When children in Finland’s capital Helsinki attend school next autumn, some of them will have the chance to study in a language other than their native Finnish. The city of Helsinki has decided to open a first grade school in Kottby (Kapyla) that will teach its classes in Spanish.
This move is in response to a growing number of parents who want their children to be educated in a foreign language, not just learn one. Marjo Kyllonen, the head of education at the City of Helsinki Education Department, explained to the Helsinki Times that this pilot school will be divided into two streams: one whose students are already proficient in Spanish and the other for those who are not.
The students who are already bilingual will be taught in both Spanish and Finnish, while the students who cannot speak Spanish will study most of their subjects in Finnish and take up Spanish as their primary foreign language. The majority of parents interested in this approach to early education have one spouse who is Spanish-speaking and the other a Finn.
By adding Spanish to its national education curriculum, Finland will use eight languages other than Finnish to teach basic subjects. While English is the most common foreign language being used, students along Finland’s border with Russia can study in Russian. German and French are also popular languages in Helsinki, which is where the most comprehensive choice of languages is available.
Just want to add that it’s a splendid idea to introduce bi-lingual studies at a younger age. Apart from all the obvious benefits that comes with it, the world is rapidly becoming a place where we will all need more than one language. saludos…
As the “International Year of Languages” comes to an end on 21st February, you may be interested in the contribution, made by the World Esperanto Association, to UNESCO’s campaign for the protection of endangered languages.
The following declaration was made in favour of Esperanto, by UNESCO at its Paris HQ in December 2008. http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=38420&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html
The commitment to the campaign to save endangered languages was made, by the World Esperanto Association at the United Nations’ Geneva HQ in September.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eR7vD9kChBA&feature=related or http://www.lernu.net
CORRECTIONS ( DEMOCRACY DOES NOT ONLY MEAN), ( WOMEN AND MEN EQUAL RIGHT TO VOTE),
SPECIALLY SINCE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION THE IDEA OF EQUITY HAS EVOLUTIONATED A LOT. IN THE FIRST YEARS AFTER FRENCH REVOLUTION EQUITY WAS UNDERSTOOD AS ALL CITIZENS BEING EQUAL IN RELATION TO THE ESTATE AND LAW. SUCH CREATED AN IDEA OF CITIZENSHIP THAT WAS NOT BASED ON DIVERSITY BUT IN HOMOGENOUS IDENTITY ( ALL EQUAL= ALL THE SAME). NATIONS WORKED TOWARDS CREATING NATIONAL MODELS OF EDUCATION, A NATIONAL MODEL OF CULTURE ( LANGUAGE, RELIGION, ETC…). ALL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES PRESENTED (AND PRESENT) A DIVERSITY OF CULTURES VISIBLE THROUGH MINORITY LANGUAGES AND RELIGIONS, ETC… NATIONAL MODELS DISCRIMINATED MINORITY LANGUAGES AND CULTURE AND LAW WAS CREATED TO PERSECUTE AND PROHIBIT THEIR USE.
IN THE EUROPE OF THE 21ST CENTURY MINORITY LANGUAGES AND CULTURE ARE SPECIALLY PROTECTED AND PROMOTED. THAT MEANS THAT SOCIETIES ARE NOT RECOGNIZED AS AN UNIQUE CULTURAL IDENTITY BUT AS THE RESULT OF DIFFERENT CULTURAL IDENTITIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS. TO ASSURE FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL, CULTURAL IDENTITY OF ALL INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS NEEDS TO BE RESPECTED.
DEMOCRACY IS NOT ABOUT EVERYONE BEING FORCED TO THINK, ACT AND BE THE SAME, DEMOCRACY IS EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FOR EVERYONE.
NORDIC COUNTRIES ARE THOUGHT TO BE AN EXAMPLE OF DEMOCRACY, HOWEVER THE UNDERSTANDING OF EQUALITY IN MATTERS OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY TOUCHES THE BOTTOM. NORDIC SOCIETIES NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT DEMOCRACY DO NOT ONLY MEAN THE EQUITY IN TERMS OF WOMEN AND MEN EQUALITY RIGHT TO VOTE, BUT ALSO DEMOCRACY MEANING THE ACTIVE AND EQUAL RIGHT TO PARTICIPATION OF ALL INDIVIDUALS IN A DETERMINATE SOCIETY.
SPANISH IS A LANGUAGE USED NO ONLY IN SPAIN, BUT IN MORE THAN OTHER 20 COUNTRIES. FINLAND, AS MANY OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ( LIKE SPAIN) HAS RECEIVED MANY PEOPLE FROM SOUTH, CENTRAL AND NORTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES ( MEXICO), ALSO FROM THE CARIBBEAN. IT HAPPENS THAT SPANISH IS THE COMMON LANGUAGE OF THOSE PEOPLE AND THE 2COND LANGUAGE MORE COMMONLY SPOKEN INTERNATIONALLY ( CHINESE IS THE MOST SPOKEN LANGUAGE BUT 95% PER CENT OF ITS SPEAKERS ARE IN CHINA).
THE USE OF SPANISH LANGUAGE IS RAPIDLY GROWING AROUND THE WORLD. YOU CAN SEE IT FOR EXAMPLE IN ICELANDIC SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITY WHERE MORE AND MORE STUDENTS CHOOSE SPANISH.
As a new publisher of bilingual, English and Spanish books for 4-8 year olds, I totally agree with teaching foriegn languages at the elementary level. Bravo Finland!
It has been changed!
You can type like that: Kottby (Finish: Käpylä, Russian: ???????).
This has been a long running debate here at IceNews. From a linguistic point of view, you’re right. But from an internet and search engine point of view it is not quite so clear – especially as and English language website.
It is our policy not to use non-English letters at all. Although this may change in the future.
Thank you for adding your opinion to the debate and thanks for reading IceNews!
It’s Käpylä, Kottby in Swedish. Running a website about Scandinavian news, you should pay special attention to the umlauts.