Letter: National differences in a cold climate

Sir: While thanking you for the excellent coverage on recent EU membership negotiations, I must point out one fact before I find myself in the middle of jokes concerning the language skills of my fellow citizens ('Interpreters have the last laugh', 4 March).

We Finns are not monoglots. We are taught at least two languages outside our mother tongue, so, while it is perfectly understandable that people would want to read new laws and regulations in their own language, Finnish representatives in the EU will be perfectly able to listen to the original joke, or its translation into English, French or German. As are the Danes, too, as far as I know.

Yours,

ANETTA PIRINEN

Cambridge

4 March