Consul general of Finland in St. Petersburg Olli Perhentupa suggested creating in Internet the virtual center of the Finish language teaching for citizens of northwest Russia. He reported about it to Media center FINUGOR in the course of holding Days of Finno-Ugric culture in Komi Republic.
We would remind that the minister for foreign affairs in Finland Alexander Stubb during his visit to Petrozavodsk in February offered help on Suomi’s part in studying Finnish in Karelia. The A. Stubbs’s proposal has been endorsed by the president of Finland Tarja Halonen. The head of Karelia Andrey Nelidov agreed with offer but with reserve that the help of neighbouring states should spread to the Karelian and the Veps languages. He promised to obtain in Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation inclusion of Finnish into the list of main foreign languages.
O. Perhentupa mentioned that nowadays in Russia there are many difficulties for organization of teaching Finnish. “There aren’t enough teachers and schoolchildren who want to study Finnish. It is difficult to gather a group of children for these purposes. Parents understand that when moving to another town it will be easier to find an opportunity to study English than Finnish, - pointed the Consul general. – But the interest in the Finnish language is growing in northwest Russia regions. The contacts between schools and universities of your country and Finland are increased; in St. Petersburg the society of the Ingrian Finns Inkerin Liitto has organized courses of the Finnish language. There is an interest in Murmansk and Archangelsk and in St. Petersburg there are more persons who are interested in studying Finnish. We want to support this desire for learning Finnish”.
According to him an arrangement of the virtual center of teaching the Finish language using the facilities of one of the institute of higher education in Russia or in Finland, where there are abundant traditions of investigation of Finland-Russia cultural relations and languages, may become a solution of the problem. “It can be the university in Joensuu or in Petrozavodsk, - supposed O. Perhentupa. – This kind of teaching we can organized at least for citizens of northwest Russia”.