Chance probably had a hand in my next appointment. I probably would not have left the interesting work I was doing at the University if the position of Secretary General of CIMO’s Unit for Finnish Language and Culture had not opened up. I wavered for a long time, after all I was statistically “too old” to apply for such work. But encouraged by several supportive friends I applied, and I was hired from a pool of over 30 applicants (among those I beat to the job was a younger male professor, that was quite something!).

Now I had an earmarked budget to support the Finnish language. My network included 200 teachers of Finnish language and culture in foreign universities (around 100 universities in 30 countries), the staff of the departments offering Finnish language education at those universities, thousands of students, Finnish embassies, institutes, and the Nordic and the Finno-Ugric cooperative networks.

Working as the General Secretary of CIMO’s Unit for Finnish Language and Culture was like the climax to a long and winding career. I was once again allowed to defend Finnish as a so called small language, see how talented, starry-eyed students from different countries completed hundreds of master’s and bachelor’s theses on our language and culture all around the world, as well as excellent doctoral dissertations on Finnish language, literature and culture. In addition to this, students who have learned Finnish make competent translations of Finnish literature and thus make our way of thinking and our inner feelings known in different languages.

During these eight busy years as the General Secretary, our work was evaluated and found to be effective, and we could build further on the results of this evaluation. During these years our language and culture was also marketed in places like India and Japan.

There have also been many anniversaries related to Finnish language and culture. CIMO’s Unit of Finnish Language and Culture had its 20th anniversary in 2009, and the Beijing Foreign Studies University celebrated ten years of Finnish Studies, and they have already had 48 Finnish-Chinese BA graduates with another 16 on the way. The University of Cologne had its 10th anniversary of Finnish Studies, while our language has been taught at the University of Minnesota for 20 years. The University of Greifswald has celebrated their highly successful 90-year history of teaching Finnish. New educational centres have been established in places like Paris, the United States and Ukraine, and a professor of literature has been sent to the University of Warsaw, and much, much more.

It has been an amazing feeling to have been completely involved in all of this—at times I have felt like a travel guide!

The most important thing, however, has been seeing how seriously the study of our language is taken around the world today, how special talents can be found when you least expect them and in the most surprising places. If anyone deserves to be considered torchbearers of Finnish culture, it is these students and their teachers, for they are the ones who are making Finland known now and in the future in the best possible ways. Supporting, improving and keeping track of teachers of Finnish language and culture who are working in difficult circumstances, as well as encouraging students to reach new heights in their studies, have been the best experiences of my career.