Inari,
Many thanks for adding to the debate.
I agree with many of the points you made, but to add a few comments to yours:
1) I agree fully we should not recruit staff based on the fact they are "native English speakers", we should recruit the best possible people totally independent of nationality. They should however be able to communicate effectively in English since it is the language departmental buisness is conducted in, but since English is the language science is conducted in this is not normally an issue.
To be honest if we got more "native English speakers" I would be in trouble as it would be revealed how significantly my English language skills have dropped significantly over the past 7 years.....
2) I agree fully that students must be able to communicate effectively about their subject in their mother tongue (so Finnish for most of our BSc intake). We have the new BSc thesis which is built around the theme Public Understanding of Science just to emphasise this point. Many of you will have seen the excellent posters the students made for this and presented outside Tellus, but there were also a lot of other things on that course. That I can remember we have had discussions on at least three occasions as to whether we should have a Finnish language course somewhere in the BSc, but have rejected it purely on the grounds that we would have to cut something else. As part of the BSc students do presentations both in Finnish and in English and over 60% of the courses they take are in Finnish. We must continue to teach in Finnish (as well as English) which is why we cannot open up BSc entry to non-Finnish speaking students and why we should perhaps also be a little more careful with who we accept as exchange students than we are.
3) As a teacher in the old system on the 1st course that was taught fully in English I know there were major problems with language shock (even more than the shock of having English in the 1st year). There were also lots of comments from students on the issue which fell into two categories a) don't have any teaching at all in English or b) have teaching in English earlier as well.
Regarding your final comment, we only have three small children to cope with rather than four but hopefully it all shows the students it is posible. As Olli said in his email what is important in life is a matter of personal evaluation, it is about getting the balance right for you. Finally it is amazing how little sleep it is possible to survive on!
VBW,
Lloyd