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Learning Finnish thread
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22-05-2009 7:42am#1
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Thanks for the replies. I'm trying to learn it myself with the OH being from Finland I think it's important to learn it so to keep all options open for us in the future.
I'm using the Teach Yourself Finnish by Terttu Leeny (spelling?) which is good to a point but is very orientated towards being a tourist.
I'm also trying to translate Muumin cartoons taking them in segments, understanding what is written and then going back reading in Finnish but knowing what I'm reading. It works to a point. Some things stick, some don't.
Have tried conversations with the OH but it gets so slow and frustrating for the both of us that we end up talking English.
I saw the course in Dublin but unfortunately I don't live in the area.
I have some language learning software too but it's really hard to sit down at the computer in the evenings when you sit in front of one all day at work!!
Brendanuk what brought you to Finland in the past?0 -
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Brendanuk what brought you to Finland in the past?
Finnish girl i met in Munich, we travelled about abit and ended up in Helsinki.
We have a daughter together, so i go and visit couple of times a year.Have tried conversations with the OH but it gets so slow and frustrating for the both of us that we end up talking English.
When i was learning in Helsinki I used to come home from the course and try and do homework with OH and had the same problems. She said my Finnish was "paska"
. You need to be encouraged and not get too frustrated, easier said than done! I am hoping my daughter will teach me now 
People have done it so its not impossible, Keith Armstrong is a presenter on finnsh football tv and everyone says his finnish is very good, fluent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Armstrong
http://www.finlandforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4943&start=150 -
Hi Brendan,
thanks for the reply and the links. Great story regarding Keith Armstrong. As he said he did immersion in an area where nobody spoke English.
If it was financially possible I'd give it a go but unfortunately it's not!
I'll keep plugging away here though. It's hard to speak Finnish when I get over there, maybe it's the Irish confidence thing but I feel kind of foolish speaking in pidgeon Finnish when I know everyone can understand me if I talk in English. The last time I was there we were in a pub and I answered a question in Finnish and everyone was looking at me as if I had 2 heads! It took them a few seconds to realise that I had spoken Finnish and not some sort of drunken English! 0 -
Dont worry they look at most foreigners like they have 2 heads
good luck with the learning, I cant really give advice as I am still at pointing stage and saying "mitä tämä on". Have ordered pints and bought things in shops.
What about watching dvds in finnish with english subtitles, if you can get them. Try and get OH involved they would be best teacher imo. What about listening to finnish radio stations on the internet?
Your right about making fool of yourself, I am learning more and have more fun learning with my daughter who also looks at me like i am crazy, but I dont mind that, she is minun kaunis kukka 0 -
Kiitos for the encouragement!
Have the dvd's and the internet radio stations, they are a help. At the moment I'm translating comic strips and then going back reading them in Finnish and understanding what the say. The OH is helping too.
How long were you in Finland for? Did you actually get work there? I've been on the finlandforum and it gets fairly depressing reading about peoples failed experiences looking for work!0 -
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tsnu,i speak a bit of estonian,the person i learnt it from considers themself nordic not baltic,even though estonia is not strictly a nordic country,the characteristics of an estonian are similiar to nordic people and also the language is closely related to finnish rather than their baltic neighbours in latvia and lithuania.ethnic estonians closely resemble the nordic people a lot more than the baltics in looks ,mannerisms etc in my opinion
I agree, I'm Finnish and Estonian does sound a lot like Finnish, actually it sounds like Finnish with made up words.
Some Finnish words are Estonian words too, they just have a different meaning. I think for a Finnish person it's pretty easy to understand Estonian because some of the words are so similar. I'm not sure if Estonian people are like Finnish people though, haven't really met any, but the languages for sure are a lot alike.
yep didn't know it was possible to repeat "Estonian" and "Finnish" this many times in one post 0 -
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well ive been to denmark,estonia and norway,seems pretty similiar to me so im assuming swedish and finnish people are also the same.
Nooo that's what people always assume but it's so not true! Finnish and Swedish people are not alike at all, a typical Finnish person would be a bit timid and shy, quiet, sarcastic, almost a bit grim but very loyal, honest and trustworthy. I'm not saying that Swedish people aren't like that, and that's really a stereotype, but still. A typical Swedish person would be happier, more social and outgoing. And when it comes to languages, Swedish and Finnish are nothing alike. Norwegian, Danish and Swedish are all alike, and then Finnish, Estonian and if I remember right, Hungarian (sp?) are all alike too. 0 -
I like Finland an awful lot, I've just got back from my fourth trip there, a week in Helsinki.
I've been slowly learning phrases and things for quite a while, but I picked up a lot of new materials when I was there, so I'm going to ramp up my learning now.
I'm honestly surprised I am not the only person here even trying!!
That's cool! You can ask me if you want to know how to say something in Finnish, I'd be happy to help. I always find it really cool when someone is trying to learn Finnish since it is such a difficult language even in my opinion! 0 -
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That's cool! You can ask me if you want to know how to say something in Finnish, I'd be happy to help. I always find it really cool when someone is trying to learn Finnish since it is such a difficult language even in my opinion!
Thanks very much for that offer!
Very kind of you I think I will take you up on it, since I'm making another big effort to get beyond the stage of simple phrases and to actually saying real things. I got so frustrated by the end of my last trip there that I couldn't correspond in the native language with my friends there, and that I had to force English upon them, which always makes me feel guilty.
I generally pick up languages quite easily, so I think I at least have a fighting chance
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Moikka kaverit!
I've been trying to learn this awful language for 14 years now. Actually I tell a lie.. I quit trying about 6 years ago and just taking the passive route now.
Ah, don't give up!! I see you live in Naantali, familiar with the Moomins huh?Thanks very much for that offer!
Very kind of you I think I will take you up on it, since I'm making another big effort to get beyond the stage of simple phrases and to actually saying real things. I got so frustrated by the end of my last trip there that I couldn't correspond in the native language with my friends there, and that I had to force English upon them, which always makes me feel guilty.
I generally pick up languages quite easily, so I think I at least have a fighting chance
Yeah you definitely have a chance, for me personally talking in the language with someone native is the best way to learn, so everytime I have a chance to speak English to someone, I go for it. Because you can learn all you want from the books, know the grammar and write sensible sentences, but if you never actually speak to anyone in that language, you'll never be fluent. At least that's what I think. So you should just keep trying, it's a great feeling when you can actually have a real conversation with someone in Finnish without having to use English! 0 -
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Yeah you definitely have a chance, for me personally talking in the language with someone native is the best way to learn, so everytime I have a chance to speak English to someone, I go for it. Because you can learn all you want from the books, know the grammar and write sensible sentences, but if you never actually speak to anyone in that language, you'll never be fluent. At least that's what I think. So you should just keep trying, it's a great feeling when you can actually have a real conversation with someone in Finnish without having to use English!
That's my aim, to be able to converse fully in Finnish, like I can in French and, to a lesser extent, Irish. My French was always good, but never great until I lived in France.
I totally agree, speaking with people is the only way to get really good at a langauge. Unfortunately, all my Finnish friends are in Finland! And I don't know anyone Finnish in Dublin who I could talk to, really... 0 -
Moikka everyone!
Glad this thread is getting more active.
Moi Suomi. It would be great if you could help some of us here like your offer to johnl and I've also heard the Estonian language being described as drunken Finnish!:D
I'll try to add some links if I can to resources I've found over the years. Here's a few:
http://www.uusikielemme.fi/vocabulary.html
http://users.utu.fi/jmkark/kieli/kielioppi/lausetyypit.html0 -
Moikka everyone!
Glad this thread is getting more active.
Moi Suomi. It would be great if you could help some of us here like your offer to johnl and I've also heard the Estonian language being described as drunken Finnish!:D
I'll try to add some links if I can to resources I've found over the years. Here's a few:
http://www.uusikielemme.fi/vocabulary.html
http://users.utu.fi/jmkark/kieli/kielioppi/lausetyypit.html
Yes of course I can help others too! The vocabulary website you posted is especially great, a lot of helpful expressions. I think the hardest part of learning Finnish is conjugating, since you can't just put an "s" at the end of the word like you could with most words in English.
I found this website: http://www.edu.fi/oppimateriaalit/suomeaolehyva/ It's all in Finnish but there's a lot of good exercises. You need to know Finnish to be able to use it though because all the questions are in Finnish but it's good for someone who knows some Finnish and wants to work on forming sentences and so on. "Harjoitukset" means exercises. 0 -
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Moikka everyone!
Glad this thread is getting more active.
Moi Suomi. It would be great if you could help some of us here like your offer to johnl and I've also heard the Estonian language being described as drunken Finnish!:D
I'll try to add some links if I can to resources I've found over the years. Here's a few:
http://www.uusikielemme.fi/vocabulary.html
http://users.utu.fi/jmkark/kieli/kielioppi/lausetyypit.html
nah its not like drunken finnish,just similiar to finnish cept finnish words tend to be longer.0 -
Hey mates.
Learning the bloody Finnish language is not that difficult as you just pronounce the words and letters as you would pronounce Gaelic (Remember? It's the language you're suppose to speak).
If you guys have any difficulties learning, just ask me anything and ill hit it with the answers
Ps. Learning Gaelic is not that difficult as i have learned to pronounce it correctly just after few months of passive learning. :eek:0 -
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tnethacker wrote: »Hey mates.
Learning the bloody Finnish language is not that difficult as you just pronounce the words and letters as you would pronounce Gaelic (Remember? It's the language you're suppose to speak).
If you guys have any difficulties learning, just ask me anything and ill hit it with the answers
Ps. Learning Gaelic is not that difficult as i have learned to pronounce it correctly just after few months of passive learning. :eek:
That's very true, I've found having a good knowledge of Irish has been a big help espically with the sounds of the letters.
Again once you can pronounce the letters the words themselves are quite easy (maybe sometimes quite long) but if you can break tehm up it's easy to read as the basic sounds don't change.
Take for example 3721 = 'kolme-tuhatta-seitsemän-sataa-kaksi-kymmentä-yksi'
3 thousand 7 hundred two tens one
Except in Finish it's written kolmetuhattaseitsemänsataakaksikymmentäyksi :eek:
This is the book I'm studying from if anybody is interested..It's quite like the books we used to learn irish from, with short stories to translate and questions about your name, family and so on...feel like a 4 year old again but it's good.
The only thing is it's all in finnish but I find that's the best way to learn even though I've written over half my book already
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Originally Posted by tnethacker
Hey mates.
Learning the bloody Finnish language is not that difficult as you just pronounce the words and letters as you would pronounce Gaelic (Remember? It's the language you're suppose to speak).
If you guys have any difficulties learning, just ask me anything and ill hit it with the answers
Ps. Learning Gaelic is not that difficult as i have learned to pronounce it correctly just after few months of passive learning.
"That's very true, I've found having a good knowledge of Irish has been a big help espically with the sounds of the letters."
funny because i found having irish helped me learn swedish better!!!strange!
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