What to learn - Finnish or Swedish in Finland for YKI test?
If you want to stay in Finland forever, then, of course, you need to learn and pass Finnish. It is needed:
- For work. Although in Finland they speak English perfectly. But Finnish is still required for work. Even in such an international industry as IT, about 50% of vacancies are published in Finnish. You can find a job without Finnish, but there are significantly fewer of them.
- For local news. We learn almost all information about events or news from local groups on social networks. This can be Facebook, telegram, WhatsApp. And most of these groups are in Finnish. A very large part of Finnish life will pass you by. (Various events, exhibitions, sales, investments, special rules during the fire hazard period, and much more)
- Visiting officials, doctors, and any institutions where there is a queue in Finland. If you have language requirements, it will take longer to see a specialist (or more expensive because you will have to go to a private clinic).
Swedish is much easier. If it takes 2-3 years to learn Finnish, you can learn Swedish to the required level in 1.5 years. 2-3 years to learn Finnish
- Swedish is more common in Europe. With knowledge of Swedish, it will be much easier for you to learn German.
- Learning Swedish is cheaper. In the article "How to get speaking practice" I talked about the application of 4 free ways to find speaking clubs in Finnish. And also about the Italki service. So on Italki, Swedish teachers cost half as much as Finnish ones.
Personal opinion:
Many live in Finland without knowing the Finnish language. In Helsinki, almost everyone speaks English. It's easy to find friends in English here. Go to the movies in English. But we are still not integrated into a large part of Finnish life: Selling something by hand, Finnish auctions, Education for children, Library services (free rental of sports equipment, 3D printers, printing on T-shirts, etc. All this is difficult to understand without Finnish).