15 votes

Why is Finland's biggest retailer urging customers to welcome foreign workers?

5 comments

  1. Raspcoffee
    Link
    This is something that's happening in many developed countries. Immigration has kind of offset this issue, but it was never going to be sustainable. If you ask me, we need to accept that...

    This is something that's happening in many developed countries. Immigration has kind of offset this issue, but it was never going to be sustainable.

    If you ask me, we need to accept that immigrants will be necessary to some degree, as well as a cultural change to make the working class being more equal to the upper-middle class jobs. In terms of pay, prestige, perception, among others. The fact that much of north/western Europe going exactly the opposite direction is, from a social perspective, interesting.

    Also, the comments under the article of the site is actually... decent??? And at times insightful even? I imagine they must have pretty good moderation standards.

    10 votes
  2. [4]
    DiggWasCool
    Link
    Not sure if we have Finnish people on Tildes, but can anyone confirm whether this means that English is kind of like a second language for Finnish people? If these employees don't speak Finnish...

    The firm does however require its customer-facing employees to be able to speak English, she explained.

    Not sure if we have Finnish people on Tildes, but can anyone confirm whether this means that English is kind of like a second language for Finnish people? If these employees don't speak Finnish but do speak English, that means the customers speak both?

    Kind of like speaking English/French in Quebec or speaking English/Spanish in Miami?

    6 votes
    1. Happy_Shredder
      Link Parent
      Non-finnish person living in Finland. English (and Swedish, the other official language) are taught in schools. Most people speak pretty good English. But not everyone, and Finnish is the dominant...

      Non-finnish person living in Finland. English (and Swedish, the other official language) are taught in schools. Most people speak pretty good English. But not everyone, and Finnish is the dominant spoken/written language - not speaking Finnish can be challenging. (and Swedish in the South and west)

      7 votes
    2. Bubblejunk
      Link Parent
      Unsure if they changed it, but for my age group (90s) we started learning English on 3rd grade (10 year old). Swedish we started learning at 7th (or maybe it was 8th) grade. We rarely have dubbed...

      Unsure if they changed it, but for my age group (90s) we started learning English on 3rd grade (10 year old). Swedish we started learning at 7th (or maybe it was 8th) grade.

      We rarely have dubbed shows/movies (except animation movies), so we have/get easy exposure to English from media. Obviously you could just stay off from all that and follow Finnish content and/or subtitles.

      2 votes