Download - ESTONIA
ESTONIA
What would people ask…
No, it isn’t. With an area of 45 000 sq km
it is larger than Denmark, Holland or Switzerland and twice
a size of Slovenia. Located in Northern Europe beside the
Baltic Sea it streches 350km E-W and 240
km N-S
Is Estonia the smallest country in Europe?
Sorry, but the nearest polar bears live 2000 km further North. Estonia shares its latitude with southern Sweden and northern tip of the Scottish mainland
We do have sheep though and the best known is Ruhnu Sheep (maalammas)
Do polar bears live in Estonia?
That’s true! More than thousand small islands scattered in Baltic Sea, most of them uninhabited, providing an escape from civilization with their unique landscape and untouched nature reserve.
Does Estonia have thousand islands?
Osmussaar
There are of course bigger islands with people and towns and cars and buses…
The biggest of them is…
With its Sõrve Peninsula – Sõrve säär
Well, that’s a myth, of course, but due to Estonian location, we get only 6 hours of daylight in winter as opposite to ‘white nights’ in summer…
Do fern blossom in Estonia?
and during Midsummer Eve – who knows what you can find when wandering around on Estonian meadows…
Almost true. Although it’s a hill – 318m – we call it Suur Munamägi - Big Egg Mountain - and it is the highest peak in all Baltic region. From observation tower one can have a view of over 50km to every direction
Can you see all of Estonia standing on top of its highest mountain?
No. That’s Finland’s area of expertise. But – we do have a fifth
largest lake in Europe and it
acts like a border
between Estonia and
Russian Federation.
What about thousand lakes?
ESTONIA RUSSIA
Fish included…
First humans arrived on these lands some 11,000 years ago and they allegedly named Peipsi but
we are not sure who they really were…Greek explorer Pythias mentions OSTIATOI in
320BCRoman Tacitus writes about AESTI in the 1st
centuryVikings named us AUSTERVEGR around 800 AD
During Swedish time we became ESTLANDOur kindred nation knows us as VIRO
Southern neighbours name us IGAUNIJAWe ourselves call us EESTI
And mostly we are known as ESTONIAMaybe because of an old myth…
Where did Estonia get its name from?
…according to which the ancient Estonians turned every visitor into the rocks also known as STONES… For that reason,
people always avoided going to Estonia, as its people never changed their old habits…
this is why there are so many STONES all over ESTONIA…
Must be a very old visitor…
Indeed, we have had many kings ruling over us, like
Danish Valdemar the Victorius
Does Estonia have a king?
Sigismund IIAugustus ofPoland
Gustav IIAdolf ofSweden
Who founded University of Tartu in 1632
… and Aleksander IIof Russia
… but for the last 95 years we have tried to take care of our country and people ourselves
Having first Estonian
Republic in 1918-1940
Being Estonian Soviet Socialist
Republic in 1940-1991
And getting the second chance as the Republic
of Estonia in 1991
‘Cause we sing all the time…
Why are Estonians called a singing nation?
We had our first Song Festival already in 1869
And we have not
been able to
stop ever since…
We sang through the first republic…
And through soviet times…
And in 1988 we helped to regain
our independence through Singing
Revolution…
So… don’t ever underestimate a singing Estonian!
Not really. 2/3 of Estonian population actually lives in towns… as we don’t have cities…
So, you are basically living on small islands surrounded by forest, singing all the time?
Biggest of them being our capital Tallinn
Followed by university town
Tartu
And then some other more or less bigger… villages
Oh yes. We have an especially great passion towards vowels and words like
You do seem to speak some kind of weird language…
KUUUURIJAD JÄÄÄÄ
R
TÖÖÖÖÕUEAIAÄÄRNE
which may sound and seem like jibberish but carry an actual
meaning
explorers of the Moon
work night
the edge of ice
the edge of the place in your garden which… oh
well… something…
not to mention 14 cases, different for singular and plural,
three degrees of phonemic length, 36 diphthongs and… well… decide
for yourself
Tallinna vanalinnapäevade ajal toimusid öised laulupeod, kus noorte
inimeste massid liikusid sinimustvalgeid lippe kandes
Lauluväljaku poole. Alul stiihiline rahva omaalgatusel toimunud üritus kasvas lõpuks välja Laulvaks Revolutsiooniks, mille lõpptulemusena taastati Eestis iseseisvus ja omariiklus ning mille
käigus esitatud isamaalised laulud ei kustu eestlaste kõrvust ja südamest
enne kui maapinnalt kaob viimase kui eestlase jalajälg…
Sadly not. Out of the whole population of 1,3 million there are
So you all know each other, don’t you?
69% ESTONIANS
26% RUSSIANS2% UKRAINIANS
and altogether there are over one hundred different nationalities living in Estonia, so
unless you are a multilinguist…
There’s an old Estonian saying – vara üles hilja voodi nõnda rikkus majja toodi – up early, to sleep late, gets you wealth and turns your faith.
What can you do, having only 6 hours of daylight in winter?
We still try to prove it right by wearing ourselves out with
FISHING
or FARMING
or TEACHING CHILDREN
The rest have found other ways for spending their days in
One can only guess which ones are closer to wealth…
Do you have to go to school?
Obviously. It’s called lifelong learning.
Estonian tree of educationFAMILY
KINDERGARTEN – AGE 3-7
BASIC SCHOOL AGE 7-17
COMPULSORY
UPPER SECONDARY EDUCATION
VOCATIONALEDUCATION
HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION
UNIVERSITY
ACADEMIC HIGHER EDUCATION
Republic of EstoniaDeclaration of Independence – 24 February 1918Legislature – unicameral parliament – RiigikoguOfficial language – EstonianPopulation – 1 340 000Area – 45 228 sq kmCapital – Tallinn Currency – euro €Member of: UN (since 17 October 1971)
NATO (since 29 March 2004) EU (since 1 May 2004)
Some basic wikipedia information, please…
You mean, except the fact that Estonia is the most beautiful and fascinating country in the
whole world and people who live there are mostly quiet and modest, unless there’s a football game going on where our national
team is out there facing some major football experts or when 37 000 people are singing
together under the arc on song festival grounds or during Midsummer Eve when
every Estonian vanishes into the woods on the search of fern blossoms… not much… but
– COME AND SEE FOR YOURSELVES!
Is there something else?
Useful links:
http://estonia.eu/
http://www.estonica.org/en/
http://www.visitestonia.com/en/about-estonia/estonian-culture/estonian-language
http://www.elfond.ee/en/what-we-do/estonian-nature
And thousand more…
This presentation has been compiled in the framework of Comenius Multilateral School
Partnership project Let’s First Understand our National Heritage in order to Define and Build our European Identity by Lohusuu School in Estonia
OCTOBER 2013