Two thirds of Finns want an end to mandatory Swedish in schools according to the Kaleva newspaper.

The survey, commissioned by Kaleva and a number of other regional newspapers, in sure to stir-up debate over what is a very sensitive issue in Finland.

Currently, Swedish is the county’s second official language and if a municipality has six percent Swedish-speakers then it becomes officially bilingual. Helsinki and Tampere are bilingual because of the pure numbers of Swedish-speakers. It is also a mandatory subject throughout school, though many of those surveyed suggested it should be replaced with Russian.

Swedish-speakers have justified the continuation of compulsory Swedish.

Sampo Backman, the headmaster of Oulu’s ‘Swedish Private School’ told 65DN that, ‘We are a bilingual society and I think everyone should learn Finnish. Finland used to be part of Sweden. We were part of a Nordic country and it is very dangerous to forget your history.’

‘Also, everybody has moved to Finland – the original people are the Saami – and Ostrobothnia, especially, was first of all mainly Swedish. It wasn’t Finland.’

But Finnish-language campaigners do not concur.

‘It is quite obvious that compulsory Swedish should be abolished, ‘ says Dr Heikki Tala of the Finnish Culture and Identity League.

‘We have other minorities here – such as the Roma and Saami – but we do not have to learn their languages. It is also extremely expensive because everything has to be translated’ the retired dentist told 65DN. ‘Finland should be uniligually Finnish. But Swedish-speakers run this country. They have a tremendous amount of money.’

He added: ‘Finns are fed-up with this situation. What we need is better English because, whether we like it or not, English is the only language which allows us to communicate throughout the world.’

Finland was part of Sweden until 1809. It is only towards the end of the nineteenth century – when Finland was under Russian rule – that Finnish became an official language and became possible to educated through Finnish. Swedish-speakers make up around five percent of the Finnish population.

Research by the Finnish Culture and Identity League has found that between 65 and 75 percent of Finns want an end to compulsory Swedish

2. 09-01-2010 17:00

Written by Janne

How many?

A question I would ask is "How many languages are mainly used in Sweden?". 
 
It is obvious that the Swedish only use Swedish and English. 
 
Currently we have still been suffering the recession, it makes no sense to spend time and money on learning three languages, Finnish, Swedish and English, in Finland. Finnish and English are enough.

3. 11-01-2010 23:35

Written by John

Agree

"Finns are fed-up with this situation. What we need is better English because, whether we like it or not, English is the only language which allows us to communicate throughout the world." 
 
This is a correct answer for this entry. Two languages in a country should be enough. Whenever one more language becomes mandatory, the country and the people have to spend a lot of time and money on it. Certainly it makes no sense if the third does not give any actual benefits.

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