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From: dsn@umcp-cs.UUCP (Dana S. Nau)
Newsgroups: net.travel,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Usenet Phrase Guide--request for help
Message-ID: <400@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Mar-86 17:44:10 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.400
Posted: Wed Mar 19 17:44:10 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Mar-86 06:31:14 EST
References: <1646@mtgzy.UUCP> <248@kvvax4.UUCP>
Reply-To: dsn@maryland.UUCP (Dana S. Nau)
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 23
Xref: watmath net.travel:2270 net.nlang:4317

In article <248@kvvax4.UUCP> harald@kvvax4.UUCP (Harald Eikrem) writes:
>anita@utastro.UUCP (Anita Cochran) writes:
>>We found that anywhere we went in Sweden, Denmark or
>>Norway everyone knew English since they must start learning it in 3rd
>>grade.
>
>This is about true.  I bet almost any person in this country at least
>understands "thank you".  And for the language question, "Do you speak
>English?", if someone dont answer reasonably to this, then either
>he/she dont speak the language, or you're in Finland  :-).

As I found out on a recent trip to Finland, nearly everyone there speaks
English too.  If I remember correctly, they all have to learn two foreign
languages in school, and most of them choose Swedish and English.

I would imagine the Finns have some pretty compelling reasons for learning
foreign languages:  Finnish is a difficult language to learn (for example,
they have no prepositions, but instead have about sixteen cases), and most
non-Finns would have little reason for learning it.
-- 

Dana S. Nau,  Comp. Sci. Dept.,  U. of Maryland,  College Park,  MD 20742
dsn@maryland		seismo!umcp-cs!dsn		(301) 454-7932