Russian Language Beats Out Official Swedish For Use in Finland
Given that in Europe, that Ukraine is so striving to get to, the Russian language is growing increasingly popular. For example, in Finland people prefer it to the second state language, Swedish. My colleague, Daria Grigorova, tried to understand the reason. She's reporting from Tohmajärvi.
Welcome to our Russian classes! It's our teacher, Ninochka, and the students. Russian language is in the timetable of every third child in Tohmajärvi school. Advanced study begins in the fourth grade. I like bananas. The school in Tohmajärvi was the first to suggest replacing the compulsory Swedish, which is taught in Finland from primary school, with Russian.
Hushing sounds was the response of the Finnish authorities in 2008. Physical education, Swedish, biology. But 10 years later, the Ministry of Education is starting its own experiment: Next school year 2,200 students will be given the right to choose any other language, including Russian, instead of Swedish, as their second language.
Jari Vesanen, headmaster: "One should have a good command of their native language, it's our priority. Besides, for example, if the mother speaks Russian at home and the dad speaks Finnish, the child must be bilingual. This is a great competitive advantage".
For most children in the class of Nina Kabedeva Russian turned out to be not their native language, but a conscious choice of Finnish parents.
Nina Kabedeva, teacher: "Since we live near the border, it's useful to know another language. It might come in handy in the future, while building a career, hopefully".
Finland's language policy is reflected in this road sign. The inscription in Finnish is in two more languages. Swedish is the second state language under the Constitution, even though the Swedes constitute only about 5% of the country's population. And Russian is just for convenience, because the province of North Karelia has almost 300 kilometers of common border with Russia.
Finland's educational system has routinely been rated the best in the world. Maybe, that's in part because the study of foreign languages isn't turned into a political tool here.
Daria Grigorova and Anton Chagaev for Vesti from Tohmajärvi, Finland.