Anna-Maria’s Story: Language, Identity and Belonging in Finland

#17

In this episode of The Language Experiment, we continue our series on Language and Identity with a heartfelt and insightful conversation with Anna Maria, an entrepreneur and job coach who grew up in Finland in a multilingual family. With a Finnish mother, an Italian father, and parents who communicated in German, Anna Maria shares her unique experience of navigating childhood in a largely monolingual Finnish society.

We discuss what it was like growing up bilingual—and even trilingual—when most of her peers spoke only Finnish, how passive exposure to German shaped her understanding of languages, and the moments of both pride and isolation that came with being different. Anna Maria also reflects on societal attitudes towards language and cultural identity in Finland during the 80s and 90s, and how her own sense of belonging was influenced by these dynamics.

This conversation offers rich insights for anyone raising multilingual children or reflecting on their own multicultural upbringing.

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