--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister <no_reply@> > wrote: > <snip> FWIW, Swedish is the second official language of Finland. > > I occasionally watch FST (Finland's Svenska Television, Swedish > > TV in Finland). Listening to Swedish kinda makes me, a pathologically > > gloomy chap, feel a bit more joyful. As soon as I change back to > > a Finnish speaking channel, my normal gloomy mood returns. > > I have no idea whether that's because of the differences in the > > phonetic properties of those two languages, or just some negative > > emotional associations I have concerning my own native language. > > But it's interesting that Hungarian that's a very distant relative > > of Finnish, sounds awful to me. Actually one of the "ugliest" > > languages I know. Well, perhaps mainly because of a couple of > > exceptionally ugly vowels. And furthermore, I believe Hungarians > > are rather suicidal, like Finns, too. > <snip> > > Fascinating stuff! Do Finns learn both Finnish and Swedish in school, > so they are fluent in both? I admire Europeans in general for their > ability to know multiple languages, while we in the USA struggle with > American English... >
Swedish is obligatory for Finnish speaking kids, and vice versa. Swedish is called "pakko-ruotsi" (literally something like "compulsion-Swedish"). I guess most Finnish speaking kids hate learning Swedish, they'd rather use that time learning English. Very few Finnish speaking Finns are fluent in Swedish. Those are mostly from the coastal areas, where the majority of Swedish speaking Finns live. I kinda liked learning Swedish, primarily because we had, by local standards, a rather sexy Swedish teacher. She once wrote onto my test paper with a red ball pen: "Bra!". Well, that's "Good!" in Swedish. That's one of my most vivid visual memories from that time. I can still see that "Bra" with my mind's eye, and remember why she was so "excited"...
