Finnish language oasis lies in deepest Transylvania

Romania’s Hungarian population has cultivated teaching of the Finnish language for over a hundred years

print this

By Ilkka Ahtiainen in Cluj-Napoca, Romania
     
      Transylvania means “behind the forest”, and sure enough, whether you approach it from Budapest or Bucharest, the area is more or less in the middle of nowhere.
      All the more reason then, that it somehow seems fitting that someone should speak Finnish in such a place.
      Transylvania is home to Romania’s Hungarian minority, about 1.4 million people in all, who have cherished the teaching of their kindred language.
     
”We have offered Finnish language studies here since the late 19th century”, says assistant professor Enikö Molnár Bodrogi of the Babes-Bolyai University.
      Transylvania is a border region, which has belonged alternately to both Hungary and Romania.
      In Cluj-Napoca, or Kolozsvár in Hungarian, a university was first established in 1872, when the Habsburg dynasty ruled over the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The first Finnish lessons started in 1886.
      The world wars and the border relocations brought about by them kept tossing the university from one state to another. There were times in between when Finnish was not taught at the institute.
      After World War II, however, during the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, a Finnish language and literature lectorship was established.
      Today, the popularity of Finnish is on the up, and even those speaking Romanian as their mother tongue are interested in it. More than 60 students from various years study Finnish.
     
"I wanted to study something different from the rest of the students”, 20-year-old Daria Morosanu says in justifying her choice.
      The mental images of Finland - the land of thousands of lakes, the home of Santa Claus - were equally beguiling.
      From chatting with the students, one gathers that at least a couple of Finnish bands would deserve an award for promoting the Finnish language in the wider world.
      "HIM and Nightwish are my favourites. On their albums there are songs in Finnish as well, and I would like to know what the lyrics are speaking of", says Eszter Andzik, 21.
     
In the Finnish teaching, tradition is combined with the present. The Finnish national epic Kalevala and other folklore are a must. In a recent exam one of the questions was: “Who was Aino in Kalevala?”
      Then again, the students are familiarised with today’s spoken language by showing them episodes from a Finnish soap opera Salatut elämät (Secret Lives). "The spoken language is incredibly difficult. How do you know what a person means when they say "tykätä" instead of "pitää"? frets Ioana Popa.
      Both words mean "to like" or "to fancy" in this context, though one is more colloquial than the other.
     
But studying colloquialisms can also be a lot of fun. Swearwords, for one, are examined closely, and for good reason: a student must know which particular expression is suitable in intensity for which situation.
      “’Voi että’ (a rather lame 'Oh dear') is not enough if, say, the printer falls on the floor”, explains part-time teacher Csenge Guttmann.
      Well, what is the most common swearword in the Finnish language?
      ”Vittu” (the c-word, a derogatory term for the female genitalia), the students state matter-of-factly in perfect unison.
     
In 1992, in other words soon after the fall of communism, the position of the Finnish language improved significantly at the Babes-Bolyai University, as it became a minor subject.
      This way, also other students apart from those studying the Hungarian language and literature as their major subject were able to choose courses in Finnish.
      According to assistant professor Molnár Bodrogi, the best is yet to come.
      “In the autumn we may receive the status of a major subject”, he says – in fluent Finnish, of course.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.3.2008


Previously in HS International Edition:
  A Bluffer´s Guide to Kalevala in 12 paragraphs
  Transylvanians eager to welcome Nokia to Romania (29.1.2008)

Links:
  Babes-Bolyai University
  Transylvania (Wikipedia)
  Kalevala (Wikipedia)

ILKKA AHTIAINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
ilkka.ahtiainen@hs.fi