Verbal Messages


According to nordegio.org, “The Language law of Finland stipulates that Mainland Finland has two national languages, Finnish and Swedish.” The majority of people are raised with Finnish as their main language as nearly 90 percent of Finnish citizens speak Finnish. The second most popular language alongside that is Swedish, which has about five percent of the population. This five percent has grown to a very small number of what it once was. When Finland was a part of Sweden, the numbers were nearly completely flipped. 

When using English as a lingua franca it could be very beneficial for finding a stable ground that everyone knows. The Finnish language is not too different from our English language but Finland is a lot more comfortable with this language than most European countries. Finland is more exposed to American work and the things we create, so they have seen it all and pickled up English well. This really helps when communicating with someone from this country because there will be zero miscommunication occurring. 

The list below shows common English words in Finnish.

  • hello → hei

  • yes → kylla

  • no → ei

  • please → Ole hyvä

  • thank you → Kittos

  • Can you help me? →  voitko auttaa minua

  • I don’t understand → en ymmärrä

  • I don’t speak Finnish →  En puhu suomea

  • My name is Blaine → Nimeni on Blaine

After copying and pasting over a paragraph from a Finnish website I realized that all those words that looked like gibberish actually make sense. It looked like the most overwhelming and scary paragraph ever, until I then looked back at it again in the English form and it was very readable. Oftentimes language can look really intimidating, until you really just sit down and look at it. One of the biggest struggles for me was the yes and no’s because they are so simple in our language, but longer words in Finnish Language.

The phrase “Language influences our view of reality” is entirely accurate. Language is highly connected with the culture of the people speaking that language. All of these people are around the same culture and understand each other so much better. Being alongside all of these people can influence our world view to be like theirs since they are similar to us. There is no right or wrong language and it is great that everyone is unique and knows different languages.




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