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It's not that straightforward. Finnish is wildly different from English, yet basically everybody there speaks English. And as late as the 1990s English profic
by 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
It's not that straightforward. Finnish is wildly different from English, yet basically everybody there speaks English. And as late as the 1990s English proficiency in Germany was abysmal, particularly on the eastern side.
- usr1106 7y agoBecause Finnland is a small country (5 million native speakers). They cannot afford to dub TV or movies, so every kid gets exposed to English every day. As soon as you have a somewhat rare hobby you need to read about it in English. There are many books not available Finnish, so people read the English one. In Germany none of those are an issue, there is little exposure to English. English is a theoretical thing in school. Quite some Finns over 40 years old have difficulties to speak fluent and somewhat correct English. (Source: I have worked in the high tech sector in Finland for 20+ years) That is caused by completely different grammar of Finnish compared to anything Germanic, Nordic, or Romanic and the fact that speaking was traditonally not taught a lot in Finnish schools.