1. Finland

2. Parliament and Government
Finland is a demokrati with a riksdag consisting of 200 riksdagsmän, and a regering with ministers. Finland is a republik where a president-val is held every six years and riksdags- och kommunalval are held vart fjärde år.
democracy
parliament
members of parliament (MP’s)
government /Cabinet
republic
presidential election
parliamentary-
municipal elections
every four years

3. Facts and Figures
Finland has a befolkning of a little more than 5 million invånare. About 70% of the land is covered with forests where tall, gran and björk are the most common trees. Antalet sjöar is estimated to about 188,000.
population
inhabitants
pine
spruce
birch
the number of lakes

4. Climate
Thanks to Golfströmmen, the medel-temperaturen is warmer than in t.ex. Canada. Finland is called Midnattssolens land, because the sun går inte ner at all from slutet av maj till mitten av juli. During cold winters hela Bottenviken and much of the skärgården freeze over.
the Gulf Stream
average/mean temperature
for example/for instance
The Land of the Midnight Sun
doesn’t set
late May till mid July
the entire Gulf of Bothnia
archipelago

5. Languages
Finland has two officiella språk. Finnish belongs to the finsk-ugriska language group. There are about 300,000 finlandssvenskar who speak Swedish as their modersmål. The Lapps or Sami speakers are an important språklig minoritet.
official languages
Finno-Ugric
Swedish-speaking Finns/Finland-Swedes
mother tongue
linguistic minority
Link

6. Literature
The Finnish nationalepos, the Kalevala, sammanställdes av Elias Lönnrot and was published in Ända sedan dess, Kalevala has inspired kompositörer as well as målare, like Sibelius and Edelfelt för att nämna några få.
national epic
was compiled by
Ever since
composers
painters
to name but a few

7. Tove Janssons books about Muminfamiljen har översatts into more than thirty languages.
Samtida/nutida författare include such names as Arto Paasilinna, berömd för his komiska romaner, Leena Lehtolainen and Kjell Westö.
the Mumin family
have been translated
Contemporary writers
renowned for
comic novels

8. Education
De flesta barn in Finland go to dagis. At the age of six they go to förskola. After six years in lågstadiet, they go on to högstadiet.
Most children
kindergarten
pre-school
comprehensive school, lower level
comprehensive school, upper level

9. After that they can choose if they continue to
gymnasiet or go to en yrkesskola. Most of de som go
to gymnasiet take their studentexamen after three years.
upper secondary school
a vocational school
those who
matriculation exam