The Swedish-speaking population of Finland, although small, has always been active in seeking to maintain its cultural identity and safeguard its social and economic interests. There is only one monolingual Swedish-language political party, the SFP or Svenska folkpartiet (Swedish People’s Party). It has voter support of about 4% and its main task is to pursue…
Author: anna
Swedish language in Finland
There are several European countries where more than one language is spoken, but Finland is one of only five that have more than one official language – Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta being the others. Finland is a country with three official languages: Finnish, Swedish and Sami. Sami is an official language in the Sami…
Learning Swedish
Assuming that you’re capable in general of learning another language and that – as you are reading this – you speak English, Swedish is relatively easy to pick up. Compared with Finnish, the language seems almost reassuringly familiar. Partly this is because Swedish and English share the same Germanic roots, so have similar traits. “We…
Music
In parts of the Finnish music world, Finnish Swedishness is not necessarily considered to be relevant, and thus a large number of Finnish Swedish musicians fly under the radar and are mainly defined as Finnish. Exceptions are music that directly and deliberately target a Finnish-Swedish audience, such as many “dance bands” (dansband) and groups that…
Theater
For more than a hundred years, Svenska Teatern (The Swedish Theater) in the city center of Helsinki has been called Finland’s Swedish national scene, but its history extends further back in time than that. When the theater was originally founded in 1827, it was the very first theater house in the city of Helsinki, and…
Literature
Internationally, Svenskfinland is probably best known for its contributions to literature. Of course, Moomin is by far the largest export of Finnish literature, but it is far from the only one. In 2019, poet Tua Forsström was elected to The Swedish Academy as the first Finnish member ever, while Kjell Westö won prizes in both…
Art
In Finnish art history, the Finnish Swedes are well represented. The period known as the golden age of Finnish art began in the second half of the 19th century and is considered to have lasted until about 1920. Many of this era’s best known artists were Finnish Swedes: Elin Danielson-Gambogi, Albert Edelfelt, Akseli Gallen-Kallela (born…
Radio and TV
The states public service company Yle has a Swedish-speaking unit that produces news broadcasts and operates the TV channel Yle Fem. It also provides two of the most popular Swedish-language radio stations in Finland: Radio Vega and Radio X3M. Svenska Yle also has a website on which everything from news articles to interviews, reviews and…
Newspapers and magazines
The very first newspaper published in Finland was the Swedish-language and pompously named Tidningar Utgifne Af et Sällskap i Åbo, founded in 1771. At present, the Finnish media company KSF Media is the largest publisher of Swedish-language newspapers, while magazines are usually independent. Newspapers Hufvudstadsbladet The famously named Hufvudstadsbladet is popularly called HBL, Husis or…
The school path
Kindergartens For children under school age, toddler pedagogy is offered in municipal day care centers aimed at children between one and six years. By toddler pedagogy does not mean daycare that is similar to school, but care that is educationally planned and that includes music, play, crafts and excursions. However, toddler pedagogy is voluntary and…