To learn Finnish is to learn a language that has fought hard for its existence. Nowadays, there are 6 million people who can help you with your study of Finnish. While it is the official language of Finland, it is also spoken by several neighbouring Nordic countries as well.


Study Finnish AbroadThe first written example of Finnish speaks of its heritage as a language that had difficulty rising into prominence. In 1450 a Finnish bishop is quoted in a German travel journal as saying: “Mÿnna tachton gernast spuho somen gelen Emÿna daÿda.” Which translates to “I willingly want to speak Finnish, [but] I can not”. Annexed by Sweden, it would be a few hundred years until Finnish emerged as a language that could be used by the institutions and the state. Most of the credit must go to Johan Vilhelm Snellman, who made a passionate plea for the educated classes of Finland to adopt the language of the Finnish people. This lead to the language decree of 1863 which made Finnish a language equal to Swedish in the country’s administration. Nowadays, Finnish has firmly established itself as the country’s dominant language even though Swedish is a mandatory language in its school system.


By 1870 the first novel in Finnish was published, Seven Brothers. It it still considered one of the foremost works in Finnish literature despite being universally disliked by critics at the time. Today, Finnish literature, music and cinema are all growing and the Finnish language is in heavy use. Every year 15-20 films are made, 12,000 books are published and 12 million records are sold while most Finns are reading one of their 200 newspapers or 320 magazines. Cell phones and the internet are ubiquitous in Finland with few countries adopting to new technology the way they have.


About Learning Finnish

In your time in Finland, learning the language, you will find that Finnish straddles two distinct dialects but the differences between them are slight and speakers of either dialect can understand the other. This minor complication is certainly offset by the fact that Finnish can be written as it sounds and sounds like it is written which simplifies matters a great deal.


A trip to Finland might be cold at times but there will always be a sauna to warm up in. The Finns are particularly known for their sauna culture and it’s from them we get the word. Another word we have adopted from Finnish is “Molitov Cocktail,” the terrifying and cheap incendiary they used in the Winter War against Russia in WWII. The Finnish try to prevent borrowing from other languages themselves leading them to create modern terms such as “linja-auto” (route-car for bus) or computer “tietokone” (knowledge machine for computer).