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by hombre_fatal 2376 days ago
The comments here are surprisingly negative. So many wet blankets, from people saying the offering sucks to people mistakenly complaining about it being EU-only to someone saying it empowers just white europe.

I wonder how many people criticizing it even planned on trying this completely-free course.

I think we really need to work on pulling the plug on this fetishization of contrarianism as a community.
1 comments
verttii 2376 days ago
A lot of Finnish taxpayers' money was spent developing it. I think it's fair to criticize its shortcomings openly.
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pergadad 2376 days ago
Uninformed nonsense.

Its Finnish EU PRESIDENCY, which means it's paid by the EU budget.

Each EU country holds the rotating EU presidency for six months, which means they chair interministerial meetings, formally negotiate and propose compromise legal texts, etc. In this role the presidency receives a budget for promotional events, communication efforts, etc. The Finnish presidency decided to use part of the budget for this translation effort.

This seems to fit various EU goals well, eg to upskill the population, promote digital competences and encourage use of all 24 EU languages. Think of just the added value of having common terminology and definitions.

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verttii 2376 days ago
For the record, here is the press release about it from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland: https://tem.fi/en/article/-/asset_publisher/suomi-investoi-e...

Quote from the press release: The cost of the initiative, a total of 1 679 000 euros, will be funded from the budget of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland.

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verttii 2376 days ago
The course was developed quite some time ago by the University of Helsinki with their funds. It's a public university like all Finnish universities, meaning it is funded by taxes.

What's news here is the translation job to translate it to multiple European languages. It takes an additional 1,7 million € and is funded solely by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy of Finland.

I failed to find any claims of EU funding any part of the original development or this translation job. The Finnish Ministry of Employment calls this course a gift from Finland to the European Union. What's your source on this being EU funded?

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pergadad 2376 days ago
Apologies I realise the start of my comment is a bit harsh. I do find out really frustrating to see people many up facts and half-truths as they go along.
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