Nokia headquarters in Espoo has employees from 50 countries
By Katriina Pajari
“This might even be the most international place in Finland”, says Singaporean Dinesh Subramaniam in the lobby of Nokia headquarters in Keilaniemi in Espoo.
Subramaniam works at the Nokia communications department, and has lived in Finland for just over a year.
“My wife is studying Finnish at the university. I am also learning all the time. My favourite sentence is: Miksi? Siksi (“Why? Because.”), he laughs.
People passing by are from Brazil, the United States, Norway, Italy, India, Canada, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, and Russia.
A random sampling reveals more than ten nationalities.
Statistics indicate that there are people from 50 different countries working in the building. Finns included, the building is the workplace for 2,300 people.
Titos Saridakis is from Greece, from the village of Agios Nicolaos.
“You can find it easiest in advertisements of Sun Tours”, he says.
The first name of Frederique Slezak is French, her surname is Czech, and her father is Austrian. “I am British myself”, she says.
Slezak has been in Finland for about four months. She has made a note of the large proportion of Germans in Keilaniemi, and that there are also many Canadians.
“Probably because there is snow and hockey here”, Slezak ponders.
She is amused at how people greet each other by saying “terve”. She plans to introduce the equivalent expression to London as well.
“Health, bus driver!”
Keilaniemi is so international that it is exhausting.
The working language is English, so not even the people who work there always know where their colleagues come from.
Not all of the people are sure of where they are from themselves. “Yes, where am I from?” Kulsoom Ally laughs.
“I was born in Pakistan, and I have lived in Africa, the United States, Spain, and Britain. Now I have been in Finland for five years.”
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 14.3.2009
KATRIINA PAJARI / Helsingin Sanomat
katriina.pajari@hs.fi
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| 17.3.2009 - THIS WEEK |
 Nokia headquarters in Espoo has employees from 50 countries |
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