Finlands Finns and Finlands Swedes

I feel like there actually are cultural differences between The Finns and the Finn-Swedes. There are some things I've personally noticed. Because The Finn-Swedes live mainly on the West Coast of Finland, their folklore has been traditionally maritime influenced. This might be one of the reasons Finnish speaking population considers them a bit posh. I find it rather funny because there are many Finnish speaking people I know who own a boat etc. Many Finnish people see Finn-Swedes more Skandinavian than Finnish speaking Finns. This is obviously due to the other Scandinavian languages that remind one another: Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. Finland isn't a Skandinavian country, but it is a Nordic one. Still, because the differences in our languages our culture is more Nordic than Scandinavian (if that makes sense). I don't think Finnish speaking population in Finland identify themselves as Skandinavian people, but I do believe that the Swedish speaking population does.

Richard D. Lewis writes about different cultures and different worlds in his book called When Cultures Collide - Managin Successfully across Cultures (1999, 2nd edition). Even though we are from the same culture, because of our language we are different from Swedish-speaking-Finns. I personally believe that language can represent us in different ways. I feel like a different person speaking in Swedish than in Finnish, like I'm adding another dimension to my reality.

It's funny how Swedish is our second language, even thought many people don't speak it and it feels somewhat foreign to us Finns. I assume that's why we see them different from us. There has been even petitions to remove Swedish as a mandatory subject in schools.

My English teacher once said to me:

"Finland is a bilingual country: 

one is Finnish and the other one is English".

I couldn't agree more. 

-Johanna