Stockholm resident Tony Hyvölä has found himself in several involuntary discussions about his Finnish accent. He has started to get tired of having to explain time and again about “how” he speaks Swedish and why he doesn’t sound “Swedish”.
– Why can’t you talk like everyone else here, I was told shortly after I had moved to Sweden and spoke a little more like a Finnish Swede, says Hyvölä, and continues:
– I had learned the language in Finland, and Swedish is spoken in a different way there.
Men and women can be treated differently
According to a new study from The Language Council at Isof and the Department of Nordic Languages at Uppsala University, men hear negative comments about their breaking more often than women. Something that Finnish Tony Hyvölä can also confirm.
– I myself have received some negative reactions, but when I spoke to other Finnish-speakers, and women in particular at that time, they said that they only received positive reactions to their accent.
See more about the new study on accents and Tony’s experiences of speaking Swedish with accents in the current affairs programme 15 minutes from Uutiset.