Living in two languages in Finland - BBC World Service

Finland and Sweden have a long history of close co-operation which is further strengthened by the two countries joining Nato together.


Not having a language barrier helps co-operation in all areas: the Swedish and Finish languages are completely unrelated but parts of Finland are completely bilingual.

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[Worldtraveler]

My paternal grandmothers family immigrated to the US from Finland but spoke Swedish and they came from Hanko in Finland .. I hope to visit one day … what a beautiful place.

[Deadomen]

Mandatory Swedish is not very popular in Finland and it's a relic from old times when we had larger Swedish population (now it's only about 5%). Most native Finns can/do speak two languages, but it's mainly Finnish and English.

[kareliansocialdemocrat]

I wish Finnish in Northern Sweden was well alive as Swedish is in Finland. It is sad that in Northern Sweden, Finnish speakers were forcibly assimilated during the time of nationalism from 1888 until 1960s. Multilingualism is great and I've learned many languages at school

[aatuhussa]

In my experience knowing Swedish as native a Finnish speaker comes in handy in the most unexpected of circumstances. On one occasion I found that the one "language" I had in common with a Russian was me speaking Swedish to her and her speaking Norwegian back to me. On another occasion I got myself stuck translating between a Finn and a Spaniard as we thought they didn't have any language in common - until we found that both could communicate quite handily in Swedish and my involvement was no longer needed.

[viggokalman]

Our history with Sweden both has its ups and downs. In our top university we learn that if it hadn't been for the Swedish language, the russification of Finland could've hit a whole lot harder. The Swedish speakers were often of noble descent and knew how to handle the Russian aristocracy, and when needed, people like Eugen Schauman or Mannerheim could step in and do their thing - both Swedish-speaking. I don't find it good to use the historical Swedish-speaking finns (who are among the most important for Finlands sovereignty) as some kind of angry argument which everyone should just understand. It is however the truth that Finland would not be Filnand without them. We might even be a post-soviet state or a very eastern European country.

[rasmusn.e.m]

How interesting that this video would come up in my feed. I was just in Finland recently and was surprised by just how many signs and train stops had Swedish names as well as Finnish ones. As a Dane, it even came with the added boon of the announcer's accent in Swedish being easier to understand than typical Swedish, which I cannot for the life of me explain.

[thomasreilly]

A Finn, a Swede and a Norwegian walk into a pub and all start talking English to each other. Fact!

[paulekstrom]

Ekenäs (Tammisaari in Finnish) is very beautiful town, especially in summer. My family roots are there, that's why such a special place for me. 😊👍

[siljasjodin]

My first language is Swedish. I'm born in Finland and live in Finland but prefer English instead of Finnish if there's an option when it comes to speak and read. Anyways, I understand Finnish 1000 times better than I can express myself in Finnish, writing is the most tricky part and I've never bothered to learn it though taking evening classes twice a week for some months would solve the problem. After all, the Finnish language is probably one of the most beautiful languages in the world. Respect 🙏🏼 🇫🇮

[struntFF]

Around 2007 here in Sweden, many of my classmates (and myself included). Wanted to learn Finnish. But instead we were "forced" to learn Spanish, German etc.

Swedes and Finns share a lot of History together. Having been the same country for almost 700 years. I think that it's great that you can get the opportunity to learn another language. Especially when both our countries have such close ties. It's sad to see that so many Finns don't see it that way.

I would rather see that we get the opportunity to learn the Nordic Languages instead of Spanish etc.

For me Finland is our closest ally and friend. We should learn more from each other. Not less.

[LebowskiDudeful]

Som en finsk människä hatar jag tvångsvenska men älskar finlandsvensk litteratur

[krishnar]

This is interesting and I realize that this is an unusual situation for most in European/Western countries. I also recognize that there are a few polyglot environments around Europe (e.g. Luxembourg). But from the perspective of India, much of Africa and many other places multi-lingualism and living as a linguistic minority is very common and not really newsworthy. In India it is not uncommon to have one language as your mother tongue, marry a speaker of another, live in an area where another language is spoken, and then work/study in English, and ultimately develop fluency in all of them. Similarly in Africa having one language as your mother tongue, another as the local lingua franca and then a European language for administration/education is very common.

[iiorkiiev_rostivik]

So the situation in Finland is quite identical to the situation in the Quebec region of Canada.

[snekd]

Here's my take, not that anyone cares:

Yes, it's nice to know more languages than one but it shouldn't be compulsory if it's not needed. Obviously English takes the priority here because it is the foremost international language and should be compulsory.

Why did I have to take Swedish every year of upper secondary school and 5 courses in high shcool only to know a few words and never speak the language? What if instead of that wasted time, you did something actually productive?

Learning Swedish as a Finnish person is like spending hours studying to be a mechanic only to change your tire, once, in your thirties.

[LebowskiDudeful]

Why Finns hate learning Swedish? Broadly speaking, half of them find learning any foreign language on top of English as too much to ask for. And the other half who actually studies very hard the required minimum of eight compulsory years for those who want to graduate college, find themselves regretting so many years perfecting their language skills in a language they will never get to speak beyond the classroom in their entire lives. There is only five per cent native Swedish speakers in Finland and nextdoor in Sweden they always switch to English even when speaking with native Swedish speakers from Finland, as the accent and vocabulary are in such stark contrast with each other. It's as if the other was speaking in more guttural, medieval somber tones and the other in some modern post-millenial high-pitched cockney accent. Isn't this reason enough to hate? Can you imagine yourself learning a language you already know you never get to use?

If you learn a language that is spoken only by a rarely seen unicorn, wouldn't you rather study an indigenous Navajo than some white minority language spoken by a handful of people? To add more fuel to the linguistical cocktail, the language of the Finns is actually related to only indigenous native European language, the native Americans of Europe, the Sámi. As Finns are in unique advantage to learning the dying languages of Skolt Sámi spoken by a hundred people and Aanaar Sámi spoken by 200, it would seem more noble to learn either one of those in order to guarantee their continuity instead of learning a language you likewise will never get to use except when dealing with the five per cent of the nation. That five per cent is not found evenly spread throughout the country and therefore many Finns have hundreds of miles to their nearest Swedish speaker. Skolt and Aanaar lands are located within the fine land of Finland that forces its citizens to study the minimum of five years and passing compulsory Swedish tests too, if you wanna graduate as a cleaner, a plumber or a car mechanic etc.

[Vikinggirl]

this is very interesting. I am 57 years old and was born and live in the U.S. state of Minnesota. I was told by my father his parents were all Swedish and spoke Swedish but lived in Finland. I took a DNA test for fun. turns out I have almost no Swedish in me and am half Finnish! I learned my grandparents were born and raised in Kronoby Finland and apparently indeed Finnish not Swedish. the family goes back in Kronoby for hundreds of years. I still have many cousins there I discovered and also some In Sweden. you never know lol. I want to visit Kronoby and Finland. I would love to get dual citizenship. I think you can get citizenship by descent from grandparents there. would love to move there. studying the language now

[silverlakebee]

I’m an exchange student in Ekenäs! It is really cool to learn Swedish here, and in the Swedish (as they said in the video) typically has some Finnish words thrown in as well. My friends here all know a sizable about of Finnish from school, or home, in order to get around more. Tack för videon! Kiitos!

[skoshman]

I'm Canadian from the Far Western Outaouais (read: Ontario). Living with two languages in normal for me, even if I am only fluent in one.

[corinna]

I've been to Finland a few times, and seeing multiple languages on signs and things was no different than being at home in Canada because we're also officially bilingual, except for us it's English and French. I live in the west which is almost entirely English - speaking, so I dropped French class in school as soon as I could because the way the classes were taught was useless, and I didn't see the need for the language. I can't speak more than a few words and simple sentences now, but the funny thing is if I read it, I can still somewhat understand.

[Vixctor]

I'm from Åland (south west Finland) and we all speak Swedish here. Culturally I feel more Finnish than Swedish. Finnish speaking Finns don't seem to like us very much, however.