Spanish institutes in Finland

[revontuli.essi]

Hello,

I was wondering if there's any Spanish Institute(Like The Cervantes Institute) in Finland. Does anyone have an idea?

[revontuli.essi]

So it means there is none?

[EP]

I have never heard of one. There is (or has been) a Finland-Spain society, but their pages have been last updated three years ago.
http://www.suomiespanjaseura.fi/fi/espanjankieli.php

[revontuli.essi]

Thank you very much, EP. I have also found the website of Spanish Club of Finland, they seem to have activities. But it surprises me there's not a branch of Cervantes Institute. I wish they opened one.

Have a nice evening,
Revontuli

[Tiwaz]

Thank you very much, EP. I have also found the website of Spanish Club of Finland, they seem to have activities. But it surprises me there's not a branch of Cervantes Institute. I wish they opened one.

Have a nice evening,
Revontuli

We are speaking of country with 5 million people and population density of 15 people per square kilometer , where everyone graduating from basic education speaks has studied at least 3 languages.

How much demand you think Cervantes institute would find here?

[revontuli.essi]

I really don't understand your reaction. As far as I can guess, Sweden is not a very populate country either and people also speak at least 2 languages. But they have a branch there.

[interleukin]

You obviously do not know very much about the difference between Finland and Sweden.

[revontuli.essi]

It's very surprising that this forum is full of intolerant and rude people who doesn't know how to express themselves decently or lack the ability of teaching others if they don't have enough knowledge about something. Your point of view about having Cervantes Institute in your country is so ridiculous. The population could be a reason but they have a branch in a country with 2.5-3 million of people. And let's see your other reason that people in Finland has studied at least 3 languages in basic education. I really don't think the situation is any different or less in Sweden.

Please spend your time here to contribute, not to give preaches. And thank you, EP, for being the only decent and kind person in this topic.

[interleukin]

Sweden has hundreds of thousands of people from other countries living there. They tend to speak other languages than Swedish. Some of them even speak Spanish. Finland is the opposite of Sweden. Shall I keep going with the geography info for you?

[Tiwaz]

It's very surprising that this forum is full of intolerant and rude people who doesn't know how to express themselves decently or lack the ability of teaching others if they don't have enough knowledge about something. Your point of view about having Cervantes Institute in your country is so ridiculous. The population could be a reason but they have a branch in a country with 2.5-3 million of people. And let's see your other reason that people in Finland has studied at least 3 languages in basic education. I really don't think the situation is any different or less in Sweden.

Please spend your time here to contribute, not to give preaches. And thank you, EP, for being the only decent and kind person in this topic.

Do they have branch in country with 2,5-3 million which has zero connection to anything Spanish?
Or country which has their population shot over huge area?

You see, even if someone in Tornio did feel like studying in Cervantes school, they are going to consider moving to Helsinki for it as a slight handicap.

Cervantes institute in Finland would be hard pressed due to combination of population and geography to get one class full every year. Too few people to have interest in Spanish, which we recognize as being overall far less useful than combination of English and German (English current lingua franca and Deutche being spoken in most important economical areas in EU). And out of those who would have interest will be thrown all over the country.

It is huge difference compared to countries you mentioned with 2,5-3 million. Slovenia I think? Their population density is 90 people per square kilometer.
Those 3 million people would all be within spitting distance of institute. Not to mention that costs of running a school in 3rd world are dirt cheap.
In Finland, you would most likely barely cover rent for suitable location in central Helsinki for total cost of running a school in Slovakia.

On top of that, in Finland competent teachers have strict requirements.

With quick study I found only one nation with lower population density. Russia with about 8 people per square kilometer.

Pity that Russikies are concentrated in rather small area of their huge nation AND they come with population of over 100 million.


I find it sad how people from abroad fail to study the realities of Finland and then come asking rather foolish questions like "why product X which would be of interest to extremely small amount of people is not commonly sold in Finland?" Answer: Because it would not be economically very good idea! Same applies to Cervantes.

Think with your brain people!

[inkku]

There are some association linked Latin America, you can find them in this list:
http://www.cimo.fi/dman/Document.phx/~p ... am-esp.doc

[ajdias]

Tiwaz reasoning may be economical sensible but having a Cervantes branch here could be as easy as a bureaucrat in Madrid scratching his testicles (they do that a lot, itchy bureaucrats) and deciding "let's move into Helsinki". Or some more entrepreneurial lecturer, sent by the Institute to the local Uni, starts making arrangements and contacts between the different powers...
There's an Italian Institute in Hki, hq:ed in some of the finest real estate of this city .Does it justify the cost? As far as I know there's less interest on the Italian language, and I've heard it bo bes on the decline, maybe they just want to hold on to that influence. Or perhaps it's about selling more genuine pizza (yes, please!)

IIRC, the Xunta de Galicia pays a lecturer at the Uni of Helsinki. That has to be a lot of money for a language that most of you wouldn't be able to recognize upon hearing. The Brazil embassy started their own project a few years ago teaching "brazilian" classes at the embassy premises . They have more classes now and they are very popular. I doubt they make up for the costs, even if the premises are free but these things don't really go by a normal cost-benefit analysis. It's about power, influence, tourism, exports, lifestyle and more often than not, bureaucrats moods.

[gfunho]

Do they have branch in country with 2,5-3 million which has zero connection to anything Spanish?
Or country which has their population shot over huge area?

I suppose the statement about Finland having zero connection to anything Spanish was a joke.

What is the number of Finnish tourists going to Spain? How many finns are living in Malaga? How many finns travels to South America?
How many business they have there? (e.g. the paper factories)

So, that you cannot see any reason for having a Cervantes institute where the finns can learn the most spoken language in the world as a mother tongue and the second overall does not mean that the claim was stupid.

And yes, Finland has 5 million inhabitants with low density but Helsinki/Espoo/Vantaa have around a million and they look quite dense to me.

P.S.
I sometimes have the feeling that people likes to scare newcomers to the forum as a hobby.

[interleukin]

The OP compared Finland to Sweden, a country that has a couple of million people of foreign origin, and hundreds of thousands with Spanish as their first language. So yeah, compared to Sweden, it really is a joke to have an institute like that in Finland.

[sammy]

AFAIK, it's not in the primary interests of Instituto Cervantes to "preach for the converted" - I don't see what the number of those people already speaking Spanish as their mother tongue in country X relates with this issue...? Isn't the purpose of cultural centres abroad to promote the culture/language/etc of their country to the people of that country?

Anyway...

If you ask me, there could well be a potential "interest market" for Instituto Cervantes in Finland (again, this probably would read "Helsinki" ) since in the past few years, the younger Finns have shown a growing interest towards study/exhange opportunities in Spanish-speaking countries (Spain & Latin America) and -I'd presume- also towards the language itself (although my own experience is that surprisingly many of these youngsters are looking for English-language study programmes in these countries...)

Just exactly what the reasons are for Instituto Cervantes not currently having a contact point here, one should perhaps ask directly from them - after all, in addition to the Italian Cultural Institute, there's the Centre Culturel Francais, the Hungarian cultural and Scientific Centre, Goethe Institut Helsinki, etc etc. And the British Council of course.

Spanish language classes (outside school that is) are arranged by adult education centres, etc... there's also this organisation... http://www.suomenespanjanopettajat.fi/index.php?lang=es - Spanish is taught as a foreign language option in many schools, that is... but it would be interesting to have Instituto Cervantes here as well.

Perhaps -and now I'm only guessing- the local Spanish embassy incorporates some of the I.C. functions, at least when it comes to promoting Spanish culture in Finland? I'm not sure. But I believe the Embassy would know, if anyone's desperate to find out if the IC is considering/has considered opening a branch here...