First English was shamed, now its dominance is reviled. At least one thing is certain: English is a serious matter for Finns, writes Hallamaa.
Yes, my heart leapt when real Americans praised it.
We were sitting at the breakfast coffee table chatting with the Texas travellers. They wondered about our accents. To their ears, our English sounded like something out of a Harry Potter movie.
We were very happy. The Americans thought we had a European, sophisticated accent, not rally English!
There is no better way to flatter a Finn who has gone out into the world, because we are really not fluent with our English skills.
However, the rankings have come down a bit since the peak years. In 2020, according to the ninth best.
We are a nation with an astonishingly good command of the English language considering how many are ashamed to use it.
Tankero and rally English, that’s how Finnish English pronunciation has been described throughout history. Oh, it’s a shame when a formula driver speaks loudly at a press conference. Or the minister tries to get his message across, but it sounds just as stupid as you might expect.
But there have also been news headlines in Finland when the minister could even pronounce like a Brit. Delightful.
Judging by everything, English is a serious matter for us Finns.
Little by little, as the world opens up, it has started to feel like the rallying English shame has been overcome. Now that English is creeping into brand names and Englishisms into speech, new concerns have arisen.
When English declines, knowledge of other languages \u200b\u200bsuffers. Language experts and employers are worried. How about German, Russian, French, Spanish and Chinese? Their experts would be needed in the labor market.
At the same time, the study of foreign languages \u200b\u200bin elementary schools and high schools has decreased. Either the students do not feel that other languages \u200b\u200bare necessary, or there is no teaching available.
The idea of \u200b\u200bgetting by with just English sounds narrow-minded. Language is the key to culture. The more languages \u200b\u200byou know, the more keys you have. Balancing on one language narrows our worldview and makes us more interested in the English-speaking world than the rest of the world.
It would be good for a civilized person to know how to speak other languages.
But the harsh everyday truth is that English can really get you far, as long as you dare to open your mouth. And even having studied a rarer language is not enough for language skills. It’s no big deal to know Swahili if you never get to use it.
Rarer languages \u200b\u200bhave to be practiced and maintained much more actively than English.
I’m actually really only worried about whether English will beat Finnish.
Even those large companies that grind due to lack of language skills have long ago changed their slogans and the titles of their employees to English.
English is not suitable for everything. In the future, I also want to do business in my home country in my mother tongue and enjoy the joys of the Finnish language.
Unlike English, our language does not have a strange place in the world curriculum. We are solely responsible for the life of our language.
The column can be discussed on 14.10. until 23:00.