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Finnish flag hanging from the christmas tree

Learning Finnish

Etelä-Pohjanmaa - Suomen kielen koulutus ENG

In Finland, the official languages, or national languages, are Finnish and Swedish. The Finnish language is the most used in Finland. In Ostrobothnia, the majority language of many municipalities is Swedish while in South Ostrobothnia the language of all municipalities is Finnish. 

Learning a local language will help you to integrate in Finland, find work and things to do in your leisure time. 

Integration training

The purpose of integration training is to provide you with sufficient knowledge in Finnish or Swedish to be able to cope in society and work. 

If you are registered as a jobseeker at TE Services (Employment Agency), you should fill in an initial survey and integration plan there. If a TE expert assesses that you need Finnish or Swedish skills to get employed, you can get into integration training. The TE Office will advise you when the course starts.  

TE-palvelut, kotoutumiskoulutus. 

Language courses

You can find language courses for example at an adult college of a municipality. The enrolment in the courses is usually twice a year, in August for autumn courses and from December for spring courses. 

Finnish language self-study

On the internet there are a lot of different Finnish language courses and other material that allows you to study the Finnish language. 

FOR EXAMPLE THE FOLLOWING COURSES ARE ON THE INTERNET 

  • Yle Language School (Kielikoulu) –  a service where you can study Finnish or Swedish by viewing Yle’s video content in the application or browser. 
  • Duolingofree application, where you can study Finnish and Swedish easily and quickly by doing exercises. 

Download the application: : Google Play-kauppa or  App store.

Study with a browser: : Finnish: kielikoulu.yle.fi tai Swedish: sprakskolan.yle.fi

Dictionaries online

You can find more different courses in Finnish at InfoFinland: the Finnish language on the Internet — InfoFinland