By Liisa, Topi, Eevaleena
Introduction
This essay discusses the use for English in signs at stores at the Valkea shopping center in Oulu. We chose to focus on six different stores, each of which represents a different type of store, and one bank. The stores we chose are Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, a bookstore, Clas Ohlson, an electronics and home improvement store, Intersport, a sporting goods store, Makia, a clothing store, Granit, an interior design store, XS Lelut, a toy store, and S-pankki, a bank. Three of these stores are owned by companies that are Finnish (Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, Makia, and S-pankki) and four by international companies (Clas Ohlson, Intersport, Granit, and XS Lelut).
We chose this approach to examine language use in Finnish businesses within the same shopping center. Part of what interested us, was whether stores owned by international companies used more English than those that are Finnish.
Studying linguistic landscapes can help us identify the role of and attitudes to language in our surroundings. Research in this field has comprised of analyzing texts on signs around the world in different sociolinguistic contexts, primarily in urban, multilingual contexts (Gorter, 2013, p. 1). Barni and Bagna note that due to factors like urbanization and immigrant settlement, urban spaces are increasing in importance as linguistic “showcases” (2010, p. 5). Because of this, these spaces provide plenty of interesting linguistic material for analysis.
Examining linguistic landscapes in commercial settings gives us insight into identities of local and international brands and companies. As linguistic landscapes evolve, it can show us the changing of values in business and marketing. The rise of English in these contexts around the world demonstrates that globalization and an international image are valued today. On the other hand, choosing to stick to the population’s native language signals that the company has a more local cultural identity. As Edelman and Gorter suggest, this contrast of the cosmopolitan image of English versus an ethnic language’s image of authenticity is affected by global and local market forces (2010, p. 10).
Signs in stores are not random bits of text but intentionally put there by companies or shopkeepers. However, decisions about these signs can be made by people far from the actual location of the sign (Edelman & Gorter, 2010, p. 3). This is especially true for businesses owned by international companies. Thought must be put into the language of these signs because, in addition to the company’s image, it affects what kinds of customers the store will attract. For these reasons, we feel that it is interesting to look at how and when companies choose to use English in Finnish businesses.
Findings
We have divided our findings into four categories based on different ways in which English was used in the stores. The categories are the following: English only, English used to grab attention, Finnish and English mixed together, and Same information in Finnish and English.
English only
Figure 1
Some of the stores had signs that were written completely in English. For example, all the permanent signs at the Makia store were in English, even though the company is Finnish (Figure 1). This might be because the company is trying to appeal to an international audience. There was a temporary sign on one of the windows promoting a Spring deal that had a mix of Finnish and English text, but that sign had the only Finnish text out of all the signs we found in the store. Another temporary sign inside the store promoting new arrivals was completely in English.
Figure 2
The products in XS Lelut are mostly from outside of Finland and therefore in general marketed in English. Most of the toy shelves have advertisements in English, which likely came with the products themselves. Many of the products have English names, and the stands or shelves on which they were presented had signs entirely in English (Figure 2). These signs likely were shipped with the products themselves, so it is not sure if the store had much say in this advertising being done in English. Clas Ohlson also had many signs advertising international products and companies that, like the signs in XS Lelut, most likely arrived at the store with the products themselves (Figure 3). The hand sanitizer at the store was also only labeled in English, which might be connected to Clas Ohlson being an international company, as the hand sanitizer label seemed to be a sticker with the official Clas Ohlson brand colors and font (Figure 4).
In addition to the previously mentioned signs, books that were written in English were labeled under the sign “Paperbacks” at Suomalainen Kirjakauppa. This might be a decision made based on the assumed English-speaking target audience of the sign.
Figure 3
Figure 4
English used to grab attention
Figure 5
In some signs, English words and phrases had been used to grab the customer’s attention. There was a sign advertising a sale on men’s clothes in Intersport, which had a mix of English and Finnish text, with English getting the larger font: “LAST CHANCE edulliset poistohinnat MIEHET” (Figure 5). “Last chance” and “miehet” are in equally large fonts, while “edulliset poistohinnat” is in a tiny one. The English phrase is at the top, used to grab the customer’s attention. There are many reasons why English might attract attention, for example relative brevity when compared to Finnish, style, and pre-established association with commercials among others.
“Top 10” was discovered to be a term that has made its way to Suomalainen Kirjakauppa. Whether or not this is meant to be read as a loanword in English or not is not clear. Similarly, a “Top 3” sign could be found in XS Lelut. A “Tiktok made me buy it #BookTok” sign (Figure 6) appears to be a sign of the increasing influence social media has on people’s current reading habits.
Figure 6
English and Finnish mixed together
Figure 7
Most of the Signs in Suomalainen Kirjakauppa were in Finnish. The core demographic the store is native Finnish-speaking people, as can be expected from the name of the store Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, “Finnish Bookstore”. However, a surprising number of signs also featured English. At the entrance of the store there were signs advertising Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol children’s books, which had a combination of the brands’ logos in English, and the rest of the text in Finnish (Figure 7). A “Suomalaisen Suosikit” (“Finnish [Bookstore]’s Favorites”) note giving the store staff’s recommendation of a book from the “Paperbacks” shelf had the title printed on the note in Finnish, while the handwritten book recommendation was in English (Figure 8). A fantasy book was being advertised as having been praised by Publishers Weekly for its jaw dropping “cliffhangers”. An “Aromastick” was advertised with words such as “Relax”, “Focus”, “Energy” & “Balance”, with each word getting a short explanation in Finnish (Figure 9), although it was left unclear whether these words were also included in the product names.
Figure 8
Figure 9
Most of the product names in Intersport were in English, and so the signs promoting them were also partly in English, partly in Finnish, e.g. “Mckinley villapohjasukat, 2PR PACK”. More mixing of the languages is used in “löytyy myös short ja long lahjemitat” (Figure 10). Mixing Finnish and English in the same sign in Intersport can also be seen in the “LAST CHANCE” sign featured in the “English used to grab attention” section of this essay. Signs found in Clas Ohlson with the texts “Ripusta & Fiksaa” and “Maalaa & Fiksaa” featured an interesting combination of traditional Finnish and an informal English loanword.
The advertising in Granit was minimalist and there were not many signs in the store. This may have been due to spatial constraints of the store or just a stylistic choice of the company. There was one sign that had a mix of Finnish and English that read “Liitutaulu tarra A4 5-pack 9.90€”. The word “pack” is used here in the same way as in the product signs in Intersport, although in this case the name of the product is presented in Finnish. There was also a sign on the wall promoting glass jars that had the loanword “chutney” in it.
Figure 10
Figure 11
Same information in Finnish and English
Figure 12
Although this was not very common, some signs had essentially the same information in both Finnish, and English. Most notably, the signs that were presented outside the S-Pankki presented the exact same information in both English and Finnish (Figure 12). There appeared to be no significant preference one way or the other, although the Finnish texts were situated above the English ones. Tonally the text appeared to be informational, and not an advertisement.
In XS Lelut there was a sign promoting new products with the text: “Uutuus! New! Nyhet!” (Figure 13). The Finnish text is in the largest font and at the top, while the English and Swedish ones are at the bottom. The demographic of the store could be considered to be multilingual, and the company is also notably international, but the main audience of the signs in the store are the same presumed Finnish-speaking customers as at the other stores in Valkea.
Figure 13
“CLICK & COLLECT, noutopiste” (Figure 14) was an example of a preference for giving the English text more salience. “Click & Collect” is both situated above the Finnish text and written in a larger font. While “Click & Collect” and “noutopiste” are not the exact same word for word, they do hold the same meaning to the customer. A “Click & Collect” sign was found in both XS Lelut and Intersport.
Figure 14
Analysis
As presented above, we discovered several instances of English being used either in tandem with or instead of Finnish in the shopping center. Differences arise when comparing the specific ways in which English is used.
Intersport, Clas Ohlson and Makia especially seem to prefer the use of English in marketing. While Finnish is also used, English seems to have larger fonts and may be used to draw attention, while Finnish text is generally given a smaller font. The image of internationality and success may be a factor for the preference of English over Finnish in certain cases.
The instances of anglicisms and code-switching appeared to take place mainly in stores like Clas Ohlson and XS Lelut. The adoption of the terms such as “Fiksaa” or “Cool” in conjunction with Finnish could indicate an attempt to project and informal, casual tone, making the consumer feel relaxed. With Intersport it seems to be the reverse, with word choices like “last chance” creating a sense of urgency. Stores like Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, Intersport and Clas Ohlson used terms which clearly had their origins in English but seem to have made their way to the Finnish vernacular, e.g. “click and collect” “5-pack” “top 10”. The use of numerals in the former two examples results in more code switching in speech, e.g. “Viis-pack” or “top-kymmenen”.
In contrast to the informal messaging found in the previous cases, the text found on the signs of S-Pankki was plain and straightforward. Both Finnish and English-speaking demographics are catered to in more or less equal measure (perhaps both demographics are taken for granted because of the necessity of banks).
Edelman & Gorter (2010) found that the greatest amount of English is used in electronics, while bookstores tended to use the local native language (in their study, Dutch). In our study both appear to still mostly use Finnish, though Clas Ohlson and even Suomalainen Kirjakauppa had a surprising number of signs written in English.
As Valkea is one of the larger shopping centers in Oulu, and located in the city center, or as it is put on their web page “heart of Oulu, a place full of experiences”. The use of English is likely motivated somewhat by their attempt to attract visiting tourists to shop in Valkea. As stated by Edelman & Gorter (2010): “There seems to be a basic distinction between ‘locals’ […] and ‘foreigners’ on the other, who are all supposed to be able to read English” (p.10). Whether or not these ‘foreigners’ actually know English, they are expected to. English is used as the de facto substitute whenever attempting to reach a foreign demographic. This may have had some role to play in how common the use of English appears in Valkea as a whole.
Conclusion
We discovered four major ways in which English appeared in the linguistic landscape of Valkea, with some overlapping between stores.
A. To draw attention.
B. To combine it with Finnish (code switching).
C. To use loan words that have already been assimilated to Finnish vernacular.
D. To translate Finnish texts.
A. appeared to be mostly used with sports, clothing and toy stores, B. at electronics and toy stores, C. at book, sports and electronics stores, and finally D. at the bank service point. Of the places we looked at, the ones using English the least or moderately were the bank’s service point and the home decoration store (though as stated previously this may have been due to outside limitations). For Finnish companies, Suomalainen Kirjakauppa and Makia used quite a bit of English in their signs, while Granit for a foreign company was restrained in its use of English. Intersport, Clas Ohlson and XS Lelut used English liberally, though perhaps not as much as one may expect of an international company. There also seems to be a concerted effort on the part of the shopping center as a whole to reach a foreign audience, which may motivate the use of English on a larger scale than just singular choices the stores themselves make.
In Valkea, we discovered commonalities between previous studies on linguistic landscapes, and the varied ways in which the seeking of profit manifests in the use of languages in advertising and messaging. However, in our study we discovered complexities and outside factors which may alter the way the languages in question are used, and the use of English cannot necessarily be entirely predicted by who owns which particular store. A store being owned by a Finnish company does not guarantee signs written in Finnish, and vice versa an international company may choose to have their in-store signs written in the native language.
References:
Barni, M. & Bagna, C. (2010). Linguistic Landscape and Language Vitality. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. 3–18). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Edelman, L. & Gorter, D. (2010). Linguistic Landscapes and the Market. In H. Kelly-Holmes & G. Mautner (Eds.), Language and the market (pp. 96–108). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gorter, D. (2013). Linguistic landscape. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: Blackwell.
Valkea Shopping Centre. Retrieved from: Valkea Shopping Centre: A shopping centre full of experiences – Valkea on ainutlaatuinen kahdesta korttelista ja niitä yhdistävästä katetusta Kesäkadusta muodostuva yli 60 liikkeen kokonaisuus Oulun sydämessä. (kauppakeskusvalkea.fi)
English in Finland 