Finland is a bilingual country with both Swedish and Finnish as official languages. According to myself I think that the factor that I speak Swedish although I live in Finland is the factor that makes me feel like a part of the Nordic countries and have given me my strong Nordic identity.
The languages are in fact connecting the Nordic countries in a strong way. Swedish Norwegian and Danish are all similar and if you speak one of them you can at least understand the other ones. Also in Island, they learn Danish in school so then we can communicate with them in our mother tongue as well. There are also many cultural resemblances between Sweden, Norway and Denmark. For example, the music and humor reminds much about each other. For me as a Swedish speaking Finn who knows Swedish much better than I know Finnish it is much easier to follow news from Sweden than from Finland. This means that I am again coming closer to the cultures and the understanding of the other Nordic countries. As a Swedish speaking Finn, I also have many relatives in Sweden because it is easy to move to Sweden and get a job when you know the language. This results in me getting to Sweden at least once a year to visit them and my Nordic identity is once again growing stronger. If I would just speak Finnish I don’t think I would feel the same Nordic identity as I am doing now which would be sad. That’s why I think it is important that everybody in Finland is learning Swedish in school so they can understand the languages of their neighbours and join the fellowship. Ellen Åberg, Vasa övningsskola (2nd year student)
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