Originally Posted by Penguin88

What language should be used if Swedish AND Finnish are abolished :|
I have no idea how useful Swedish is in every day life in Finland, I'm guessing only in the small areas where it is an indigenous language, but there Finnish must be known too.. At least one foreign language should be mandatory in ALL schools I think.

Originally Posted by Ekenäs

I live in a Swedish speaking part of Finland. Swedish has been spoken in Finland for many hundreds of years. My first language is English but I am learning Swedish. I have been living in Finland for some time now. My observations are that the two official languages of the state - Finnish and Swedish are very different. It is hard to learn a language that appears to have little connection with your own.

However, almost all Swedish speakers can speak Finnish, whereas Finnish speakers usually just do not want to speak Swedish. There is almost a sense of intolerance which seems similar to a sort of ethnic or racial dislike. I don't use the word hatred as that is not correct. Still people should be mindful of how strong words can be easily spoken and the consequences thereof. Fear of difference, of something not like one's own culture has, in the history of humanity, been the source of real evil.

Where I live it is possible to exist without knowing a single word of Finnish. As an ousider who speaks English I have found it easy to pick up Swedish but Finnish is like an alien language.

Finland as a state recognises 2 languages officially, although Sami has a special status as far as I understand. To change this would mean a change to the constitution. Both Swedish and Finnish are recognised in the constitution. Bilingualism of municipalities is regulated by the Language Act of 2003. In it Finnish and Swedish are defined as national languages. Swedish has been spoken in Finland since the 1500's. That is a lot of history.
The Swedish that is spoken today in finland is a unique form, much of it dielectal but it is not the same as that spoken in central Sweden.

The status of languages is reviewed once in a decade, and enacted by a government decree issued by the Finnish Council of State.

It is reasonable to discuss the issue. It is not reasonable to be instantly dismissive of an entire section of society who have their own unique linguistic and cultural traditions. Don't forget that Swedish speaking Finns consider themselves to be just as Finnish as their fellow citizens who speak Finnish. They do national service, pay taxes etc. In any reasonable and balanced society, differences are respected. When that respect is lost you find attitudes which culminate in what hapened in the former yugoslavia back in the 1990's.

It may be a good idea to allow each school or municipality the choice of languages it teaches its school population. It will require a democratic vote to do such things however.

Many other states have bilingual societies or different linguistic traditions. Ireland is a good example, where due to systematic colonisation by the British state apparatus, the native Gaelic language is now spoken by perhaps only 6 % of the population, the rest speaking the foreign English language.

ekenäs