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Limited opportunities to learn Finnish needed for the job

According to Perkins, it is hard to learn, for example, the terminology and vocabulary needed at work while working. The language easily switches to English in discussions with colleagues because the common language is the quickest and most efficient way of getting things done. 

“I have a good job, and my colleagues speak English, which is obviously fantastic!”

The other side of the coin is that there aren’t that many opportunities to learn Finnish. The meetings, for example, where Finnish is spoken are too difficult for Perkins to follow. The vocabulary quickly becomes too difficult, and the discussions are too fast paced.

“In those situations, I feel like ‘oh no’,” he says. “And it is not easy for me to join a discussion in Finnish even in the break room. I usually don't understand what they're talking about. Is it private? Project-related?”

Perkins says that language easily becomes exclusive, and there is no simple trick to fix the situation. He has attended several language courses that he considers to be good, but they don’t replace learning the language in everyday situations.

Perkins says that the language issue is also related to his self-image as an academic employee. 

“We are knowledge workers, but I do not sound like an expertwhen using Finnish.”

Work community can support Finnish learners

Associate Professor Johanna Ennser-Kananen from the Ģ��ֱ�� can easily relate to Perkins’s feelings. She studies languages from the perspective of equity and shares many of the same experiences as her fellow Finnish learners when it comes to the challenges of using a foreign language.

“It is good to remember that everyone can feel a bit uncomfortable when speaking in a foreign language,” she says. “So, let’s all together get used to being in that uncomfortable zone.”

Ennser-Kananen is also familiar with how the academic work community or colleagues can support the language learner. She also uses social media to share her knowledge, as the topic is very important to her.

She summarizes her main advice as follows:

“There are lots of small things we can do every day, such as ask about out our colleagues’ language preferences and try to find other alternatives for using strictly ‘Finnish or English’. Those could be, for example, easy Finnish, English and German. We can get used to mixing languages, use different communication tools simultaneously and reserve time for translations, and thus make sure everyone is on board, even in long meetings.” 

But, in addition to these measures, we also need broader reflection on this issue. 

“What do I consider to be ‘good language’?” asks Ennser-Kananen, who works at the Department of Language and Communication Studies of the Ģ��ֱ��. “What makes me nervous about the language? Why do I think that? Usually, what limits others from using all their language skills, ​​also limits us.” 

“Sometimes it feels easy to talk to someone, sometimes difficult”

When Ennser-Kananen moved to Finland in 2016, which is her husband’s home country, she spoke some Finnish. During the years, she has learned to recognise her strengths and weaknesses.

“Sometimes it feels easy to talk to someone, sometimes difficult,” says Ennser-Kananen. 

“And sometimes it’s easy to talk at first, but after an hour, I realize I’m getting tired. When I speak Finnish, I always feel like nothing is good enough.”

Ennser-Kananen is from Austria. Before moving to Finland, she worked at Boston University researching multilingual education and before the university as a teacher in Vienna.

Currently, Ennser-Kananen is researching, among other things, what and whose information is considered socially relevant.

Teachers, for example, should be allowed more time in their work to spot the expertise of people from other cultures even better.

“We feel pressured to start teaching straight away,” she says. “Maybe the teacher’s first step could be to look for knowledgethat the learner already has. Even if the information is not in our curriculum or familiar in our society, it doesn’t mean that it is not valuable.”

Six tips on how to help a Finnish learner in a meeting

It always makes Perkins happy when a colleague makes an effort to speak Finnish at work in a way that he understands it. He points out that a combination of both Finnish and English can be used for discussions based on whatever makes the participants feel comfortable.

With a few minor changes, the content of work meetings can also be made clearer. Perkins and Ennser-Kananen list six helpful tips.

A research article adapted to plain language was an eye-opening experience

Language policy in higher education is one of research professor Taina Saarinen’s main research areas. Saarinen is the director of the Finnish Institute for Educational Research.

She says that the academic community needs more gradual steps with the help of which language learners can use Finnish in their work more easily than currently. It would also create new opportunities for international staff to participate in the university’s administration and management tasks.

“In public discussions, Finnish is often spoken about in an exclusive tone. People speak about the supremacy of the English language or the unwillingness of the international staff to speak Finnish,” says Saarinen. “We want to highlight different inclusive perspectives. The international staff and students need different achievable steps to grasp the Finnish language and start feeling comfortable using it.”

in Tiedepolitiikka is an example of the achievable steps Saarinen is discussing. Saarinen wrote the article together with Perkins, Ennser-Kananen and Petteri Laihonen.

The article is about a case study related to well-being at work, and it is written in easy Finnish.

Writing the article was a valuable learning experience for everyone.

We have a limited vision of how a scientific article should be written,” says Saarinen. “This was also a challenge for Petteri and me, as we pondered why Finnish couldn't be written like that too.”

According to Marc Perkins, the article was a great learning experience also for him.

“One of our biggest takeaways was that we often use complex words and structures in articles, even though it is not necessary,” says Perkins. “The important thing is that the idea is accessible, that it is attainable.”