<p>I'm currently in 10th grade and I aspire to be a school admin (if being a teacher first is necessary, than one of ESL or French). I am pretty passionate about education and I know that the Finnish public education system is the world's best, so I plan on studying in Finland during college. My question: how important is knowing Finnish. I know Finnish is a very hard language to learn, and that Finland has Swedish as a second official language, so I was wondering: can one get along in Finland just speaking Swedish? Thank you.</p>
<p>Honestly, you can get about with your daily life in Finland just speaking English! They know Finnish is pretty obscure (only related to Hungarian, not other Scandinavian languages) and do not expect visitors to know a word of it. A very high percentage of Finns speak English and nearly every one at any tourist attraction, airport or train station.</p>
<p>But in answer to your question yes, a large percentage of Finns speak Swedish and you will find most signs and public announcements in both Finnish and Swedish. If there is no English translation, Swedish is much more guessable.</p>