Young Finns snub their mother tongue by reading in English

Growing numbers of young people in Finland are buying books in English rather than in their mother tongue, raising fears among publishers over the future of translated literature.

One in four titles sold in Finnish bookshops last year were written in a foreign language, according to figures from the country’s association of booksellers. In the vast majority of cases, that language was English.

A major cause of the increased demand for English language works, say publishers, is BookTok – a reading community on TikTok that has a growing influence on the industry. Young readers do not want to wait for a Finnish translation to come out to take part in the BookTok conversation. Instead, they are simply buying the English-language version.

As is the case in neighbouring Sweden, the dominance of English across the internet, social media, film and TV also means it is seen as aspirational for young people to be seen to speak and read in English.

With a population of only 5.6 million, translated fiction has been a vital part of the Finnish publishing industry. Finnish language titles brought in just €26m (£23m) of the €57m generated by all fiction book sales across digital and print last year.

Among the most popular English language titles were works by the US authors Rebecca Yarros and Colleen Hoover.

Leena Balme of WSOY, a Finnish publishing house, said changed buying habits meant they had to think “very carefully whether it is worth the risk to translate a book into Finnish”. It was rare, she added, that a publisher had the rights and the manuscript for a book in time to publish it in Finnish at the same time as the English language version.

“I am a bit concerned. I’m mostly concerned for the young readers. It seems a bit cool to read in English,” said Balme. “On the streets of Helsinki you can find teenagers born in Finland with Finnish-speaking parents who speak English to each other.”

Another reason for the popularity of English is that some find the sex scenes less embarrassing. “When you read in English you can detach yourself a little bit,” said Balme.

WSOY is exploring using artificial intelligence to speed up the translation process, a tool that some publishers have already deployed. WSOY, however, has yet to use it. Balme said: “We have a long and respected tradition of translators in Finland. They are worried.”

Johanna Laitinen, who publishes translated literature at the Gummerus publishing house, said the dominance of English was a “Europe-wide phenomenon” and a big topic of conversation at book fairs.

She said the demand for a speedy English edition was putting translators under time pressure, adding: “English language is so dominant [across social media, the internet and entertainment] that it has glory in Finland.”

While English posed a challenge for publishers, it was not all negative. “It has to do with something about connection with the outside world. If you are connected with the international community for instance, there is something bigger there,” said Laitinen.