SWEDISH AS AN ASSETWays to promote Swedish language and culture in Finland

SWEDISH IN FINLAND

SWEDISH IN FINLAND

Swedish is spoken by 280 000 persons or 5,6 % of the total population

Official language in Finland Majority lives in bilingual municipalities Also in ”language-islands”, such as Tampere

and Oulu Language registration, officially registrated

as either Finnish- or Swedish- speaking

good picture and statistics, see the development

LEGISLATION Constitution declares that Finnish and

Swedish are the national languages, e.g the public authorities are required to provide for the cultural and societal needs of the Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking populations of the country on an equal basis.

there should be social welfare services, primary and other education and comprehensive information in both languages

The state administration of Finland is bilingual by law, which implies that all laws, decrees and other important documents are available in both Finnish and Swedish.

THE LANGUAGE ACT

New Language Act came into force on 1st January 2004

Rights and obligations concerning language are set down in greater detail here.

Swedish speakers have the right to use their own language in contacts with central government and with the authorities in bilingual municipalities.

But it is important to note that the Language Act encompasses both national lanugages equally, not an Act to protect the intersets of just Swdish-speakers.

....THERE ARE SOME PROBLEMS

There are no sanctions if the Language Act is not followed

Possibilites to complain to the Chancellor of Justice, to the Ministry of Justice and to the Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland.

Complaints can also be adressed to Folktinget Once in a parliamentary period a report on

how the Act has been implemented is given by the Government. Unfortunately this is not uplifting reading, same problems and same proposals on measures to be taken in reports of 2006 and of 2009

THE PROBLEMS, SOME EXAMPLES Administration reforms, for example cutting down

the number of emergancy call-centers Health-sector Finnish Railways and national Post (state

companies) the other national language made voluntary in the

matriculation examination

less interest in Swedish among Finnish-speakersless knowledge in Swedishproblems at the universitiesdifficult to fulfill the Language Act

THE SWEDISH DAY AND THE SWEDISH WEEK

Swedish Day is celebrated on 6 November, and symbolizes the right for Swedish-speaking Finns to use their mother tongue freely in Finland. It is also an occasion for celebrating Finland as a bilingual nation.

On Swedish Day, a grand party is arranged along with numerous local parties.

SWEDISH DAY 2008

SWEDISH WEEK

Idea is to offer a wide range of events and happenings free of charge or with reduced prices

Through participation institutions of culture, associations, producers and companies can make Swedish more visible.

Rock Concerts, photo competitions, football tournaments, theather for youth and children, seminars, theather production in co-operation between Swedish and Finnish schools, Clubs and movie-nights.

This year 10 cities are celebrating the Swedish Week, from unlingual Oulu up north to bilungual Porvoo in the south-east

One website and co-operation in marketing the events

One budget and the expenses are split equally

I’M HERE FOR YOU

“I’m here for you” is a pocket-sized dictionary for hospital-staff.

Gives them help with the most common phrases that they might need in their job, phrases like “where does it hurt and “here is your medicine”.

The word spread and now the dictionary can be found in hospitals and health care centres all around Finland, so far we distributed around 30 000 copies.

GIVE YOUR CHILD A GIFT

Information on how to raise your child bilingually and what advantages you give to your child by doing so.

We want the parents to understand that a child doesn´t become bilingual per automatique.

Also important for the parents to know that they have the legal right to demand day-care and schools in the preferred language. 

GIVE YOUR CHILD A GIFT In Finland we have a unique system where the State

offers every mother-to-be a starting-package for the new baby. The mother-to-be can choose whether she wants a sum of money (140 €) or if she wants to have a box with baby-clothes, feeding bottles, children's picture books and other necessities for a newborn. In this box various information-brochures are included and Give your child a gift is one of them. In other words, we reach almost 98 % (or 40 000 persons) of all parents-to-be.

We also cooperate with another organization and have a website called www.svenskskola.fi, where every Swedish day-care centre, comprehensive school and secondary schools is listed in a database. You can search by entering for example day-care and Vaasa, and all day-care centres in the city of Vaasa is listed to you. This web-site also has a map-function, so that the user can see where in Vaasa the nearest day-care centre is compared to the users home.

SWEDISH SCHOOLS ATTRACTS

PLAY MEIs a combination of a musical and circus and is the biggest event ever on the Swedish Theatre scene, the budget is 1,8 million euro.

Started in 2008 with an audition on the Internet, and then live auditions. Apart from the audition, song writing competitions has been arranged and a CD has been produced. There are also club evenings and an internet game as a part of the whole concept.

Aiming at the Finnish audience a web portal has been created, with material for teachers in Swedish to use. This material has been developed in co- operation with the Ministry of Education and around 3 000 teachers use the Play Me material. The opening night of Play Me was on the 9th of September 2009.

OTHER PROJECTS

Theatre Bus

Movies in the school

Cook in Swedish

Rent a Swedish-speaker

Papper

CONCERTS AND CLUBS

The language has to be cool, important to hear famous rockstars give concerts in your own language

Svenskatalande klubben, arranged monthly; artists are always Swedish-speakers, performing in Swedish. Sold-out clubs, many in the audience are Finnish-speakers.

THE FUTURE

• Bilingualism is a resource but also a challenge• The biggest threath is the Swedish-speakers

themselves • Difficult to reach unity on language

strategies, different interest collide • Harder to gain understanding and interest for

Swedish • Many ongoing administration reforms in

Finland, big challenge to safeguard Swedish. • Cooperation over the ”language-barrier” and

positive language-climate is essential for the Swedish-speakers and a big challenge for the future.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION.Anna Jungner-Nordgren

Public Relations Secretary

The Swedish Assembly of Finland