A Finnish Reporter in New York

When I spotted Mari Karppinen, she was struggling with her video equipment in the pouring rain. Standing beside her was her fiancée, holding an umbrella over the video camera.

She seemed too overwhelmed to talk, so we exchanged numbers. She seemed to take pity on me as a fellow journalist trying to find interviewees in unfortunate weather.

Mari is a U.S Correspondent for MTV3, a Finnish commercial TV station based in Helsinki. Having always dreamed of being a foreign correspondent, she jumped at the opportunity to move to New York five years ago. She says she studied at Finland’s top university for journalism, which is two hours outside of Helsinki. When she started working as a foreign reporter at MTV3, her assignments involved reporting in countries like Ethiopia, England, Brazil and Israel (where she covered the Israeli election). When she applied for this job, it was her experience as an already established foreign journalist that landed her the gig. It also helped that she spoke five languages including Spanish, German, Swedish, Finnish and, of course, English.

I quickly befriended Mari, who turned out to be my neighbor! She gave me tips on how to approach people in bad weather, how to handle my hair on a windy day, and how to properly hold a mic — an embarrassing tip to learn while I was recording her interview.