Finland is a country with only one correct opinion
Finland is celebrating its 100 years of independence this year. I recently moved back to this country, my native land, after spending nearly 11 years living in the Netherlands. Since I've also spent a year in Italy as an exchange student, I've been educated and have experienced a reverse culture shock before. This said, getting back to being a citizen of Finland had a very short honeymoon this time.
It all started when I went to apply for a SIM-card for my phone. Because I haven't lived in Finland for the last two years, they had no way of checking my credentials, so they treated me like someone who was unreliable, a criminal. I couldn't walk out of the store with the SIM-card, but I had to have it delivered through mail (and as an unreliable customer I had to pay the expanses of this transaction). If I don't pay a 100 euros to my provider, I'm not allowed to make any calls to abroad nor use my phone account for any sort of extra payments, such as donating money to charity. By the way, this is how they treat every immigrant as well, besides expats who most likely are handed everything on a silver platter (case: my husband).
When I've tried to use my Dutch driver's license to prove my identity in Finland, in most places I'm told it's not a valid identity card, because it isn't Finnish. It's European, so it actually looks almost the same, but it has a lower status for some reason. Judging by how the country is treating its own citizen returning, I guess Finland doesn't like to be considered a part of Europe after all. No one cares that I didn't actually learn to drive in the Netherlands, but for legal reasons had to change my then Finnish license into a Dutch one. All I did was sign and pay. But the Dutch card is no good for the nit-picks of Finland. You can do it the only approved way or you don't do it at all. So far I can say Finland is the least flexible country I have lived in.
Yesterday the biggest literary awards of 2017 were announced. The winner of the biggest prize gave his speech partly in Finnish and partly in Swedish. This would've been amazing, but he ended his speech with a humorous "learn Swedish, you peasants!" Before I go any further, I feel it's important to state that I loved studying Swedish and I could step up and learn to use it more, but I'm putting my eggs in our Dutch basket, because for us that matters so much more.
There seems to be only one correct opinion among the academics of Finland: everyone should embrace Swedish. It's not a wrong opinion, but no one with a microphone in front of their face ever talks about any other language. Historically, Swedish has had a very important role in Finland. However, anyone with a progressive mindset understands that you need flexibility to move forward instead of always staring into how things were done in the past. Somehow, the Finns who consider themselves progressive and open-minded in other cases, seem to have very a narrow world view what comes to this language question.
I also have to adapt myself to Finland again, no matter how difficult it actually feels. I, the intruder, have to learn flexibility in a country that doesn't work in any other way but one. When will we collectively wake up and realize these days Finland is so much more than just a remnant of those historical times under the Swedish rule? After all, the foreign language-speakers already surpass the Swedish-speakers in this country. It's the increasing diversity in languages, including Swedish, we should celebrate so much more. It's the European citizen returning to her own country with a European license that should be accepted as any other person holding this country's citizenship. We are together stronger when we treat everyone's lingual and cultural identity the same: personal, yet equally important.
Learn Dutch, you peasants! Your world view will change for sure!
It all started when I went to apply for a SIM-card for my phone. Because I haven't lived in Finland for the last two years, they had no way of checking my credentials, so they treated me like someone who was unreliable, a criminal. I couldn't walk out of the store with the SIM-card, but I had to have it delivered through mail (and as an unreliable customer I had to pay the expanses of this transaction). If I don't pay a 100 euros to my provider, I'm not allowed to make any calls to abroad nor use my phone account for any sort of extra payments, such as donating money to charity. By the way, this is how they treat every immigrant as well, besides expats who most likely are handed everything on a silver platter (case: my husband).
When I've tried to use my Dutch driver's license to prove my identity in Finland, in most places I'm told it's not a valid identity card, because it isn't Finnish. It's European, so it actually looks almost the same, but it has a lower status for some reason. Judging by how the country is treating its own citizen returning, I guess Finland doesn't like to be considered a part of Europe after all. No one cares that I didn't actually learn to drive in the Netherlands, but for legal reasons had to change my then Finnish license into a Dutch one. All I did was sign and pay. But the Dutch card is no good for the nit-picks of Finland. You can do it the only approved way or you don't do it at all. So far I can say Finland is the least flexible country I have lived in.
Yesterday the biggest literary awards of 2017 were announced. The winner of the biggest prize gave his speech partly in Finnish and partly in Swedish. This would've been amazing, but he ended his speech with a humorous "learn Swedish, you peasants!" Before I go any further, I feel it's important to state that I loved studying Swedish and I could step up and learn to use it more, but I'm putting my eggs in our Dutch basket, because for us that matters so much more.
There seems to be only one correct opinion among the academics of Finland: everyone should embrace Swedish. It's not a wrong opinion, but no one with a microphone in front of their face ever talks about any other language. Historically, Swedish has had a very important role in Finland. However, anyone with a progressive mindset understands that you need flexibility to move forward instead of always staring into how things were done in the past. Somehow, the Finns who consider themselves progressive and open-minded in other cases, seem to have very a narrow world view what comes to this language question.
I also have to adapt myself to Finland again, no matter how difficult it actually feels. I, the intruder, have to learn flexibility in a country that doesn't work in any other way but one. When will we collectively wake up and realize these days Finland is so much more than just a remnant of those historical times under the Swedish rule? After all, the foreign language-speakers already surpass the Swedish-speakers in this country. It's the increasing diversity in languages, including Swedish, we should celebrate so much more. It's the European citizen returning to her own country with a European license that should be accepted as any other person holding this country's citizenship. We are together stronger when we treat everyone's lingual and cultural identity the same: personal, yet equally important.
Learn Dutch, you peasants! Your world view will change for sure!
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