Thanks for clearing this up. So they're already using a system like at LX - a system which I think is really bad there (but maybe Finnair is handling it better.. according to your comment, this seems to be the case)

I don't think it should be considered "draconian" to learn the language of your employer, especially in the service industry. Or is the amount of Finnish people on those long haul flights so low that it doesn't really make sense?

In the case of Swiss, also a small country only holding around 5 million of German and 2 million of French speaking population, there is always a good percentage of Swiss people onboard the longhaul flights from Swiss to Asia, and it doesn't bode well to them (read: Lots of complaints) when they can't use at least either of their languages. Especially older people travelling often aren't fluid in English (I guess the same applies for Finland?) and would prefer to talk in their native language to the FAs.. I've seen quite some question marks (on both sides, passengers and flight attendants) when there was non common language..

One small example:
FA says: Pasta or meat?
Passenger: What meat?
FA says: Meat! You want meat?
Passenger: What animal?
FA says: Meat? You want meat?

It went on like this.. I took the pasta, by the way