Our second research project dealt with everyday interaction, and more specifically we focused on Finnish people’s attitudes towards the presence of English in otherwise Finnish-speaking interaction. We found this an interesting area to focus on, since the influence of English has become more and more prominent in Finland as well, which is bound to elicit different kinds of emotions and reactions in different people. It is evident that young people are more exposed to English via social media, for instance (Leppänen, Pitkänen-Huhta, Piirainen-Marsh, Nikula & Peuronen 2009). Therefore, we also wanted to know if there are differences in how people view the role of English in everyday communication relating to different personal characteristics, such as age or the frequency of how often one uses English. In the following, we will present how the research was carried out as well as what we discovered when conducting this study.
The study was carried out with individual interviews. There were four interviewees altogether, all of whom had somewhat quite different backgrounds: they came from different parts of Finland, represented different age groups and had different kinds of international contacts and experiences. Therefore, they were chosen as informants for this particular study. Each of them gave their written consent for participating in this study, and they were well informed what this study is about and that they cannot be identified under any circumstances. The interviews were carried out in Finnish, since it was the first language of all the interviewees.
The interview consisted of six questions, which are translated and listed below:
1. What kind of impression do you get of a person when they use English in addition to Finnish while speaking?
2. What is a typical person like who mixes English and Finnish in their speech?
3. When would you say that it is positive that someone uses English in their speech?
4. When is it negative?
5. Describe the prevalence of the phenomenon in Finland and in your everyday life.
6. In what kinds of situations do you yourself mix the languages if you do it at all?
The questions were sent to the interviewees one by one through WhatsApp, and they answered them with voice messages, which aided the transcription process. Having been transcribed, the answers were then analyzed, leading to the findings we will present next.
All the participants seemed to agree that when one uses English in their speech, it should have a logical role in the interaction. Otherwise, they may get a rather negative impression of the person. In other words, they are saying that code switching is understandable and acceptable, but unnecessary continuous usage of English words can even be annoying. The interviewees brought up that sometimes there are situations in which English is, in fact, required due to a non-Finnish participants, or to the lack of proper Finnish terms, for instance. In addition, sometimes the use of English may have a humoristic or artistic purpose, and in these cases its use is understandable. According to them, it is also acceptable to compensate for the lack of Finnish language skills with English. After all, getting understood is what makes or breaks a conversation and borrowing a couple of words from another language is not a very big sacrifice in order to get one’s message across.
In addition, according to our informants, in some contexts it is acceptable or even expected to use English amid Finnish. One interviewee told us that they play a lot of video games online with their friends, and in a certain game (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) communicating with the teammates is mandatory. Since the game is originally in English, the locations in the in-game maps have names either in English or in a Finnish slang, unique to the game. For example, there are quite a few spots in a map called “Mirage”, that the gamers almost refer to in English even though the conversation is otherwise in Finnish. Furthermore, words such as “underground”, “terrorist spawn” and “jungle”, are common callouts in English. While some words that gamers use that mix the two languages include, for example, “ylä-midi” (“Upper-middle”) or “konnu” (“connector”). Learning this particular vernacular is mandatory for working together efficiently. Also, it should be mentioned that the vernacular changes depending on who you play with. If you are playing with English-speaking gamers, they obviously don’t understand what “ylä-midi” means and using the longer, English version (upper-middle), is then preferred. This also shows that it’s completely acceptable to almost everyone to use a mixed style in the correct context.
On the other hand, if the mixed style does not bring anything new to the interaction, it is deemed to be bragging, useless or even annoying. One of the interviewees gave an example of this: “If a teenager uses the word ’bägi’ instead of the Finnish words ‘kassi (bag)’, it makes me feel like ‘well, was it really necessary to do that.” Another interviewee said that “When you’re speaking Finnish, speak Finnish. When you’re speaking English, speak English.” This shows that some prefer to speak one single language whenever it is possible. Another interviewee also pointed out that the frequent use of English words may steal the value of the message the speaker is trying to convey. For example, if the speaker is trying to mention an important point, but every other word they use is a foreign slang term and the other half of their terminology is just Finnish words translated into English, the uninitiated listeners might completely miss the point and just pay attention to the way the speaker in question is talking. In addition, according to the interviewees, using English in speech may at times exclude some Finnish people from the conversation, which was considered a negative thing. This is the case especially when you use a mixed style with older people, with people who don’t speak English well, or with someone who is not familiar with the particular slang.
It was also evident that even though the interviewees mostly seemed to agree on the conditions of when the use of English is acceptable, the intensity of the negative reactions they reported having had varied greatly. Some of them said that it is quite rare that they have any negative feelings when someone breaks the conventions. In such a case they may merely notice it, but almost instantly let it pass. In contrast, others claimed that they do not meet this phenomenon in their everyday life at all, or if they do, they find it annoying and feel antipathy towards the speakers. One interviewee even said that they go as far as to actively avoid mixing the two languages in question – that is how strong a negative reaction the use of a mixed style can cause. Therefore, it’s fair to say that a mixed style can get a negative reaction anywhere from being a bit off-putting to intense dislike and changing one’s own behaviour to be as different as possible from the user of mixed style. This was, in fact, one of the biggest differences among the informants, and each of their reported stances to this issue were different from each other.
In the end, we think that we all can agree that what matters the most is getting your message across. Knowing your conversation partner is the key in deciding what kind of vocabulary it is okay to use and in assessing how well they would understand the mixed style. Therefore, there isn’t a single acceptable type of mixing English and Finnish, for example. You have to adapt to your conversation partners’ language skills and preferences in order to get understood and not to create any unnecessary discord among yourselves. It is okay to have your own style and to speak the way that you want but you also have to accept that not everyone is going to agree with your language choices and it is likely that you are going to rub someone off the wrong way.
Once again, we are giving you, our dear readers, something to think about. How much do you speak your mother tongue and do you mix it with other languages like English? When is the last time you have been annoyed by the way someone speaks, if ever? What annoyed you? Have you ever annoyed someone by accident by speaking the way you feel like? What do you feel like is the “correct” way to mix (or not to mix) languages in your everyday life?
Once again, until the next time!
-Team Badminton
Sources
Sirpa Leppänen, Anne Pitkänen-Huhta, Arja Piirainen-Marsh, Tarja Nikula, Saija Peuronen, Young People’s Translocal New Media Uses: A Multiperspective Analysis of Language Choice and Heteroglossia, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 14, Issue 4, 1 July 2009, Pages 1080–1107, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01482.x
English in Finland 