Becoming friends with the Scandinavian natural scenery and its equal societies is easy, but facing Finnish language is quite a challenge. Probably every immigrant landing in the land of lakes spends the first years wondering, ‘should I learn Finnish language?’. While Finns and integration plans will hammer you with a resounding YES, I think the most honest answer is it depends. I shared my advice about introducing your children to Finnish language in a previous post, but here I wanna explore the question from an expat parent’s perspective. Learning a language as an adult is a different investment. Finnish language is everything but attractive: very hard to learn and utterly useless outside the borders of the realm of reindeers. It’s worth sitting down and assessing if it’s really worth it for you.

A foreword on Scandinavian societies

Scandinavian societies are cool because they are founded on the value of equality. However, there’s a dark side to it: different and stranger become synonyms with bad. Individualism, may it be in the form of personal success or struggle, is generally despised. Entire books have been written on the topic (see for example The Almost Nearly Perfect People by Michael Booth) and here I’m only trying to give a rough idea of how things are. It doesn’t help that Finland is a relatively young and small country, kept together by a mild nationalistic sentiment. We, as foreigners, start off with the wrong foot in this country by definition. As of 2019, integration plans still aim to annihilate diversity and make foreigners melt into the homogeneous Finnish society. This is why you yourself have to be extremely aware of what your needs are and make informed choices. Diversity is simply not a value in Finnish society.

Define your own integration goals

Moving to a new country is stressful and many expats are in a rush to find a job. However, it pays off to take a moment to collect the facts and evaluate one’s decisions when it comes to deciding an integration path. There are several weights influencing the decision to learn Finnish language. In 9 years in Finland I have identified some.

Language level: people often talk about language learning like it’s a binary experience, either you know a language or you don’t. The reality is that language is multidimensional and tied to different contexts, vocabulary, writing skills, speaking and listening abilities. Try to imagine your life in Finland and assess what you will need language for. Do you need to understand mostly what’s going on in everyday life or you want to learn to read newspapers? Do you need Finnish for work or in your social life? Set your objectives, that’s a crucial first step.
Location: while the Helsinki area is international and liberal, other towns are not. If you live away from the capital area, probably you don’t have much of a choice than to learn Finnish.
Mobility: how long do you plan to be in Finland? Learning the local language takes years. My rule of thumb is not to engage if you plan to stay less than 6 years in Finland.
Work: what field would you like to work in? Some careers can be built with no Finnish knowledge (ex. IT), but in others you cannot do without (ex. hospitality, architects, …).
Resources: as mentioned above, learning Finnish is potentially a years-long affair, unless you have a personal talent for languages. To give you an idea, I could speak my first sentence after a year and a half of courses. Finnish grammar is hell. Are you ready to commit to time and money?
Social life: what kind of social life do you see yourself having? What are your hobbies and is Finnish language needed?
Active participation in society: is being up to date on news and having an active role in society important to you? If so, reading newspapers and debating would require fluent Finnish.

Finnish language and parenting

In the previous section, I have listed variables having to do with you as an individual. Parenting a child in Finland adds another dimension and a set of new angles.
A Finnish spouse: if your spouse is Finnish, knowing their native language could mean having a more active role in family interactions. Finnish could potentially become the shared family language (but don’t stop speaking your minority language with your child!).
You child’s social life: if your child is learning Finnish, it means she will have a circle of local friends. Knowing the basics allows you to interact with other parents at the daycare or school, feel confident when little friends visit for playdates, etc.
School interaction: I have only experience with daycare so far, but from what I have heard school-parent communications intensify in volume and content complexity when a child starts school. Not everything is translated into English and in some social occasions (ex. parents’ meetings or Whatsapp groups) the information flow will be solely in Finnish. If you have a Finnish spouse, no problemo. If you don’t, evaluate how involved you wish to be in your child’s school life. Put it down like that, it sounds like a leading phrase, but if you are one of those parents who’d rather die than be sucked into the school parents’ ecosystem, being a foreigner may become your Get Out of Jail Free card.

Is Swedish a viable alternative?

Again, the answer is maybe. Swedish-speaking Finns will try and sell it to you that Swedish is an official language, at the very same level than Finnish. You can totally live with Swedish language, yay! Don’t believe them. However, you shouldn’t trash the idea. Again, you should make a careful evaluation of your needs and plans.
– Swedish language is way easier (less stress, less time, less money)
– Swedish language skill are useful also in Sweden
– the community of Swedish-speaking Finns is tight and they tend to be more sensitive to the struggles of immigrants, being themselves a minority. In that group, everyone knows everyone: you have a shortcut to networking, which is essential in Finland. On the other hand, word travels fast in small communities, so abandon your hopes for discretion.
– being it an official language, communication in public offices or services is always offered in Swedish as well.

I warmly recommend this All Points North podcast episode to explore this alternative more in depth.

In case you wanna give Finnish a try…

The silver lining to the obsession of integration actors with Finnish language is that you will have all opportunities to do so if you wish to. Integration plans sponsor immigrants who want to give it a try. There are all sorts of courses: intensive, regular, even courses aimed at parents taking care of their children at home. This website collects Finnish courses all over Finland. The best in Helsinki are those offered by the Language Centre. The summer university also offers some. There are Finnish language cafes (kielikahvila) to help train speaking skills.

While this post may sound disillusioned and at points bitter, my main message is: choose the integration path that is best for you. Having children may influence your decision. Or things may change and you can revisit it later. To date, foreigners in Finland are pushed to learn the language indiscriminately of who they are, what they plan, what lifestyle they have. I hope these information will empower some to make informed and personal decisions when it comes to integration.