This paper discusses how public organizations such as hospitals deal with linguistic diversity in Finland, a country with two equal national languages, Finnish and Swedish. The study constitutes an analysis of the linguistic landscape of Turku University Hospital, which provides specialized healthcare in Southwest Finland. Firstly, data consisting of photographs of signage in two parts of the hospital was analysed. Secondly, to further explore the benefits and challenges related to multilingual signage, an interview with an expert at the hospital was conducted. The empirical results indicate that challenges relating to multilingual signage stem from a lack of awareness of either language rights in general or the hospital’s language policy, or a lack of competence in producing signs. The benefits of multilingual signage include increasing the visibility of languages and linguistic diversity, contributing to the inclusion of different language groups, and promoting multilingual practices at the hospital.

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Linguistic landscapes in healthcare

  • Eveliina Tolvanen,
  • Anne-Maria Kuosa,
  • Camilla Wide

摘要

This paper discusses how public organizations such as hospitals deal with linguistic diversity in Finland, a country with two equal national languages, Finnish and Swedish. The study constitutes an analysis of the linguistic landscape of Turku University Hospital, which provides specialized healthcare in Southwest Finland. Firstly, data consisting of photographs of signage in two parts of the hospital was analysed. Secondly, to further explore the benefits and challenges related to multilingual signage, an interview with an expert at the hospital was conducted. The empirical results indicate that challenges relating to multilingual signage stem from a lack of awareness of either language rights in general or the hospital’s language policy, or a lack of competence in producing signs. The benefits of multilingual signage include increasing the visibility of languages and linguistic diversity, contributing to the inclusion of different language groups, and promoting multilingual practices at the hospital.