University of Helsinki
Learning some Finnish makes sense once you have settled down in Helsinki and at the University. Although it is easy to get by in English – at least in the Metropolitan Area – to really integrate into Finnish society it makes a lot of sense to learn Finnish. Knowledge of Finnish is also extremely helpful if you seek a job here.
The University has Finnish courses for both degree and exchange students. The Finnish courses are organized by the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies. More information is available on the Department website.
If the courses offered by the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies don’t fit into your schedule, you can find information on other options on the Learning Finnish website.
The Language Centre at the University of Helsinki organizes Swedish language courses – did you know that Finland has two official languages; Finnish and Swedish? More information on the Swedish courses is available at the Language Centre website.
The Language Centre also offers tandem language courses (ALICE). The basic idea of ALICE (Academic Language and Intercultural Exchange) courses is to provide two language learners who speak different native languages (Finnish/Swedish – Finnish/Spanish/Italian/French/Swedish/German/Russian) the opportunity to learn about each other’s language and culture. Read more about the ALICE courses on the Language Centre website.
If you were accepted to one of the International Master’s Degree Programmes, you can apply to the Intensive Finnish Course at the Helsinki Summer School. More information about the course and those Master’s Degree Programmes that are eligible for the Finnish course can be found at http://www.helsinki.fi/newstudents/hss.html.
One of our students, Reza, attended the HSS Finnish course last year – you can read more about his experience in an earlier post here on our blog.
Once you arrive in Helsinki you can meet staff from the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies and the Language Centre at the and sign up for the courses even though the on-line signup period is over.
Text: Anna-Maria Byman