We have French as mandatory second language because of Belgium being bilingual (trilingual, really, but our German-speaking minority is so small that it doesn't matter much), but some people would be better off getting more English and less French. Seems like the same thing with your eastern population which doesn't have much contact with Swedish-speaking Finns or with Sweden itself, and has more use for Russian.

Of course, in our case, things aren't aided by the way the French-speaking Belgians don't return the favour and in increasing numbers pick English as first foreign language and Dutch only as second.


I thought so. See my reply to Camilla.