Finnish and Swedish

Despite what one might think, Finnish is not the official language of Finland. It is one of the two official languages - the other is Swedish.

Apparently a small but vocal (and wealthy and politically influential) Swedish minority in Finland continues to maintain the importance of speaking Swedish in Finland. Learning Swedish in school is mandatory, and it appears that most or all official signage gets displayed in both languages.

Street signs are a good example - all are shown with Finnish on top and Swedish immediately below. For the native English-speaking expat, this can actually be a good thing. Oftentimes the Swedish version has roots closer to familiar English words and can also be shorter overall, though this isn't true nearly often enough given the difficulty of the long street names...



And other street names only show minor differences between the languages...