We present here a small case study, focusing on a speech event where the focus is on how English enters Finnish in discussion and on what were the public and social consequences of this particular event. Our perspective is linguistic; this event offers an excellent resource to study how English enters Finnish interaction, and how this use of English parallel to and as part of Finnish is an emotional topic, as this particular event raised a lot of discussion and public controversy. The main social actor of event is Sara Chafak, Miss Finland 2012. We are interested in analyzing the code-switching in this speech event, as it became a topic of public discussion in many forums in March 2016 in Finland. Our aim is to investigate this event through an academic lens, as the main focus is on the forms, motives, context and consequences of this action, not the people in it.
We begin with an analysis of the forms and functions of code-switching in this event recorded in an interview aired in the Finnish radio channel Radio Suomipop. Auer defines code-switching as “the alternating use of two or more ‘codes’ within one conversational episode” (1998, p. 1). We continue the analysis with a discussion of possible motives behind this language behavior both on a general level and in this specific case. The final part of the paper situates the event in the real world in terms of time and place and discusses the role of different media in the event. It is interesting to see how all these factors together changed the course of the event, turning it from film promotion into a general discussion over bullying on-line.
Our analysis concentrates on studying the full-length interview, of approximately 20 minutes, with Sara Chafak in detail, paying attention to the choice of language in certain situations (http://www.radiosuomipop.fi/#!/post/56d84212adb8110300eff4dc). At the beginning of the interview, Sara is asked about her role in a short movie called Fate, in which she had a role as the ex-wife of the main character. The movie was filmed in two parts, in Oulu and in Hollywood. Chafak’s part was filmed only in Hollywood where she spent about three weeks during the film sessions living with the producer, a Saudi-Arabian prince. The last part of the interview continues with a casual style, covering topics such as experiences Chafak had in Hollywood, her opinions about plastic surgery, her future wedding, and also, how she perceives the negative comments that she receives on social media due to her profile as a public figure.
Functions and forms of code switching
When Chafak answers questions concerning the filming in Hollywood, she begins using English words in Finnish sentences. For instance, instead of saying Mulla aika paljon vuorosanoja on, she chooses to say Mulla aika paljon lineja on. She also says: mun parttii kuvattiin Hollywoodissa. The Finnish equivalent for the word part would be rooli which she does not use. These are examples of how the English lexicon is adapted into Finnish pronunciation and morphology. Other examples of the usage of English are: castata (to cast), scripti (a script), call sheet, catering and out-going (when referring to the actor who plays the main character in the film). In all these cases, Chafak includes English words in Finnish sentences and pronounces the words using American English pronunciation. At this point, it is difficult to say whether she uses English because the language used in filming was mainly English. Interestingly, Chafak starts repeating her English phrases in Finnish, and the other way round, after a while. She, for example, says: on the set tai paikan päällä and tähän maailmaan as we call small-minded things like höpö-höpönään. While the first example probably refers to the fact that she wants to highlight her identity as an expert, the second one underlines her tendency to choose English instead of Finnish. When she tells about the feedback she got from the director of the film, she does not even try to translate it into Finnish: You did a great job! Amazing job!
However, as the interview proceeds it becomes more evident that code-switching does not only occur when discussing about the film events but also in other contexts as well. Her Instagram page is her personal sivu, not henkilökohtainen sivu, as one could say in Finnish. Moreover, she includes several phrases, such as first of all, feel free to say and I guess… I don’t know in her talk. She also uses English sayings to emphasize her opinions. For instance, when she is asked about her views on plastic surgery she says: Once you’re in, there’s never going to like be the way back. At another point, she says If you’re nice to me, I’m nice to you. In conclusion, in the interview Chafak uses English in different way. She adapts the pronunciation of some words to meet the Finnish pronunciation norms but uses some of the words in the American English pronunciation form, or even mixes English and Finnish. Also longer English phrases are used during the interview. In other words, the English words that Chafak uses in the interview could be roughly divided into two different groups in terms of the contents of the words: movie-related words and longer phrases. Almost all the words or utterances that are related to movies and acting in Chafak’s speech are expressed in English. She uses words like partti, director or on the set. Here we can see that sometimes words and utterances related to movies are adapted, and sometimes used in their original form.
Motivation
There are many possible reasons for Chafak’s extensive use of English. On the one hand, using English in the interview could be totally unintentional, serving no particular purpose. However, code-switching and the language choices can carry some possible meanings and hints of the speaker’s attitude. For example, Leppänen (2012) suggests that young people commonly use English to express their social and cultural goals, norms, and practices. Consequently, Chafak’s use of English may be motivated by the contemporary and dominant youth culture and indicate that English is part of her everyday life. Additionally, Leppänen & Nikula (2007) claim that English has become a resource for meaning-making and social interaction. The English words related to acting can possibly carry a certain tone and meaning to the person in question which cannot be conveyed with Finnish words, motivating the use of English as a resource for meaning-making in this situation. In addition to this, code-switching may also be interpreted as indicating membership in a certain group or the possession of a certain identity or expertise; in this case perhaps belonging to the acting-scene and being an actress. As Kääntä et al. (2006) address this matter in their study: “English can be used as a resource to participate in meaningful ways in interaction and to construct identities that are relevant for the interactants at a given moment” (p. 354). As a consequence, this situation could also be interpreted as Chafak constructing herself as an international identity. It may also indicate a limited in-group of actors to which the interviewers and listeners do not belong. Additionally, Chafak has been identified mainly as Miss Finland before, so this could possibly be a way of pointing out her new area of professionalism. All in all, he extensive use of English could be deliberate or not, depending on the motivations. Chafak might have wanted to indicate her new career as an actress and belonging to an in-group, or perhaps to give an international and competent picture of herself.
Setting and its outcomes
The final part of our paper discusses the context of the speech situation and the effect it has had on the meaning of the event. This analysis is not exhaustive, nor does it analyze the various events any deeper; the aim of this part is to present the most salient events that happened in the public media setting as a reaction to the interview, and to exemplify the extremely rapid nature of the new media settings. Starting with the physical and psychological environment, the interview took place at the Suomipop radio station. The interview was audio-visually recorded, with the objective of broadcasting it to the main audience on the radio, but also to publish the interview as a video on the station’s web-page. -The participants are aware of the fact that everything said in the situation is public.
The future events of the interview take a step into a new direction, as the team in the radio-channel releases a video on their Facebook-page under a headline “Sara Chafak vietti kolme viikkoa Hollywoodissa – unohti suomen kielen” which translates to Sara Chafak spent three weeks in Hollywood – forgot the Finnish language (watch the video here: http://www.radiosuomipop.fi/#!/post/56d838b9a76f860300f3e31b). Different occasions of Chafak using English instead of Finnish in the originally 20-minute long interview had been collected into a one, 1 min. 25-second-long summary. This is one of the many shorter videos of the interview that are published on the page.
Opinions about language and language use seem to cause a lot of discussion in general public, and this occasion was no exception. The video was released on March 3th, 2016, and according to the newspapers, it had been reposted on Facebook more than 2000 times 16 hours following its release (http://www.iltalehti.fi/viihde/2016030421215243_vi.shtml). Here we see two major changes in terms of the role of the interview: Firstly, instead of concentrating on the content of the interview, the public interest focused on the form, on the language choices made by Chafak, which had been highlighted in the shorter video. Secondly, the re-contextualization; the event spread from one media to another; from an interactive radio-interview into an edited video, which in turn spread in the social media, thus becoming a topic of popular discussion, and finally turning into an article in the national newspapers. The media-environment today enables interaction, and accordingly, people were able to comment on the video on various public settings. Chafak was also able to respond to the news the following day on her public Facebook-page (according to Iltalehti on March 4th, 2016: http://www.iltalehti.fi/viihde/2016030421215243_vi.shtml).
It did not stop here. What started as a radio interview, turned into a video-clip. Even if these two events happened in good spirit or for humorous purposes, both the radio-channel and Chafak are public figures, and thus everything they produce in the media environment can be handled in the public in the most unpredictable ways. As a response to all the public negative attention Chafak received, on March 7th reporter Kirsi Alm-Siira posted a blog-entry, (https://kirsialmsiira.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/mitas-me-kiusaajat/) where she discussed the event in the light of bullying on internet. And, finally the event had covered every general media setting, as a few days after Alm-Siira published her blog, she and Chafak were invited to participate in a primetime Thursday-evening talk-show on channel MTV3 (a Finnish national TV channel) called Enbuske, Veitola, Salminen (http://www.katsomo.fi/#!/jakso/581847?toista). It is revealing that in this occasion Sara Chafak was neither identified as ex-Miss Finland nor as an actress, but as kiusattu, meaning bullied. In the show she had to read out loud some of the mean commentaries that had been made on account of her language behaviour. She was also given a possibility to defend her language choices, by, for instance, explaining her background of growing up in a multilingual family. To conclude, this is an example of the effect that a setting and the people involved in the situation can have on an event and its outcomes. It also perfectly exemplifies the state of public discussion in Finland and its extremely rapid nature.
Conclusions
In terms of the form of code-switching here Chafak uses English words and phrases within Finnish sentences. Thematically the code-switching happens not only when discussing the experiences and dialogues she had in Hollywood, a period of time that is the main motivation and topic of this interview, but also in further conversation about other topics. Thus her code-switching is not dependent on a certain thematically defined entity, but is rather used as a conversational device throughout the interview. The words of English origin are pronounced either according to the American English norms or by adapting English lexicon into Finnish pronunciation and morphology, for instance, mun parttii kuvattiin Hollywoodissa. Another feature that stands out in this abundant language mixing is that fixed phrases in English, such as I guess and first of all are used a lot, which is a common feature of code-switching.
The motivational factors behind one’s language choices are many. We adapt to the idea from Scollon and Scollon who say that it is not meaningful to try to define the “true” motives behind anyone’s action, but instead it is important to “…recognize that no statement of motive for any action can be the single and only possible discursive construction of that action” (2004, p. 11.). Thus we have described here the general tendencies of language mixing in the Finnish youth culture, and the possible, unconscious motives of the language choices in this particular case. We think that the use of English reflects an international social identity here in an adequate way. The consequences of portraying this identity can be seen in the final part of our analysis, where we show the unpredicted consequences that the interview, and especially the reconstructed video-summary of it, had. A summarizing video, apparently for humoristic purposes, changed the course of conversation and also spread across multiple media-forums.
Works cited
Auer, P. (1998). Code-switching in Conversation: Language, Interaction and Identity. London: Routledge.
Kääntä, Leila, et al. “Learning English through social interaction: the case of Big Brother 2006, Finland.” The Modern Language Journal 97.2 (2013): 340-359.
Leppänen, S. (2007). Youth language in media contexts: Insights into the functions of English in Finland. World Englishes, 26, 149-169.
Leppänen, S. (2012). Linguistic and generic hybridity in web writing: The case of fan fiction. In M. Sebba, S. Mahootian, & C. Jonsson (Eds.), Language mixing and code-switching in uniting: Approaches to mixed language written discourse (pp. 233—254). London: Routledge.
Leppänen, S., & Nikula, T. (2007). Diverse uses of English in Finnish society: Discourse-pragmatic insights into media, educational and business contexts. Multitingua, 26, 333-380.
Scollon, R. & Scollon, S. (2004). Nexus Analysis. Discourse and the Emerging Internet. London and New York. Routledge.
English in Finland 