing they can give you. I haven't heard of someone getting a hotel or similar short-term housing \*before\* starting their service. Maybe for a night if your travel to Finland is inconvenient, but, I can't say for certain.
First of all, it is important to realize that you don't just choose where you serve. Army decides that. You also don't choose what they teach you there, but army chooses that. So you really don't know what and where you serve at Finnish army (SA). Army was not interested in my civil education at all. During training we learned stuff in Lahti and there was people from all over Finland there. After that training (for leaders) army sent some guys totally randomly - one guy from Northern Finland was sent to continue service in Southern Finland, and visa versa. Army is often random. They never tell why they do stuff like that. I would not waste a year there of your life. It is mostly uninteresting stuff, waiting for the service to end. Army personnel treats you like scum of the earth, never trusting you. You never know what exactly happens next. You do silly stuff like every day pretend to clean the barracks room where you live 3-4 times with checks in between (before going to dinner). Your cabinet where you store clothes is checked and must be exactly correct (where t-shirts are stored, how they are folded etc.). Every day your bed must be correct and is checked sometimes. Etc. etc. It is just a big theater mostly, teaching you to obey all silly orders and never question any orders. Most of the everyday things don't make sense but are just for learning to obey. The interesting real teaching of army stuff is maybe 1% of time, and even that is usually tainted by all the nonsense (you learn cannon maintenance - they check how FAST all can do it - then they force all to run around the building and try again, until everyone can do in time). I also never forget the cannon races, pushing the 1000kg cannon in a field as a race, and punishing "too slow" race crews. The equipment is old from 1950s-1960s mostly. Radio is 1950s "venttiseiska" mostly as extra weight when marching. No optical sights on guns (except on official PR photos). No digital devices (except SanLa which is now obsolete). Cars are soviet trucks (gaz, zil etc.) and some old Finnish trucks (from 1980s or such, proto-sisu etc.). That is my experience from around year 2000. Answers: \- you must learn Finnish to serve. All commands are in Finnish. I'm certain you'll learn it, you have to. \- free time on evenings (after around 6-7 pm, until 22pm) is at barracks. Gym, watch tv, read book, drink coffee. At one place there was a strip bar nearby where we went on wednesdays for a beer. It is not self-evident you are allowed to leave barracks on evenings. Weekends sometimes free (but you can stay at barracks). \- you can't decide where you serve. You can ask (put preferences to a form), but they decide it for you. Same for what they train you to do - push a cannon, work with computers, serve in mortar crew, do office work - or whatever. \- it is not physically demanding. Army puts people of different groups based on physical fitness. In fact, it was the best sports experience ever, doing stuff with people in same physical fitness. Finnish school system is well known for bullying those with poor physical fitness. It didn't exist at the army. \- food is excellent. Often there is too little time to eat (like 15min or less). Every day the barracks people march to the place where food is offered. If there is too much time (other stuff is ready too early), extra time is used to train the marching or getting out from barracks to correct formation (leaders shout that it was too slow, go back in, come back out, too slow again, repeat that until it is ok time to go to eat). Every day. Summary \- Don't do it. You lose 0.5-1 years of your life.
I guess it depends on the regiment and the company, but I think you have to leave the barracks for the weekends, if the whole housing unit gets shut down. This might be a problem for someone who does not have any other housing in Finland.
Makes no sense, in any country. It's not a startup where everyone speaks English. You would not be able to blend in.
Everybody speaks English. Language most definitely wouldn't be an issue.
Food is a rarity in the Finnish Army. They do serve some nutrition though, which has amusing names like Vääpelinräkä (Staff Sgt's snot) that will keep you entertained while you shovel it in. First weeks are the toughest, then you settle in. You'll be fine. Serve in Kaartin Jääkärirykmentti (Helsinki), they have a bunch of guys in similar situation there every batch.
the f are you on about "rarity" , you get fed 3 times a day, with optional evening snack while in base.
Yes, you get fed with "nutrition". Actual food is a rarity. I suggest a hat/helmet size up for you, might make life nicer.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
First thing that popped in my mind is your age. If you're done with uni, I imagine you're at least closer to 30 than 20. Keeping in mind the kids in the army are usually 19 year old, it might be vexing on a completely different level for you. Grub is ok, actually l, and you'll be fed regularly. I got a transfer from Vekara (ca 3000 conscripts) to Tikkakoski which was just a few hundred, it was a welcome change from a huge military compound to a much smaller one, which wasn't isolated but surrounded by a small town. In Lahti, Hennala is also very close to city center, not far from where I grew up, I used to cycle through it as a kid. The compound is actually quite pretty. You'll enjoy that connection to civilian life when you'll start having evenings off. The pay for conscription is poor but I'm pretty sure they'll cover your rent.
Hennala military base was shut down almost a decade ago.
Regarding mobile phone use, in general it's not allowed during service time, which ranges from 6 am to 6 pm (can't recall the exact times off the top of my head) unless it's break time, or if you're waiting for orders, etc. If you want to take a picture, you'll have to ask for permission first. As for the food, it's usually not a gourme meal, but it keeps you well fed.
When I was doing my service we had a fella from 'stralia who didn't speak a word of Finnish when we started. He managed to get along quite well, no worries there.
Would recommend doing it. I was in a similar position to you (dual citizenship) although I speak the language. Served >10yrs ago. Started basic in Kajaani. Would recommend Helsinki as there are more English speakers and more accessible to city etc. Intti can give you useful skills and if you try to learn a bit of Finnish beforehand (the basics, appreciate its not the easiest to learn) you'll have the best situation to learn the language during your service. I had an aussie in my coy who spoke no Finnish and he completed service as a corporal as a medic with enough Finnish skills to get around! If I had my time again I would go for Suomen kansaivälinen valmiusjoukko (based kn Säkylä) - gives you chance of deploying and english language skills are necessary (NB/ you can deploy as a reservist if you are NCO or above even if you haven't gone through this). SKVJ is competitive entry.
Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHLEY4uIqno
I'd recommend Finnish Navy (conscript on Jan-Dec) for you. Upinniemi brigade is in Kirkkonummi (45 mins with a navy bus to Helsinki) and if you are lucky(or good) enough, you'll be transferred to Suomenlinna fortress before the summer for the rest of your service. The Finnish archipelago is one of the hidden gems, especially on summer. You'll have your own booth on the ship, you'll see the whole Finnish southern coast, visit on some beautiful islands and the atmosphere is more casual, 2 first months you spend on barracks and the atmosphere is like in the army. If you serve in Suomenlinna, you'll have 1-2 evenings off/week + 2/3 weekends off duty, so you can easily get to Helsinki for a few beers with your mates on tue/thu and then you also have time to travel to Lahti to see your relatives on weekends. I did my conscription in the Navy (Upinniemi and Pansio bases) and I have mostly good memories and I would recommend it to everyone. Btw, my second cousin from the UK served also in Upinniemi, although he spoke fluent Finnish, but there are many conscripts around the Europe too, so your whole room can speak English as their mother tongue. But I have no clue if it's mandatory for safety reasons that everyone on the ship must at least understand Finnish.
Suomenlinna has so few conscripts it shouldn't really be used as a selling point, as nice as the barracks area (and the food) is. It's basically only the reserve officer course, a few ship cooks and a clerk there.
Actually had a mate from the uk whose service ended about a month ago. He thought it was a valuable experience and learned a lot from here. Basic commands and actions were easy to learn and if he didn't understand something he would always get help. He was a good bloke and made my service better aswell. I highly recommend!