On Tuesday 11 April 2006 01:02 pm, Per Jessen wrote:
James Knott wrote:
Linux or Linus? Linus Torvalds IS Finnish, but quite probably also speaks Swedish.
As I recall, he lived in a Swedish area of Finland, so by nationality, he's Finnish, but by language he's Swedish,
A "Swedish area of Finland"? - that's like calling Hamburg "a German area of Denmark". Or York "an English area of Denmark". Let's not go there :-)
According to wikipedia, the omnipotent source of all fact:
"Seine Familie gehört zur schwedischsprechenden Minderheit in Finnland. Er besuchte ab 1988 die Universität Helsinki."
Whatever languages Linus may or may not speak, he is clearly Finnish, though he belongs to the Swedish-speaking minority. How Linus sees himself is his matter, but for most intents and purposes he is Finnish.
Personally, I speak three languages like a native, and another two close enough for only natives to tell otherwise. My nationality is still only Danish.
Of course, this written by a guy living in a country with four official languages among a population less than that of my county - Los Angeles. :) (In all honesty, I loved the summer in '91 where I worked at Migros as a student intern.) -- kai - www.perfectreign.com Wo ist der Ort für den ehrlichsten Kuss Ich weiss, dass ich ihn für uns finden muss Auf 'ner Strasse im Regen, auf 'nem Berg nah beim Mond Oder kann man ihn nur vom Totenbett holen