Eli: Thanks for the update, and for contacting all of these groups!
CrystalDee: For the group I want to research with, it would probably actually be better to learn Swedish. It's also the second official language of Finland, so that's one more reason. But honestly, everyone speaks English quite well so there's no real proficiency needed for any of them. It would still be good for me to learn it though, since it will probably be helpful in the future -- I'm working on it, but haven't been able to give it quite as much attention as I'd like since I've been kind of swamped this semester. I'm teaching a class and have to write my own exams, lecture notes, etc. On top of that I have 3 more talks to prepare this month (I just got done with another one a few hours ago), a challenging class, and my regular research... altogether I'm not left with too much time. I'm ready for this semester to be done.