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Re:Why Finland’s schools are great (by doing what we don’t). by henrikschroder on Sunday October 16, 2011 @06:18AM (#3117024)
The only part of education where the language matters is when it comes to spelling, and the key factor there is the distance between the spoken language and the written language. In Finnish, these are close, i.e. words are spelled "as they sound", the rules are simple and consistent and there are few special cases, and as a result Finnish children have a much easier time learning how to spell compared to Danish or English children.
Re:Why Finland’s schools are great (by doing what we don’t). by Geee on Sunday October 16, 2011 @08:31AM (#3117187)
The Finnish language is one theory. There's lots of derivative words and it's really easy to know the meaning of a new word. Look from here: http://finnish-and-pisa.blogspot.com/

There's one example of the derivation:

'kirja' - 'book'

'kirjailija' - 'writer'

'kirjailla' - 'to embroider'

'kirjailu' - 'embroidery'

'kirjaimellinen' - 'literal'

'kirjaimellisesti' - 'literally'

'kirjaimisto' - 'alphabet'

'kirjain' - 'letter' (of the alphabet)

'kirjallinen' - 'written; literary'

'kirjallisuus' - 'literature'

'kirjaltaja' - 'typographer'

'kirjanen' - 'booklet'

'kirjasin' - 'font' (in typography)

'kirjasto' - 'library'

'kirjata' - 'to write down, to make a note of'

'kirje' - 'letter' (document)

'kirjeellinen' - 'by letter' (adj.)

'kirjelmä' - 'letter, note, message'

'kirjelmöidä' - 'to complain (by means of writing)'

'kirjoitella' - 'to write' (now and then)

'kirjoittaa' - 'to write'

'kirjoittaja' - 'writer' (person who performs a writing work)

'kirjoittaminen' - 'writing' (action)

'kirjoittautua' - 'to get enrolled, to log in'

'kirjoittelu' - 'writing' (now and then)

'kirjoitus' - 'writing' (result)

'kirjoituttaa' - 'to have ... written' (factitive of 'kirjoittaa')

'kirjuri' - 'scribe'

Re:Why Finland’s schools are great (by doing what we don’t). by dorian-graph on Sunday October 16, 2011 @06:54AM (#3117057)
You don't consider language important in conveying ideas, thinking, etc?
Re:Why Finland’s schools are great (by doing what we don’t). by henrikschroder on Sunday October 16, 2011 @09:06AM (#3117252)
What are you talking about?
Re:Why Finland’s schools are great (by doing what we don’t). by joesb on Sunday October 16, 2011 @04:52PM (#3118268)
> The only part of education where the language matters is when it comes to spelling

What about differences between languages in their ability to convey ideas.

Re:Why Finland’s schools are great (by doing what we don’t). by henrikschroder on Monday October 17, 2011 @06:09AM (#3119888)
We're talking about elementary school education here, I find it extremely difficult to believe that some languages are "better" than others at conveying the ideas at this level of education.