Russian among bus drivers in Greater Helsinki
Abstract
This paper focuses on Russian as lingua franca, a common language of interaction. We observe the habits of language use among bus drivers in Greater Helsinki. Our point of view is Russian language and that how it is used among the bus drivers in their daily work. We discuss the actual language policy concerning bus drivers in the metropolitan area and the challenges it brings, as now many bus drivers come from other countries, which makes the profession multilingual. We analyze Finnish professional words in Russian speech of the drivers. Russian is one of the most spoken foreign languages of Finland. After the war in Ukraine started the language attitudes towards Russian have been changing. In this article we also point out bus drivers’ attitudes towards Russian. We note how Russian is used now and was used in 2022 when the Ukrainian citizens were able to use the public transport for free in Greater Helsinki.
