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Monoculturalism in Finland <BR> <BR>Quote: <BR> <BR>"Swedish has been spoken in Finland for almost a thousand years. If Finns cannot accept Finland-Swedes fully, a minority with such deep historical roots in the country, how will they possibly be able to embrace other minorities? <BR>This year marks the bicentenary of the end of Swedish rule in Finland. The occasion gives good reason for us to reflect on our collective heritage, and the experience of the Finland-Swedes is of perhaps of some extra interest here. Even though I would like to point out that Finland-Swedes consider this event from a Finnish perspective, as Finns. <BR>Finland-Swedes are Finns whose native language is Swedish. We are not Swedes, nor can the Finland-Swedish minority be described simply as descendants of Swedes. Many of us have ancestors who migrated from diverse parts of Europe, in addition to having ancestral ties to the Finnish-speaking majority at home. Increasingly, Finland-Swedish children come from mixed marriages between Finnish-speaking Finns and Finland-Swedes. In fact, 80 per cent of the children in the capital region’s daycare facilities are from bilingual homes. <BR> <BR>Amongst other legal guarantees, the status of Swedish as an official language of Finland enables us to uphold our linguistic and cultural traditions. In legal terms Finland-Swedes aren’t a minority at all. Nonetheless, the position of the Swedish-speaking community is now seriously threatened: Finnish-speaking Finns seem less and less keen on maintaining the country’s long-established bilingual tradition. The rights of this particular minority are regarded by growing numbers of Finnish-speaking Finns as a lingering burden of the past that finally needs to be dispensed with. The strong legal position of the Swedish language in Finland seems to present to many a last remaining obstacle to “full” Finnish sovereignty. Perhaps by abandoning Swedish the Finnish-speaking Finns could feel more secure in the global world? " <BR> <BR> <BR>More can be read at: <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4898:are-finns-falling-for-the-illusion-of-monoculturalism-&catid=156:our-location&Itemid=181" target=_top>http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/index.php?optio n=com_content&view=article&id=4898:are-finns-falli ng-for-the-illusion-of-monoculturalism-&catid=156: our-location&Itemid=181</a> <BR> <BR> <BR>I for myself am against the compulsory teaching of Swedish in schools, <BR> <BR>but as I have gone through the past curricula, I wish not to lose my skills in Swedish. <BR> <BR>So last night I started reading a "who did it" by A.Christie, translated to Swedish and named "Mord på ljusa dagen". <BR>At first I had to resort to a dictionary twice per page.
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Those sanctified among us may find fault with my literary choice, <BR> <BR>but my experience with languages is that there is no easier way to brush up one's vocabulary of 1000 commonest words of any language than reading crime/detective stories. <BR> <BR>The newspapers are not so useful, as they contain so many acronyms not found in any dictionary, that they often conceal the plot of the whole article. <BR> <BR>I once wrote to the editor in chief of the mainstay of Swedish newpapers in Finland and proposed a deal: <BR> <BR>He would send me a list of the 100 commonest abbreviations used in his paper Hufvudtadsbladet and I would subscribe to that newspaper for a year. <BR> <BR>I never got any answer. <BR> <BR>BTW, the letter f in the name is a relic. Nowadays it should be written "Huvudstadsbladet", <BR>but they prefer to cling to their glorious Swedish past.
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