Finnish Swedish Heritage Day

So November 6 (which is today in some parts of the world) is Finnish Swedish Heritage Day.

Very rarely in history do you find two societies which were brought together by violent means, and yet have such cordial, and even brotherly, relations. Definitely an example for the rest of the world.

To the Finns on Fakku: what is your take on this day? Does it mean anything special to you? Are you proud of the civil coexistence that the two nations have?

Honestly it isn't very important day for Finnish speaking majority in Finland, but it is very, very important for Swedish speking Finns.

Leaving aside the hate that Finns get when studying compulsory Swedish in schools, surely it's nice to have this kind of coexistence. There's really no proudness involved, it's something more natural and simplier than that.

And in Finland, Sweden is our 'beloved enemy' so to speak.

I was unaware that Finns were discriminated against in Swedish classes. Seems quite strange, given that it's required.

Come to think of it, I had a similar experience in India. I'm a Bengali, and I lived in the state of West Bengal. At my English-first-language school, we (=parents) had to pick a "foreign" language starting with grade one, and the two choices were Hindi and Bengali. Bengali is much more frequently used than Hindi in Bengal, but Hindi is useful throughout northern India, whereas Bengali is not.

So when I was put in Hindi, I was the only ethnic Bengali in the class. I always felt a sense of "why is he learning our language from my classmates, and especially the teacher. I found this just bizarre; these people are the minority in this state, where do they get off making me feel like the outsider in their enclave?

Problem isn't the language so to speak, Swedish is a fine language and all, but the actual problem is that it's compulsory in schools from junior high to high school and university. It does seem a bit silly that 95% of people has to learn the language that only 5% of people talk, and most of them can speak Finnish as well.

Also it's usually males who are angry about this, females just take it cool and don't complain about it. This can be seen in statistic, where females are most of the time better in Swedish than males.

I'm from Sweden and I agree that it sounds ridiculous. I don't know the reason behind the mandatory lessons in swedish, but I can't imagine that it'd be important. I sure as hell wouldn't want to learn finnish; not because I don't like Finland but because I don't find it interesting or useful.

If I remember correctly, I've received some hostility from finnish people when I've told them I'm from Sweden. I think it was on Omegle.
Even though learning swedish is mandatory, I don't see any reason to be hostile towards swedish people. Or do we, grossly generalized, have any influence over finnish politics?

I think the reason is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_People%27s_Party_of_Finland

Swedish speaking Finns are like the elite of Finland and unfortunately that might also lead some people thinking that Swedes are the same, which they are not.

All I know about Finland is Simo Hayha.

I learned something new about my home country, in fakku D: Yeah, before this thread I didnt know such a day exist. I may have heard about it in school once or twice, but thats it. So that said, I think everyone can guess that this day doesnt mean anything to me.
And I must admit that I dont like the idea that we HAVE to study swedish in schools. I was lucky in high school for having the most awesome teacher teach my class swedish, so I didnt start hating it really. The classes were fun and laid back and I thought it was funny how we girls could say anything (stupid jokes, friendly mocking and such) to the teacher and he would just reply to us sarcastically, usually in a same way we talked to him, but if the guys in the class said something like that to him, they got yelled at :D
That teacher was the best and he was actually a legend among the students. A year after I got away from there I read the newspapers and found out that some students had built a shrine for him.
And another funny thing: at the end of the winter that teacher always stopped shaving his beard and the legend around the school was that summer starts on a day when he shaves his beard. I dont know where it started or anything, but to us that day was the day when we knew summer is here :>

Good memories. But even tho we were slacking in his class and did half assed work, I was as good at swedish as I was in english (got 8 out of 10 in both). But yeah, I was lucky to have such a good teacher. But the other swedish teacher wasnt as nice and the ones who went to her classes hated swedish (and sweden in general) more than my class did.

[size=6]oh god, me and my off-topics again~[/h]

If I have ever heard about Finnish Swedish heritage day, I have blisfully forgotten all about it. Sounds cool enough, though.

I live in the southeastern part of Finland, seminear to the Russian border, and the influence of Sweden is a bit lesser here. I don't know any Swedish or even Swedish speaking people irl, but from what I have gathered they are very good neighbours. Even though the stereotype of Swedish people as raging homos lives strong, Swedes seem in many ways similar to Finns, just more sociable and less rude.