Urban Dictionary says :
Perkele – An essential Finnish curse-word denoting the devil, and typically pronounced with an exaggerated rolling of the “r” for added emphasis. It is often one of the first words in the Finnish language that foreigners visiting this country pick up. Atleast the ones who try to learn the language. I am trying to learn the language and guess what, Perkele is what I learnt first – hardly surprising eh.
Some months ago when I was traveling by train, I got an important phonecall I had to answer and I did. The guy sitting in the seat in front of me probably didn’t like that and started blabbering a few sentences looking at me. He looked a bit drunk too. It looked like he was telling me something cordially untill I hear it – perrrrkele. Woow woow wooow..hold on.. he was not having a friendly chat with me…he was scolding me.
I had to interrupt him and said ;
Hold it.right there bud..unfortunately for you, I understood exactly what you said and I take offense to it..(fact of the matter was that I understood only 1 word) so shut up now.
This chap was zapped. He Indeed shut up after that and actually apologized a few times. I.had sweet victory. How about that.
Power of local knowledge – must-have skill everywhere.
PS – I now also know that Satana Perkele is like the next level in cussing grades.
av on cruise control 