I disagree. It just marks the break between two vowel sounds. In English we just happen to write it down when necessary. French does this too, but in the opposite direction. As a general rule, one does not pronounce the last consonant of a word except in instances where two vowel sounds meet. In these cases, the first word's consonant links into the second word
Wouldn’t he have had to renounce his Finnish citizenship to be naturalised?
In any case, as he’s based in the US, the European culture of taking an entire month off a year, and of almost everyone in the same country taking time off at the same time and things shutting down for a month, wouldn’t be something he participates in. Even if he had 30 days of leave a year and took all of July off, in the US that would be a personal idiosyncracy (“that’s just Linus being Linus”) rather than a mass cultural phenomenon.
The US used to require new citizens to renounce other nationalities, and I haven’t heard of them changing this. Rupert Murdoch had to renounce his Australian citizenship when he became a US citizen in the 80s. I think Linus was naturalised in the 90s or 00s, so not too long after.
How Do You Get Dual Nationality?
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Naturalizing as a U.S. citizen while keeping the nationality of another country.
Wikipedia says:
Since 1990, the State Department has allowed multiple nationalities.[130] Official policy is one of recognition that such a status exists, but the U.S. government does not endorse a policy of having multiple nationalities, though it is permitted.[151]