Finland is bilingual officially, and my city is a bilingual city. All the road signs and well, everything you can really think of, official forms, ingredients lists on products, restaurant menus, websites, everything, is bilingual. Or rather usually trilingual, since English is there for those who don't speak Swedish or Finnish.

And in public transport, you'll also get directions on the screens in addition at least Arabic and Russian, and, uhm I'm sure there was at least one more I'm missing. Not Saame though, as I live in the far South of Finland and it's uncommon here.

[–] crushyerbones@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not all the time though, a lot of official things aren't in Swedish or English. As someone who speaks much better Swedish than Finnish it's hilarious that the native language listed in my medical file is Finnish with no chance of ever changing it (there just isn't any other option). And this is in one of the top 3 cities.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Name some official thing in Turku which isn't bilingual?

All kela forms are bilingual as well.

Also, you can definitely change your native language. My former roommate had his set to Swedish because his mother is Swedish-Finnish, but he barely speaks a whole sentence of Swedish. He only changed it when he was around 22. Up until then all official papers he got were in Swedish.

Maybe you're talking about Tampere, it's not as bilingual as the capital area and especially Turku. And I definitely believe that you're not able to change your language, but legally, you should be able to. I just know local health services just don't give a shit about that.

[–] crushyerbones@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Yep, Tampere :) never been to Turku but I've been meaning to.