Relocating to Finland
For those that don’t know my background, I have been living in Seinäjoki for 16 years and live with my wife, Satu, our collections of teenagers and Boris the Dog. As a Brit, I had the freedom to move to Finland as an EU citizen. That was until the end of 2020, when the effects of Brexit started to have real-life consequences for British citizens, such as potential inconveniences when travelling to restrictions on the freedom to relocate, as I previously had done. Currently I’m in the position of having a passport with different travel rights than everyone else in my household: my children, Satu, her children – probably even the dog!
The Challenge of becoming a Finn
In summer 2020, I was talking with Paul and Jiuliano when Jiuliano said “So Mark, when are you going to apply for Finnish citizenship?” My natural reaction was to respond with all my usual excuses about wanting to apply but not being able to pass the YKI language test. “OK”, Jiuliano replied, “so make a plan how to do it.” Hmm, he had called my bluff, there was nothing else to do but to say “Alright, I will!” And I did.
The YKI system is the official language proficiency test of Finland, and certificates serve a variety of purposes. You can use them, for example,
- to demonstrate your language skills to apply for a job or a place to study
- to demonstrate your level of language proficiency to acquire Finnish citizenship (Finnish and Swedish tests)
https://www.oph.fi/en/national-certificates-language-proficiency-yki
The plan to improve my Finnish
I wanted something that would be manageable but would give me regular practice at all four components of the YKI test; speaking, writing, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. At that time, my listening and speaking skills were ‘OK, not bad’. I could read simple Finnish but I thought writing would be my weakest discipline. I devised a study plan to work on this from the start, although the plan changed over the years. This is how I improved my Finnish:
Duolingo app
I used this for several months, but when I lost my ‘continuous streak’ and also lost interest in the app! Duolingo is useful for interacting with the language, especially paying attention to ‘the dots’ on certain letters (Ä and Ö) while listening and writing! I’m not sure I could learn the whole language like this, but it helped me loosen up before starting evening classes at Kansalaisopisto.
Evening classes
It had been seven years since I’d last studied Finnish actively, so I decided to enrol at Seinäjoki Kansalaisopisto (community college) for the Suomi 2 course, two evenings a week during autumn. This was a good way to refresh my technical understanding of Finnish. The following spring, I signed up for an online course, also with kansalaisopisto, with the idea it would prepare me for the YKI test. This online course was not the ideal learning environment for me, but it did me good and continued to build my technical knowledge.
Finnish classes at Seinäjoki kansalaisopisto
FinTandem conversation
I first registered for this kansalaisopisto course back in 2013, when my Finnish skills were pretty basic. The idea is that you are partnered with a Finnish speaker who also wants to learn your language. You meet regularly and chat in both languages. In 2020, Satu told me that her friend, Riikka, understands English but is not confident speaking. We arranged to meet regularly for Finnish-English conversation, approx. 50 mins when we can both practice in a ‘safe space’.
I have English Conversation customers with whom I meet weekly or monthly to practice their English, so I understand the benefit of using the language regularly. I was surprised, though, that my confidence increased after just one session with Riikka. Immediately, I found that Finnish came to my tongue in public more instinctively than before.
After a few months, Riikka’s schedule changed so I went back to kansalaisopisto to find another FinTandem partner. Myself and Leena started meeting once a week for lunch, and 30 minutes of English and 30 minutes of Finnish conversation. Over the years, I have recommended this course for anyone who wants to speak better Finnish.
FinTandem course at Seinäjoki kansalaisopisto
Working at Sedu
In summer 2021, Jiuliano told me about a temporary job that was available at Sedu, working in the Kokka kohti Etelä-Pohjanmaata project. I applied and, happily, had an interview the next week. I decided that I would speak Finnish in the interview, so at least they would know what level I was at. After a 40-minute Teams meeting, I was exhausted but I did enough to get the job.
Working three days a week in Sedu really boosted my Finnish skills. My colleagues Riitta and Aila were encouraging and very patient. We always spoke Finnish but they were happy for me to check details in English if I needed to. This job lasted 11 months and gave me an opportunity to practice all of the disciplines: speaking, listening, reading and writing. I become confident speaking Finnish for longer periods of time especially in one-on-one conversations.
Achievements & Challenges
Achievements
- I have made phone calls in Finnish, arranging a sales meeting (that led to an order)
- I co-hosted a webinar in Finnish during which I also gave a 20-minute presentation in Finnish
- I have attended sales meetings with Finnish clients and international customers in which I’ve been able to do some basic interpreting into Finnish.
- For one of my Finnish clients, I took two sales meetings with potential customers in Finnish.
- I have given presentations in Finnish to a group of local entrepreneurs.
Challenges
- Online group meetings – when lots of people are talking it can be tricky to follow. Then everyone goes quiet and someone says “Mark?” and I realise I missed my cue to speak 🤦
- Sales meetings – it is one thing to give a sales presentation, but sales is about overcoming objections and finding solutions. Hearing comments between two Finns and understanding their objections is still difficult.
- No YKI test yet – well, this has taken longer than I expected, but I may have found another route to citizenship…
What’s Next
The next step of my plan is to take a short course at Sedu, to get an Yrittäjyyden Ammattitutkinto qualification, a qualification in entrepreneurship. This course will be in Finnish and I’m hopeful I have the required language skills to complete the course. Living and working in Finland, it will be useful to have some more qualifications, but there is an added bonus too.
A qualification in a Finnish-language course can be used to prove your ability to speak Finnish as part of the Finnish citizenship application. I’m hoping this will be a win-win situation.
So, to answer Jiuliano’s original question:
“Hopefully, sometime in 2024.”