TV | Clear news | Tuesday 22 October 2024

President’s spouse Suzanne Innes-Stubb.

Suzanne Innes-Stubb

Today we have a special broadcast when Selkouutinen’s guest is Suzanne Innes-Stubb, wife of President Alexander Stubb.

Innes-Stubb’s mother tongue is English. He tells the viewers of Selkouuti that it’s always worth trying to speak Finnish, even if you don’t know the language perfectly.

What languages are spoken in your family?

- I speak English to the children and Alex speaks Swedish to them.

We speak English together, but when there is dinner with the family, for example, we speak Swedish and Finnish and English mixed up.

And sometimes French is also in the mix when we have good friends in the village.

Do you think Finnish is a difficult language?

- It is quite difficult, especially when it is so different from the English language. But it’s interesting, and I like that it’s different.

And I think it makes me think differently. For example, the passive voice is used much more in Finnish than in English, and I think it shows that who does something is not as important as that it is done. But it is different compared to English language.

Innes-Stubb studied Finnish, but she learned Swedish from family and friends. Therefore, his Finnish vocabulary is larger, but he speaks Swedish a little more fluently.

Do you have any good tips, advice for those foreigners who live in Finland and want to learn Finnish or Swedish?

- I hope that I can show that even if you don’t speak Finnish or Swedish perfectly, it’s always worth trying to say something. That’s the most important thing.

You have relatives and friends in England, of course, where you are from. Have they ever asked you what the Finnish language is like and what have you answered?

- They know it’s a difficult language, but I try to teach them words, especially when they come to Finland and also the concept of guts, because it’s so important.

Indeed, if you are asked for an example of a Finnish word, what is that word and why?

Yeah, warmer because it sounds so fun and I like it.

- Then six comes back because there are two words that mean so many different things.

And also mother, because it is so different compared to other European languages like mother, maman, mutti, Mutter.

I think it shows how special the Finnish language is because there is an important word in any language, but it is so different in Finnish.

Thank you very much for the interview, Mrs. Innes-Stubb.

- Thank you.

The second part of Suzanne Innes-Stubb’s interview will be on the radio program Uutisviikko in clear Finnish this weekend.

Then Innes-Stubb tells, for example, what she thinks about the role of the president’s spouse and how Finns have received her.