Finnish EU Presidency - No Finnish, but English!
I have made an interesting observation:
the website of the current Finnish EU Presidency only offers an English and a French version!
That means, Finnish citizens who don't speak English or French cannot understand the site's contents!
Doesn't that show how powerful English has become...?
http://www.eu2006.fi
well, I have made a more interesting one - the site is in LATIN as well !!!!!!!
http://www.eu2006.fi/news_and_documents/newsletters/vko30/en_GB/1153388065416/
"Conspectus rerum Latinus 2/2006
21 Jul 2006, 10:13
CONCILIUM IUSTITIAE ET RERUM DOMESTICARUM (JHA) BRUXELLIS DIE LUNAE 24. IULII
Conventus diei Lunae erit primus e tribus conventibus Concilii Iustitiae et Rerum domesticarum (JHA), qui Finnis UE praesidentibus instituentur. In argumentis in indice rerum agendarum principalibus sunt communicationes Commissionis de conspectu programmatis Hagensis, ratio immigrationem globaliter iudicandi et multitudinem immigrantium moderandi. Praesides conventuum Concilii JHA erunt Leena Luhtanen, ministra iustitiae, et Kari Rajamäki, minister a rebus domesticis."
LATIN - Daniel
........1-0..........
Limiter le portail finlandais aux deux seules adresses
http://www.eu2006.fi/fr_FR &
http://www.eu2006.fi/en_GB est absolument ***RIDICULE***. Surtout dans un espace collectif diversifié comme l'Union européenne.
L'idée de la page en latin n'est pas mauvaise. Mais l'allemand ? Et l'italien ? Et le polonais ? Et le suédois ? (etc)
It's better to write it in English or French. Does anyone realise how difficult Finnish is?
The Finnish language does not distinguish gender in nouns (like English) or even in personal pronouns (unlike English): 'hän' = 'he' or 'she' depending on the referent. This causes some unaccustomed Finnish speakers to muddle "he" and "she" when speaking languages such as English or Swedish, which can be a source of confusion.
-------------------------------
Cases
Finnish has FIFTEEN noun cases: four grammatical cases, six locative cases, two essive cases (three in some Eastern dialects) and three marginal cases.
Example -
talo - house
talon - of (a) house
taloa - house (as an object)
talossa - in (a) house
talosta - from (a) house
taloon - into (a) house
talolla - at (a) house
talolta - from (a) house
talolle - to (a) house
talona - as a house
talonta - from being a house
taloksi - to [role of] a house
taloin - with the houses
talotta - without (a) house
taloineni - with my house (s)
Imagine having to speak a language where every noun is spelt 15 different ways.
I believe that it is very sad that the Finns did not publish their site in Finnish. They seem to have an inferiority complex dealing with the fact that only 5.2 million people have a firm grasp on the language and virtually no one outside their country, with the exception of the Estonians, can understand their language. The site should have been in Finnish, Swedish, English, French and Castilian, but i guess they had a shortage of funds.
The Finns are a very pragmatic race - I think you are mistaking differences in culture as "inferiority"
They don't feel the need to brag, boast, or geneally discuss their acheivements. Such things are frowned upon in Finland
They fought the entire Soviet Union (the aggressor) to a standstill in World War 2 - how many countries can claim that??