Laughter and conversation emanated from Oldenborg dining hall on Wednesday, March 20 as it debuted its new Finnish language table, with attendees teaching each other phrases, passing around language books and conversing in Finnish.
The Oldenborg Language Tables at Pomona College occur every weekday from 12 to 1 p.m., offering languages including Spanish, Amharic, ASL and now Finnish. The tables provide an immersive environment for students, faculty and staff of the Claremont Colleges as well as local community members to converse in different languages and meet new people.
Xuehuai He PO ’25 and Rowan Norenberg PO ’27 led the initiative for the new Finnish language table.
Carolina De la Rosa Bustamante, staff director of the Oldenborg Center, described her excitement of welcoming Finnish to Oldenborg in an email to TSL.
“We were thrilled when [He] and [Norenberg] reached out with an interest in starting a Finnish table,” Bustamante said. “Finnish is [now] one of 27 languages available this semester at Oldenborg tables.”
He has spent the past three years working to bring the idea to fruition after an interesting run-in with the language.
“In the pandemic, I was stuck in Finland [due to a failed connecting flight],” He said. “I was dropped in Helsinki for a long time for no reason. When I actually got back and was quarantined for three weeks, I had nothing to do, I just learned Finnish. For 21 days I learned Finnish all day. By the time I got out of [quarantine], my Finnish was pretty good. It was really funny.”
After learning the fundamentals of the language, He continued to study Finnish and upon arriving to Pomona, they wanted to find fellow Finnish speakers and put their language skills into practice.
They found a now-graduated heritage speaker — someone who learned a minority language from their family — at Claremont McKenna College to practice their Finnish with and after meeting up a few times, they decided to start a Finnish language table at Oldenborg. The pandemic, however, hindered their plans.
“[My] first year was [affected by] COVID, so [Oldenborg] was like, ‘sorry, there are no language tables,’” He said. “[My] second year, I emailed Oldenborg. They never got back to me. I think it’s because it was only me pursuing it and there was not a second person, so that’s why it got dismissed.”
Last semester, He met Norenberg who knew some Finnish pronunciation and, eager to learn more, volunteered to support He’s language table efforts.
“I speak a little bit of Finnish,” Norenberg said. “I’ve been working on it for a while, but didn’t have anyone to talk to, so that made it hard. When I found out that [He] was trying to set this [language table] up, I was like, I want to team up with you on this.”
While languages taught at the 5Cs have tables in Oldenborg led by Language Residents or those involved in teaching them, the rest that are not taught at the colleges — including Finnish — are overseen by students, faculty, or community members who hold lunch sessions once a week.
“Their efforts help bring together linguistic communities who enjoy having a dedicated space to speak in a given language and welcome others with that shared interest to join in,” Bustamante said.
The pair has hosted two language table sessions so far, but with a limited number of attendees who have an actual grasp of the language, there have been learning curves in holding conversation; however, He seemed hopeful.
“Maybe over time everybody’s level will increase and we’ll be talking about more interesting topics,” He said. “But yeah, it’s fun. I think it’s great that I actually get to speak Finnish in real life.”
Valerie Gustaveson, a former Swedish instructor at Pomona with a keen love for languages, was among the attendees of the Finnish table’s first meeting.
“The languages are neighbors, but the languages are totally different,”Gustaveson said. “You know Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, even Icelandic, I mean they’re all in the same family. But Finnish missed some sort of European development. It’s more like Hungarian and Estonian.”
Gustaveson highlighted the importance of language acquisition, particularly for students.
“I think it’s good for your brain to learn languages,” Gustaveson said. “You use a different part of your brain. It’s a different way of socializing, too.”
Gustaveson commented on He’s skilled self-taught Finnish, saying it reminded her of the Finns she was surrounded by as a professor at UCLA. The language, however, was truly a surprise skill for He.
“Finnish was pure coincidence for me,” He said. “I did not intend to learn Finnish at all, it just happened. [But] what else can I do if I don’t learn languages?”
Pia Snellman SC ’26, a student who attended the table’s second showing Tuesday, was drawn to it due to her Finnish upbringing. Growing up with a Finnish father and having lived in Finland for a little while, she said she came to the table to try to regain some of her language skills.
“I will hear some words I remember from Finnish Camp, growing up with my dad,” she said. “It’s like, oh yeah, it’s coming back, I hear it. So it’s a little bit, like, both nerve-wracking and exciting to hear things that I remember somewhere deep in my brain.”
Snellman reflected on how there is not a robust Scandinavian or Nordic community at the Claremont Colleges and how she tries to stay in touch with that part of her identity on campus.
“[There’s] not a ton of a Finnish or Scandinavian community here,” she said. “But I like sharing some of my Finnish and Swedish tradition. I hope more people come to the Finnish language table. We can build a community and be confused together.”
Gustaveson reflected on the importance of the language table program in providing students an opportunity in their busy schedules to practice their skills.
“I can’t say enough about Oldenborg,” Gustaveson said. “Here, you learn to understand one another and make yourself understood without being worried about making mistakes. Here, you’ve got freedom.”
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