The problems with Helsinki as a place to relocate go well beyond language. Language is a great place to start because learners of Finnish often ask themselves i

The problems with Helsinki as a place to relocate go well beyond language. Language is a great place to start because learners of Finnish often ask themselves if the effort is worth it. Finnish is a language that works differently from the majority of other languages and is utterly useless on a metric of utility. If you learn Finnish, where outside the immediate boundaries of Finland are you going to use it and how many people will even speak it? There really isn’t a policy solution to this and switching to English won’t be politically popular. That aside, there are bigger problems in Helsinki such as geography and daylight. There’s too much light in the summer and too little in the winter. Not everyone can adjust to that. There isn’t really a policy solution to that. There is also population and mobility - Helsinki isn’t easily accessible from other population centres and exists in relative isolation. Two of the closest population centres are St Petersburg - in Russia - and Stockholm in Sweden. It’s much the same problem in Stockholm in that it is a population centre without other ones nearby although you can drive from Copenhagen or Oslo to Stockholm. Finally, is the challenge of having a society built around strong ethic ties. Even if Helsinki were to switch to English, there will be always be outsiders i.e. those who are not ethnic Finns. Again, this is not something that policy can solve and is one of the reasons that silicon valley and North America in general do very well at.