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