This post will be about how pleasantly this country surprised me with the number of people who know English. As is known, there are two official languages in Finland. The first one is Finnish and the second is Swedish. Street names, product lines, instructions - everything is duplicated in Swedish. But what was my surprise when I realized that whoever I asked for help, speaking in English, everyone can understand and answer this! It's amazing how well the Finns know English, how fluent they are. And not only the young population, but also adults and the elderly. In Russia, everything is completely different. In our country one official language is Russian. Since my city (St. Petersburg) is attractive for tourists, we can find an English translation here. Menus in cafes, street names, audio guides in museums - all this can be found in the international language. But if you, as a foreigner, stop a person on the street, asking for help not in Russian, most likely you will not understand, especially adults. Perhaps some of the people who are reading this blog will ever decide to visit St. Petersburg, so I would like to give some tips:
1. Download several dictionaries and translators before you travel.
2. For easy navigation around the city, download the 2Gis application - it is available in several languages, besides the maps work offline
3. If necessary, ask for help from young people working in restaurants and coffee houses. Most of us know English at least at a basic level and 99% of us have smartphones with Internet access, most likely you will not be denied
In my opinion, Finland is an excellent proof of how important and useful it is to know many languages. This is something that can come in handy and help out at the most unexpected moment.
Learn languages!