Transcription
Hi, everybody! Today I am in Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. They speak their own language here: Finnish. Their native language is Finnish, but I believe most of them can speak English. Well, I will show you the city around and I will talk to some people to find out how well they can speak English. Let's go!
Behind you can see a street market. Finland is famous for its delicious seafood, so I'm going there and try some. Let me enjoy my meal: some fish, potato, asparagus.
May I ask you a few questions? Yeah. What is your name? My name is Samuel. My name is Julio. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. What do you do? Well, I mostly work as a, like a forest technician, so I like, I don't know what it's called in English, but I remove trees that I don't want to be there and I leave the good trees. I see. So, so the good trees get more like energy and water, so they grow bigger and... Interesting. And the forest is better and it is worth more money. I see, so you're like a forest ranger or something. Well, I guess I just use a like a motor saw and walk around.
I saw you just before you were exercising. Yeah, yeah, I'm waiting for my bus, so I'm just, I have an hour to wait here, so I thought I'd train. How often do you speak English? Not often. I think I'm really bad at speaking English. I don't like speaking English, but I guess I should speak more English. Yeah, I guess so. You speak English well. Well, I guess you learn from the Internet and movies and so on and so forth. So when you watch a movie, do you usually, let's say an American movie for example, is it in English or is it dubbed in Finnish? No, no, never. I would never be able to watch anything that's dubbed. I want it to be the original. Yeah, dubbing kind of sucks. So if I watch a Spanish movie, I want them to speak Spanish, but then I need, of course, text... subtitles. Sure, subtitles. That's what I always recommend to my students. Never watch a dubbed movie. It's kind of lame. I think it's really lame.
And what do you enjoy doing in your free time? Well, I play a lot of guitar and harmonica, and then I train with gymnastic rings. I see. And I, I cook a lot. I like eating good food, and I read. I guess, I guess that's it. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you spending some time with me.
Helsinki is a city with very few cars. Lots of people like renting these bikes. You can ride a bike the whole day - 24 hours - for only 5 euros. So, what's your name again? Juha Dolskanen. Wow, that's a difficult name. Juha Tanskanen. Kind of that. How have you learned English? At school, and then also, I think computer, video games. All that stuff. Do you like video games? No, no, not anymore, but when I was younger. I see. And do your friends or relatives speak English too? Yeah, I think all of them can speak English, yeah. So, would you say most people in Finland speak English well? Yeah, or most people like more about the same age as I in Helsinki, I think. But I think it's... it's less common like my parents and people their age. But people your age and younger... Yeah, I think mostly, and even younger and younger, they start to speak English language. I've heard your educational system is one of the best in the world, so I assume the English classes are very good. Yeah, they're really nice, yeah. The teachers and everything. Yes. I think it's very much about the pop culture, and even increasing the whole grammar that you start use it very young.
Are you from Helsinki? Yes, yes. Born here. Yes. Do you often speak English? Quite often because of my profession. By the way, what do you do? I'm a filmmaker. So... Cool, man! Yeah, different kind of colleagues abroad and... So, you communicate in English all the time. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Very nice. So, have you made any films? Yes, I have. What kind of films do you make? I have this first feature-length documentary of a wedding in Barcelona, which was filmed in Barcelona. It was finished one year ago. So, now I make these others in Laplands. Excellent! Yeah. Do you enjoy traveling? Yeah, but of course I try to minimize because of the situation the world's going through. Of course, because of my profession I have to travel to some parts. Maybe I'll try to travel more in south Finland or near. Are there any other beautiful cities near here, beautiful sights? Which one would you recommend besides Helsinki? Yeah, I think depends if you want kind of a similar thing, then it's like Tampere maybe or this kind of city. But I think very fascinating is the eastern border near the Russian border or the Lapland. Well, really nice meeting you. Ok, nice meeting you. Thank you for the interview. Yeah, thanks. Take care. Have a nice day. Yeah, thanks to you. Bye!
Could you please tell me your name? My name is Elina Lund and she's Olga. Olga, nice to meet you. So how often do you take her for a walk? Three times a day, about. Is she an active dog? Yes, she is really. She's really cute. Thank you. And how have you learned English? At school, and I have been in Brighton as a language course when I was about sixteen or so. So you studied there. Yes, and of course I have traveled a lot, so I have to use English when I'm traveling. Do you also speak English with tourists here or not often? Yes, when I'm living in the middle of Helsinki, so often tourists come and ask something about me. Do you have some relatives abroad in other countries? In Sweden, yes. But not in English speaking countries. And how do you communicate with this person in Sweden? In Swedish. So you can also speak Swedish? Yes, I can. Is Finnish and Swedish similar languages? No. Not at all? Swedish and English and German are quite alike, but not Finnish. Finnish is very different than other languages. Which do you think is the most difficult, English, Swedish, or maybe Finnish? I think Finnish for... Foreigners. Foreigners, yes. How do you say thank you very much in Finnish? Kiitos oikein paljon. Kiitos joten paljon. Thank you. Bye-bye. Have a nice day. Same to you.
What is your name? Emilia. And what do you do, Emilia? I'm a student, but right now I'm babysitting. All right! Is that a boy or a girl? A boy. What's his name? Hmm... William. It's my first time with him. Ok, and how is this job? Is it difficult? Well, I do a lot of babysitting, so I'm pretty used to it. But he's the youngest that I'm with now. He's 6 months old. All right, that's very young. And what do you study? I'm gonna be a teacher. Excellent, I'm a teacher too. I'm an English teacher. I, an Elementary School teacher. I see. Are you from Helsinki? Well, I was born in Espoo, which is pretty close, but I've lived in Helsinki for at least 10 years. Do you like it here? Yes. Do you miss home? I think I consider this my home. How often do you speak English? Well, I used to work at a hostel last summer. So back then, like every day, but I don't know. Sometimes, not every day, not so often. Is being able to speak English an important skill in your opinion? Yes. For your job or...? For life! For life, sure. We can communicate right now. Yes. Do you sometimes speak English with tourists here? Yeah, sometimes or some... there's some exchange students in the university, so sometimes we can. Well, I'll let you work. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Nice to meet you, Emilia. Nice to meet you.
So Helsinki has lots of parks, as you can see here. The natural beauty is amazing with rocks, trees in the heart of the city. This is right in the middle of the city. You can enjoy city life and also the peace and quiet of the nature, like I'm doing here. It's a very nice place, I recommend you to visit.
Hi, what's your name? Jorma. I'm Julio. Nice to meet you. And are you from Helsinki? Where are you from? Helsinki. Do you like Helsinki? Yes. It's beautiful. Do you like the sea? Of course! What about your bike? Do you like riding your bike? Yo, everyday. The weather is very good today. Yep. And what do you do for a living? Do you work right now? No. Retired. Very old man. I see. How old are you? 64. 64 years old. Yeah. All right! Really nice to meet you. Have a good day. Kiitos. Thank you.
I loved my time here in Helsinki. I spent two days, it was enough to see everything. The city is not very big. I walked everywhere, I took a boat tour, and I talked to people. As you could see, most of them speak English fluently. Those two young guys spoke English very well. That girl, the babysitter, could communicate easily in English. That middle-aged woman had no problems at all to communicate with me, and even that 64 year old man could speak a little. Of course, it was not very easy for him, but he had the right attitude, he tried to communicate with me, and I was glad for that. So if your English is pre-intermediate or intermediate, you're ready to see the world. Go travel, go abroad, see nice cities, communicate with people. If you're not there yet, if your English is elementary or beginner, and you want to have classes at my school EnglishBay, apply for a free trial lesson here, and maybe I will see you around. Take care!