Learning the Finnish they don’t teach in school
David Brown and Mimmu Takalo

Spurgu (noun)

English equivalent: Drunk, hobo, bum

Example of usage:

- Yök! Miks tää penkki on ihan märkä? Ja mikä täällä haisee?

– Se on toi spurgu tossa viereisellä penkillä. Tupla yök!

- Yuck! Why is this seat wet? And what’s that smell?

- It’s that drunk on the next seat. Double yuck!

Do you find that even dogs back away from you on trams, that you’re usually drunk by breakfast and have taken to keeping your most precious possessions in a stolen supermarket trolley? If so, consider adding the term ‘spurgu’ to your business card. Real spurgu hang out in bars called things like ‘Kurvitar’ and ‘Kultainen Kulaus’ and live on a solid diet of beer and bright orange fruit ‘wines’ that may or may not contain radioactive material. Learning to speak like Tom Waits and smell like a sack of biojäte (organic waste) requires years of committed training; luckily all of that training can take place at the bus stop right outside your door.