On Hockey and Being Finnish-American

The US women's hockey team will play their last game of the Olympics on Monday. This is the game to determine who will take home the bronze medal--hopefully it will be the US and not the Finns, who they will be playing. Eight years ago, the US won the gold, four years ago they won the silver, and this year they may win the bronze: the full set! Good luck to the team.

I didn't get to see the US men's loss to Sweden. The final score was 2-1, so it wasn't a real lopsided game, at least. They play Russia on Tuesday and then, if they win, they will play the quarterfinals. So, they still have a chance to bring home a medal.

I did get to see the game between Canada and Finland--Canada was shut out. Again, it was the great play of the goaltenders that kept the score where it was. The biggest problem I have when I watch Finnish teams playing is listening to the announcers butcher the names. A big pet peeve of mine, as I am Finnish-American.

So now, here is my rant about mispronouncing Finnish names and words. I guess there just isn't too much that can be done about uninformed people not knowing how a name is pronounced--after all, one can pronounce their name anyway one wants. I really take exception, though, to people here where I live pronouncing their unmistakably Finnish names with an English, or American, pronunciation. To me, this is just showing you are ashamed of your heritage. But my biggest pet peeve--no, if someone does this, I am PISSED OFF--is the mispronunciation of the word sauna! I want to shoot my TV whenever I hear anyone say "saw-na"! The word is "SOW-na" for heaven's sake!!!!! Get that right for once and for all!!!!!

I am done. You can all go back to whatever you were doing, in peace.