yes u can has healthcare

[cimorene]

There was some confusion over whether I could have healthcare or not after I applied for Finnish social security, because the letter they sent me was all in Finnish. Wax thought it said I couldn't have healthcare even though I could have all 58 other kinds of social support given by the Finnish government, all currently useless, so we trekked into KELA and asked a dude in a little cubicle after only 15 minutes in the waiting area. But he said he would fix my language preference to Swedish in the database and that the letter had actually been intended to convey that I could, in fact, have healthcare. You wouldn't think it would be so very easy to accidentally seem to be saying the exact opposite of what you are, in fact, saying, and it also seems rather counter-productive. But at least I can has a healthcare. Also, I can get the same benefits that make my medicine much cheaper as your average Finnish person.

Comments

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

Yay, that is awesome! As much as I complain about the Finnish health care system, the cheapness of treatment/medication really is a great thing.

[dreamnnightmare.livejournal.com]

funny how novice English speakers never really hear that little word "not." Makes a big difference. I'm sure this can happen in many languages.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

There were no novice Finnish speakers involved here nor any equivalent to the word 'not', though. Just a lot of obscure legalese. Wax's Finnish is perfectly fluent - she translates it.

[dreamnnightmare.livejournal.com]

oh I know. I was changing the subject. I was referring to your statement that you didn't see how it could be easy to make a document sound like us to know what it really said yes. I understood that in this particular case it was because of the legalese. I guess I was reaching rather far afield by analogizing that with novice speakers.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay. I guess you're right, but then, novice speakers seem to find it easy to make all KINDS of hilarious mistakes. "with internal organs" for "heart-shaped"... "poop" for "cake"... the list goes on!