Hyvää huomenta

There's an old saying: If a person who speaks two languages is called bilingual, what do you call a person who speaks just one language? American.
This morning's Worcester Telegram has an article, Easy for you to say – in Finnish, about Finnish classes at the Saima Center in Fitchburg. Back in the 60s, my mother taught a similar course. It was a spin-off from her application to get into graduate school at Clark. Back then, you had to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language to get into grad school. She easily met the requirement, having spoken Finnish around the house when she was growing up. The trouble was that she couldn't find a test to pass. No college in New England offered Finnish. She wound up going to Columbia in New York to take an exam. In the process of preparing to take a college-level exam, as opposed to the colloquial Finnish that she spoke at home, she studied quite a bit. The material fresh in her mind, she offered her knowledge back to the community in the form of a basic Finnish course.

(The title is Finnish for Good Morning.)