The voice of young people “It would be embarrassing” – This is how the Helsinki region treats those who do not speak Finnish perfectly

The authors are part of the Youth in the Capital editorial, which brings out young people’s perspectives in the media.

Helsinki residents Delshad Manlan16, and Same Salehin, 16, experience shows that you cannot do well in Finland without a good command of the Finnish language. Learning the language was difficult for both, especially in the beginning.

Young people attending the last grade of comprehensive school have now lived in Finland for four years.

“I didn’t have any sense of the Finnish language at first, but I’m slowly starting to understand the language and it’s starting to be easier to study on my own,” says Manla.

“Sometimes learning Finnish still feels difficult,” says Saleh.

He sees the endless learning and pronunciation of new words as the biggest challenge in learning a language. However, both of them think that studying the Finnish language is necessary and fun.

Finland the development of language skills is not the sole responsibility of foreigners themselves, according to researchers.

“Young people need opportunities to use the language in a variety of real-world situations,” says Aalto University’s lecturer in Finnish. Inkeri Lehtimaja.

Finnish speakers can support a partner’s learning in many ways.

“For example, the interlocutor should rather help find the right word or phrase for the situation than change the language to English.”

According to researchers, people in Finland are not yet used to hearing different accents, but it is easy to think that a person speaks Finnish as their mother tongue or not at all.

“It may be due to this unfamiliarity that many people have a high threshold to use Finnish if it is not the partner’s mother tongue. For some reason, it doesn’t seem to be an equal problem if people use English in very different ways and at different levels, ”Lehtimaja estimates.

Thus, others may rate the competence of a person who speaks a language other than Finnish as his or her mother tongue as inferior to him or her simply because Finnish is not his or her mother tongue.

“This is, of course, a matter of prejudice, and there may be more to correct in attitudes than in a second-language language,” Lehtimaja points out.

“As children of Finnish, we should gradually get used to the fact that there are many ways to speak Finnish. The Finnish language is not only for us but for everyone who uses it, ”says the professor of Finnish at the University of Helsinki. Jyrki Kalliokoski.

Salehilla has only Arabic friends. He also hopes to make friends with Finnish speakers, but it feels awkward.

“I’m afraid I’m saying something wrong, and that would be embarrassing.”

Manla has multilingual friends. He also has problems with pronunciation, but he thinks it’s fun and he laughs at it with his friends. However, he admits that the discussions require concentration.

“I have to be careful all the time that I understand what’s going on and I’m not saying what’s going on.”

Inadequate language skills can make it difficult to make relationships.

“Peer relationships are very important to young people, so belonging to a group can also be important in terms of how strongly a young person feels that they belong to Finnish society,” says Lehtimaja.

According to Lehtimaja, there should be opportunities in educational institutions and working life to practice the use of the language in real situations and receive feedback on it.

“This way, if you use Finnish as a second language, you can gradually practice your language skills.”

The language requirements are quite high in Finland. Proficiency in the Finnish language combined with primary school and secondary education is the key to postgraduate studies and employment.

“Only a small part of the work communities work in another language, and many of them also value their proficiency in the Finnish language,” says Lehtimaja.

Immigrant backgrounds young people compete with all their peers for the same jobs and postgraduate jobs.

“Therefore, it is important that the adequacy and suitability of language skills are always assessed on a task-by-task basis, but then the assessor must have a realistic idea of ​​what kind of language skills are needed in the task,” says Kalliokoski.

The gazebo gives an example:

“A café employee does not need to be able to write formal e-mails in Finnish, but it is an advantage to have enough oral skills to receive orders and chat.”

Researchers believe that it would be good for society to value the skills that multilingual young people have in addition to their Finnish language skills.

“First, they know other languages. In addition, they often have cultural and interactive skills that monolingual young people have not had the opportunity to learn, ”Lehtimaja lists.

Salehin and Manla’s goal is to get into high school after elementary school, and both are doing their best for it. In school in particular, biology and history are tricky subjects for them, but they are feel that they have received help from teachers.

Saleh is not afraid of the future.

“I’m sure I’ll get to work.”

Manlak also does not see language as a barrier to getting a job.

“I usually try to live in the moment, although sometimes it is scary that I will be left out because of some inferior Finnish language.”

The authors are part of the Metropolitan Youth Voice editorial, which brings out young people’s perspectives in the media.