In Finland, there are two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. Finnish is spoken by the majority, while Swedish speakers are in the minority. About 85% of the population have Finnish as their native language, while for 5% it is Swedish. Both language groups have their own schools and learning the other official language is obligatory. However, both language groups struggle with motivation when it comes to learning the other: both groups find learning the other language unnecessary and would rather focus on English and other more widely spoken languages. 

The language ambassadors have a solution to this problem. We inspire and motivate people to learn the other national language through individual stories. A language ambassador is someone who has learned the new language later in life; they are not from a bilingual family. By retelling their personal language story, how they learned the language and what kind of benefits and surprising possibilities it has opened, they act as an example to others. The ambassadors are a diverse group; everybody has their unique story in how and why they have learned the language and how it has changed the direction of their life. 

Since 2019, the language ambassadors have visited over 3 600 school classes and met over 70 000 students. Our visits have been incredibly well received, the average grade that teachers give us for the visits is 9,4 (on a scale from 4 to 10) and 60% of students say that the visit increased their interest for the other national language. The ambassadors do visits to school classes in Sweden as well, where Finnish is not an official language, but a large language minority group. In addition to school classes, the ambassadors have visited other organisations where language skills are important, such as hospitals and government institutions. In higher education, we coordinate a language mentoring program for those who start their university studies in the other language.

The school visits are free of charge for the schools, and all funding for the project comes from foundations and governmental institutions in Finland and Sweden; in 2025 we had 20 different funders. There are over a hundred language ambassadors, and they get paid for their visits, and in addition the organisation has five people working full time for coordination and administration. This year, we are hoping to get funding from the European union and to adapt our language ambassador model to other European countries with language minorities.