6 ms·
That's entirely false. A lot of Fenno-Swedes do not speak Finnish well. And virtually no Finn speak Swedish. They all loathe it because they are forced to learn
by laurent_du 1y ago
That's entirely false. A lot of Fenno-Swedes do not speak Finnish well. And virtually no Finn speak Swedish. They all loathe it because they are forced to learn it at school. Adult Finns can at most say a few canned sentences in Swedish.
- tuukkah 1y agoNobody claims they all speak Finnish well, but the Swedish spoken in Finland is influenced by Finnish and typically includes some loans from Finnish.
- laurent_du 1y agoThe person I was answering to literally claims people are bilingual (Swedish + Finnish).
- tuukkah 1y agoBeing bilingual is a fuzzy concept: to many, it includes people who speak a language less well, but perhaps enough to get by. For example, in a bilingual environment, it can be enough to understand two languages and to speak one.
- laurent_du 1y agoI have never heard someone say "I am bilingual" when what they meant is "I studied another language in school and can somehow understand a few sentences". To me, and I believe, to most people, being bilingual means speaking two languages fluently.
- tuukkah 1y agoPersonally, I'd only call native-level speakers bilingual, but this has caused misunderstandings.