We Finns don't understand what learning the Finnish language requires from an immigrant, and secondly, we ourselves make learning the language more difficult, writes news producer Eliisa Aikkila in her column.
HS reports fresh on Tuesday morning from the dissertationaccording to which highly educated immigrants are often employed in low-wage jobs in Finland.
The story is familiar. The seemingly insurmountably high language skills requirements of working life were also scrapped, for example of Oscar and Anna, who are studying at the university plans for the future. Attended the University of Economics Ousman tells In Kaleva that he works as a food courier, because due to the lack of language skills, he does not get jobs in his own field.
The situation is painful: these wise and skilled people are not doing what they are capable of. It is not only a waste of human resources but also a human tragedy.
They would learn the language, some say, it's nothing more than that.
It is, I say. Many of my loved ones struggle with this, and I have watched many frustrating situations related to language learning over the years.
I would argue that we Finns don't fully understand what a leap into the unknown it is to start studying the Finnish language.
If you decide to learn it, you have to devote a lot of time and resources to studying. Learning a new language is particularly stressful if you are working or studying full-time at the same time.
Uncertainty about the future can also raise the threshold for learning a language. Years of work to learn the language will go to waste if life in Finland does not meet expectations or you cannot get a job despite the effort (due to lack of language skills disguises himself also structural racism in working life), and finally decides to leave Finland.
For comparison: studying world languages, and even Swedish, opens up more possibilities. If life in Stockholm doesn't catch on, learning Norwegian will be much easier when you already have Swedish. Not to mention, if you already know English, learning Germanic languages is astronomically much easier than Finnish, which follows different grammar rules.
Studying the Finnish language is therefore like putting all your eggs in one basket: it is not useful anywhere else. If you commit to learning it, you can only hope that all the effort in the coming years will really pay off and you will be comfortable and successful in the country.
Would you dare to do the same? Or would it seem wiser to acquire skills that would be useful elsewhere?
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For a shy person by nature, speaking in a foreign language can be an even worse idea.
Is also it should be remembered that not every immigrant starts school from the same line. For a shy person by nature, speaking in a foreign language can be an even worse idea.
Just like among Finns, there are dyslexics, people who learn by doing and people who hate books, who still have a lot to give. For them, climbing a mountain the size of the Finnish language is an incredible task.
Our society doesn't ask where your strengths are, like the matriculation exams, focus on them. Mathematical geniuses and those gifted in natural science also have to do grammar studies, even if they don't have a head for languages.
And if decide to learn a language, the next challenge will soon arise. We Finns are not the most talkative partners to practice the language with in everyday situations.
We're not into small talk, but at the same time we're kind of too polite! I have noticed that many times when we Finns hear a foreign acce
nt, we automatically change the language to English. Maybe we think it's better to speak a language we both know.
It's thoughtful, but also pure avoidance of one's own discomfort. It digs a hole for the language learner.
How can you get practice in everyday life, when our already rather tight-lipped people are still switching away from the language they should be learning?
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We should be empathetic and understand how demanding language learning really is.
I hope so from the bottom of my heart, that as many people coming to Finland as possible learn the Finnish language as quickly as possible.
Our language carries with it culture, history, the soul of our country, all the unspeakable that is hidden between the syllables. Nothing helps you better integrate and understand what kind of country you live in than the native language of that country.
At the same time, we should be empathetic and understand what kind of requirement learning a language really is. It makes me think about it also from the point of view of the national economy: I think it's pure madness that a Master of Business Administration cannot use everything he has learned in five years in the current era of international trade.
Although the integration of immigrants is indeed a structural and social issue, even an individual can influence the larger whole with his actions.
So: Speak Finnish when it is spoken to you. If your interlocutor starts the conversation in Finnish, no matter how broken the accent is, don't immediately switch to English.
The author is a news producer for HS's lifestyle editorial.
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