Sean McLachlan
I think I'm going to like Estonia ...
This country of 1.3 million people only has a little more than 900,000 people who speak Estonian as their native language yet they're confident enough with their national tongue to make a bilingual joke right as you enter the airport in the capital city of Tallinn.
Language was politics in the old Soviet republics, and for the long decades during which Estonia was part of the Soviet Union the people had to learn Russian. Many also learned Finnish through TV stations broadcast from Helsinki that were never jammed (more on that story later in the series) while English was something few people ever learned. Now all the younger generation is learning English and it's easy to get by without knowing any Estonian.
A lack of Estonian, of course, doesn't lessen the impact of this sign!
For more:
http://www.gadling.com/2013/02...
Naughty Bilingual Sign In Tallinn Airport, Estonia
Eestlased Eestis | 18 Feb 2013 | EWR
Eestlased Eestis
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