I rode my bicycle today and I saw many people. It is my way to socialize with people. I invented a new way to talk with people. When I saw people whom I do not know, I asked ‘Do you speak Russian’ in either Finnish or Russian. I met two people and I asked in Finnish ‘Puhutteko te venäjää’ (Do you speak Russian) and they replied in Finnish ‘näytämmekö me venäläisiltä’ (do we look like Russians) and then they told that Ukrainian refugees are living in the area where they lived. I suppose many Ukrainians also speak some Russian. Then there was one man and I asked in Russian ‘ti koveric pa ruskie jasik’ (Do you speak Russian) and he said ‘Hah’, basically he did not understand what I said, but we had a good discussion and he explained how he can talk in different languages with his smartphone. Any way, it was nice to chat with other people.
I think it’s very brave to strike up conversations with strangers like that. A good skill to have. Maybe I will try it some day 
My town is quite small, just less than 20000 people. We have many old people, young ones have moved to where they have more opportunities such Helsinki. People here are quite friendly and so to discuss with a stranger is no problem. I suppose it is one way to socialize. I have been here nearly 21 years after returning from the States in 2002 and many people whom I have known have died (in my list there are 74 names). Even in the neighborhood where I live many people seemed to have disappeared.
I live in a suburb to a city. There are 30 000 people in the suburb and around 300 000 people in the city. I guess it is more common to talk to people in smaller communities as it is more normalised.
We used to have more people, close to 25000, but during all these years the population has decreased, many people have moved away, people have also died. We are just getting older here. So it is good to socialize with people when they are still here in the society. Sometimes I am depressed because of the trend of the population here.
I try to start conversations in French. You’d be amazed at how many non-French speaking women know what, “veux-tu coucher avec moi ce soir?” means.
Phooey.
That’s funny, I wish I would be so lucky. I used the Google translator, so now I also know the meaning.
ah. pa ruskie. I studied Russian but forgot almost all of it. Not much chance to use it.
I studied Russian when I was in the university. I visited a couple of times in the Soviet Union. But then I stayed over ten years in America and I did not use my Russian skills and so I forgot many words. When I came back from the States in 2002, 21 years ago, I tried to refresh my Russian language, but I never did it properly and so I have lost many words. But it is good that we have some Russian speakers here, even our former mayor spoke in Russian. Now we have a couple of hundred of the Ukrainian refugees and some of them speak Russian.
When I rode my bicycle today, I stopped and had a discussion with one Ukrainian refugee. We had a language barrier. She did not speak any English, but she spoke Ukrainian and Russian and my Russian is not so good. She was taking the Finnish lessons, but could not speak in Finnish so much. Anyway, we tried to communicate with each other. It is nice that we have people who speak other languages here.
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