Interesting occurrance at the University of Helsinki— er, Helsingin yliopisto (I don't want to add to the problem). Translated the original article from Finnish, just drop a comment if there is anything that doesn't flow.

Language planning is always difficult, and I see that they want to bring in a more international crowd... But, there are a few issues: it is just a little ridiculous to reduce the ability of many other students to succeed in their field because there is one person who doesn't speak the language (and I'm assuming they mean one student out of a group of 20, or so). Also, if the program is a majority of Finnish-language speakers, why are they admitting people who cannot speak it? Or, is this just one of those combined programs for Finnish and international students?

Maybe I'm also just grumpy because I like Finnish.

The predominance of English has lead to complaints about the University of Helsinki

Original text: Anniina Wallius

A complaint was sent to the chancellor of justice as a result of the University of Helsinki's language politics. The complaint comes as a result of the university's Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry Science, which has decided that Finnish students must attend all of their courses in English if their is at least one foreign student in their class.

The complaint was made by one of the department's students, who views the language policy as violating a policy in the Finnish constitution. According to the law, Finnish citizens have the right to study in their native language. Finnish language professor Auli Hakulinen supports the complaint.

"Finland only has room for one thought at a time, and now the thought is that of globalization and competition. This is interpreted such, that English should be used in courses at all levels. Let all of the Finnish top researchers write in English, but that's quite a separate issue from basic studies to those, who leave after graduating to go take care of pigs," Hakulinen criticizes.

In her view, the problem results particularly from master's programs, which have now been started in large numbers in both Finnish and English. Taking cost savings into account, these programs are easy to combine, but resultantly if a class of students contains one foreigner, it is determined that the language for everyone should be English.

Another manifestation of the pursuit of internationalization is the universities' English names. The English names have been put before all other names in universities in regions outside of Helsinki.

"The regional universities are meant to serve local needs, but just now they want to be first to show that they are fun and international. For instance, there's the University of Eastern Finland and the Lappeenranta University of Technology. A mere name, however, does not increase the level of the teaching and research," says Hakulinen.

An assault committed against the Finnish language

Hakulinen sees a small spark of hope in the University of Helsinki's strategies, which must be renewed in the coming months because of a new university law. Hakulinen would allow that the new strategies are not just a question of pushing paper, and rather that there is also practical guidance on how to protect the national languages.

To those making university decisions, Hakulinen recommends taking literary translation as a model. According to her, the most purposefully international people in Finland are the translators.

"They are at an outpost, and they take the trouble to think about how the main and best works appearing elsewhere can be translated into Finnish. Culturally they are on a completely different level than the University people, who are committing an assault against their native language," says Hakulinen.

Hakulinen stresses that there is no need to go back to a one mind, one language approach, "A while ago it was a momentary political need, but in reality Finland has never had only one language, nor should it ever have one."

The radio cultural news program also called Marketta Sipi, the dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, to hear about the field's language of practice, but Sipi did not have a comment on the issue. The university rector has responded to the complaint made to the chancellor of justice, but the chancellor has not yet given a decision.

I discovered an awesome album on Spotify of various classic covers in Finnish: Niin kauan kuin tää kestää saa, featuring Anki Lundqvist. It features a cover of Wild Mountain Thyme, for which I couldn't find the lyrics online, so I thought I'd post them here.

aamun myötä tuuli herää
laajat maat käy uuteen päivään
yöstä taas voimaa saan
silmät suljen vaikka herään
saman maan nähdä saan

jostain maat vielä nousee
nousee tiet joita kuljen
silmät suljen vaikka herään
uuden maan nähdä saan

jostain maat vielä nousee
nousee tiet joita kuljen
silmät suljen vaikka herään
uuden maan nähdä saan