FinnFest USA Webinar Series: Multi-Lingual Finland, Part 1

Jan-Ola Östman, University of Helsinki, retired
“The Past, Present, and Future of Swedish in Finland”

Learn about how Swedish came to be an official language in Finland, where the various dialect areas are, what the influence of Finnish has been on Swedish-speaking families, and how cultural changes are affecting both the language and the status of Swedish as a second language.

Johanna Laakso, University of Vienna

“Everything You Ever Heard about the Finnish Language Might be Wrong: A Quick Introduction into a Perfectly Ordinary European Language”

A myth-busting presentation will talk about what it means that Finnish is related to Hungarian, is not as old as often thought, and explains how compared to other European languages Finnish is not necessarily complicated, nor is it particularly strange or exotic.