Estonians in Helsinki: "Our aim is bilingualism"

Estonians enjoy a relatively strong position in the Finnish job market

print this

By Tomi Tyysteri
     
      Switching language between Finnish and Estonian is a completely natural everyday routine for Markus Sööt, a pupil at the Roihuvuori Elementary School in the Helsinki suburb of the same name.
      The language he uses in breaks depends on whom he happens to be playing with, and in the classroom the choice of language is determined by the subject being taught at any given time.
      Sööt, 12, attends Finland's only partially Estonian-language "total immersion" class, where the teaching is in Estonian and in Finnish. The standard book-learning subjects are taught in the children's mother-tongue of Estonian, while P.E. and arts subjects are in Finnish, along with the school's Finnish-speaking pupils.
     
"The aim of the language teaching is to produce bilingual students. At the same time we want to guarantee the children a normal standard in their other learning, says Anne Ribelus, one of the two teachers responsible for the total immersion class.
      With her colleague Silja Aavik, Ribelus teaches 36 pupils, ranging from first-graders to sixth-grade students - in other words the full age-range of the elementary school programme.
      As a general rule, the linguistic position of Estonian immigrants in Finland is relatively strong. According to a recent Statisitcs Finland study, some 70% of Estonian immigrants took the view that they could cope extremely well in Finnish. Only a few percent felt that they could manage the language only with a struggle or badly.
      Finnish and Estonian are related Finno-Ugric languages, but even if the pair are the closest relatives - and bear a great deal more similarity to one another than they do to a third family member Hungarian - they are much more than dialects of the same tongue.
      Cognates exist, and some structures and cases are very similar, but these are two distinct languages.
     
"The situation [in terms of bilingualism] is a great deal better now than it was a decade ago", says Anne Ribelus, while her pupils concentrate on Estonian-language children's books in a reading lesson.
      Ribelus, who has taught Estonian in the Greater Helsinki area since 1992, says that earlier she often used to come across children who were "semi-lingual", unable to cope very well with either of the two languages.
      "Some of the parents were very eager to merge into the mainstream Finnish-speaking population. In some cases it went over the top, and the children's linguistic development suffered as a result."
     
Seeing what was happening in some families, Ribelus began to test the ice over the establishment of an entirely Estonian-language mixed class, and in the fall of 1996 the first pupils started in Roihuvuori.
      She believes that a strong grasp of the mother-tongue is the foundation for all learning, and at the same time an important facet of developing a sense of identity.
      Ribelus says the only real drawback with the total-immersion class is the long distances some pupils have to travel to school, since there are students here from all over the metropolitan area.
     
Sound Finnish skills are one explanation for the relatively strong position held by Estonians in the Finnish job-market.
      Although the unemployment rate among this group of immigrants is high at 19%, in many other respects the position of the Estonians resembles that of Finnish wage-earners, for example in terms of the quality of work relationships and contracts, and the sort of respect they are accorded in the workplace.
     
Working life is naturally a long way off for pupils at the elementary school in Roihuvuori, but nevertheless, this autumn will present Markus Sööt with a considerable challenge, as he will be moving up to the secondary school and out of the immersion class.
      As yet it is unclear whether the 12-year-old will be going on to study in Finnish or whether he will be working in English at an international school in the city.
      "Yes, it is a bit exciting and scary. Learning in Estonian is easier", says Sööt.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.4.2005
     
Citizens of a total of 158 countries live in Helsinki. This article is one of a series entitled The World in Helsinki, in which the larger groups are presented.

More on this subject:
 BACKGROUND: Just under 5,000 Estonian citizens

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Radio Sputnik unites Russian-speakers in Helsinki (22.3.2005)

TOMI TYYSTERI / Helsingin Sanomat
tomi.tyysteri@hs.fi