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…
Category: Language
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…
Living without Finnish in Finland
There are some areas of Finland where Finnish is in fact rarely, if ever, spoken in day-to-day life. In Österbotten, on the west coast, and Nyland, between Åbo (Turku) and Helsinki, there are towns where the vast majority of inhabitants speak Swedish, and you could go days without hearing Finnish. About 4 % of the…