Finland is a Nordic country, but is not part of Scandinavia, and the historical roots of Finnish differ from those of the Scandinavian languages. Finnish is a Finno-Ugric language, originating in central Russia and distantly related to Hungarian.
Finnish uses a complex inflection system instead of articles and prepositions, and even a familiar word like taksi meaning, of course "taxi,"can appear in several forms such as taksiin, "into a taxi," taksissa, "in a taxi," and taksilla, "by taxi."
Rautatieasemakirjakauppa is a fine example of the Finnish habit of joining words without articles or prepositions. It becomes much easier to understand if split up:
Now we can see the literal translation. Is it any clearer? It means, of course, the "railway station bookshop."
The fact that Finnish works so comfortably without subjects gives the language a Taoist character. It is more concerned with being than doing, and more interested in the action than the actor.
hankikanto [bon-ki-kon-toh] (noun)
This is a typical Finnish word that resists translation into many languages. Hankikanto is a frozen crust on the surface of snow that is strong enough to walk on. This matters to anyone planning a long winter trek, as snow conditions affect the choice of route and equipment.
aina on oksan ottajia, kun on kuusen kantajia [ey-naron ok-sun or-tah-ya kun on koo-sen kon-tu-ya] (proverb)
A disparaging Finnish proverb that captures a worldwide phenomenon. Roughly translatable as "if there is someone to carry the fir tree, there will be no shortage of people willing to hold a branch to help," it enigmatically suggests that there will always be many people around to grab the coat-tails of someone else's success, all too willing to participate in sharing the credit for another person's work.
kalakukko [kul-u-kook-koh] (noun)
This is a traditional Finnish food that has a mysterious and oddly untranslatable name. Although kalakukko literally means "fish rooster," it has nothing to do with poultry. Dictionaries suggest "Finnish fish pasty," but "Finnish fish loaf" gives a better idea. "Rye bread loaf with fish and pork filling" is a reasonable description of this dish.
ala maalaa pirua seinalle [a-la mah-lah pi-rue-o say-nal-leh] (proverb)
This Finnish proverb roughly translates as "Don't paint a demon on the wall." It is an exhortation not to spend time worrying with no reason about worst-case scenarios because they most likely will not happen. Alternatively, it is an expression uttered, like the English "jinx" or "knock on wood," when you have superstitious fear of something spoken aloud coming true.