I live in finland and I would like to know that if I change my native
laguage from finnish to english will I still be forced to attend the
mandatory swedish lessons that they have in finnish schools?

---

Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 16 May 2006 10:01 PDT

Are we talking about high school or college?  Thanks!

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

---

Clarification of Question by teemu-ga on 16 May 2006 10:11 PDT

We are talking in high school.

I doubt it  - besides wondering how you could change your native
language from Finnish to English if you are a Finn.  Apparently
immigrants only have to learn one or the other national language, the
same applying to the small recognized Sami and Romani native
minorities.

This site shifts to English for the description of the school system:
http://www.spd-bildungsserver.de/internationales/finnland.htm

About 2/3 of the way down this long site one can find the language
requirements of school leavers:
http://www.land.salzburg.at/htblha/cyber/FINNLAND.HTM

However, Wikipedia seems to indicate that recently the Centrist
government has removed this requirement.  See the last sentence on the
page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toinen_kotimainen_kieli

This site is about education for immigrants:
http://www.edu.fi/maahanmuuttajat/esite/OPH_maahanmuu.ajaesite_envalmis.pdf

There's something wrong with that wikipedia article.Nowadays you don't
have to take swedish as a part of the college exams put you have to
take it as a part of the high-school exams.