Finnish for everyone

Finnish is notorious for being one of Europe’s most difficult languages to learn. While the majority of European languages are part of the Indo-European language group, Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugric family of languages. That’s why you’d be hard-pressed to find any similarities between Finnish and German or English that would make the language easier to learn. Additionally, Finnish grammar is very complex – with 15 grammatical cases and other similarly daunting linguistic features, the language is a challenge for even the best translators to master. Because of this, the Finns have developed ‘Selkokieli’, a simplified form of Finnish that uses short and clear sentences. ‘Selkokieli’ is the perfect name for this streamlined version of Finnish, as the word essentially means ‘plain language’. By introducing this language, the Finns hope to facilitate the learning process for non-native speakers of Finnish, particularly for the growing numbers of immigrants coming to Finland each year.