Tips for a Finnish beginner

ari · Post by **ari** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 12:02 am

Hei,

I've just discovered this group in my travels across the Internet for Finland / Finnish language resources.

I've been learning Finnish on and off for years (mostly as a child) and still am a complete beginner. As you would probably guest by my name, I do have some connection to Finnish....my mother is Finnish and I have lots and lots of family in Finland around the Kouvola area.

I live quite near to London. I have started some lessons, once a fortnight with the Finn-Guild, plus my self-study which I have been do for 6 months now and am progressing slowly....too slowly. My aim utilimately is to be able to speak Finnish fluently and live in Finland (Providing the job market improves, I work in I.T), but my first target is to be able communicate in some way then well enough to communicate comfortably to live in Finland....living in Finland without the ability to speak the language isn't an option, I have a tongue and would like to use it.

I'm thinking of attending the summer language course at Savonlinna next summer, has anyone attended this and recommend it?

I've a couple of books, "Finnish for Foreigners 1", " Teach Yourself Finnish by Terttu Leney" and "Colloquial Finnish by Daniel Abondolo" but find they move too a little quickly for me and don't spend enough time on the basics of the language....in my opinion most Finnish books are really for tourist not for people really wanting to learn the language properly, you can't cover the basics in a single book! "what is point of starting a new chapter on something complete new when the last started a new topic and you didn't understand the chapter before that!".....I'm sure there is more and better book available in Finnish than available on Amazon and the bookshops round London. However Colloquial Finnish is OK and Finnish for Foreigners is really a school textbook for use with a teacher, but my vocabulary is improving though slowly. If I do manage to learn Finnish well, I'll bloody write proper book that people can actually learn Finnish from a complete beginner, even if it does come in 15 parts.

Can anyone give me some tips and recommendation on how I speed up my learning and some good general tips for a beginner....what has worked well for yourselves...I don't see learning Finnish as impossible, but it may take some time.

Ari
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I obviously don't have problems with rolling my r's

**Sponsor:**

gavin · Post by **gavin** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 12:14 am

Hei Ari!

Tervetuloa! Welcome to the group!

My best advice would be to use the language. For me ( a lingustically challenged person) the way I learn is by necessity.

Put yourself in a position where you *have* to use Finnish. I'm Welsh, and of course Mari speaks perfect English, unfortunately (or luckily) for me, we live next door to Maris parents, who dont speak a word of english ... So I HAVE to say something every time we meet...

Cheers
Gavin

gerg_861 · Post by **gerg_861** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 9:01 am

Yup, gavin is right. You have to put yourself in situations where you are forced to speak Finnish, either in a class, or repeating a tape, or with a partner. I've tried the book method too, over 80 hours to read through Borje Vahamaki's Learn Finnish!, I'm afraid that the books alone will be a very difficult route to get you where you want to be. My best tip for vocabulary is to download a freelang finnish-english dictionary and use it to make up practice vocabulary lists, I added 500 words in 2 weeks at 2 hours a night with that program when I was cramming for my summer in Lahti.

Niall Shaky · Post by **Niall Shaky** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 12:09 pm

Hello Gerg
Is this the bunch you mean:

http://www.freelang.net/

Cheers
Niall

tjawatts · Post by **tjawatts** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 1:11 pm

Put yourself in a position where you *have* to use Finnish

OK, here is my suggestion for achieving this. Take a look at the Finnish church links below (maybe you already know about it as the Finn-guild are based there). I used to live in London and the have a good sauna (also cafe and papers etc), call them up and ask them the evenings that are busiest and go along and chat.

http://home.btclick.com/kirkko/

Second option, if you are a student there was a Finnish students club. It is targetted at Finnish students in London but I am sure they dont mind others joining.

http://opiskelijaklubi.cjb.net/

Good luck

Tony

gerg_861 · Post by **gerg_861** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 4:10 pm

Yes Niall, that is the bunch that I was referring to, free and quite useful in their own way.

ari · Post by **ari** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 3:40 pm

I'm now enroled on an evening class at the university of Westminster in London for the next year (two hours a week)...I've started at Grade 1, there are 6 grades in total.

Once I get going and should be able to call on my family to communicate with.

The common thing I'm hearing is it best to learn by using the language and hearing it. Doesn't anyone have any other tips and what worked well for them?

Is there any finnish radio station available across the Internet?

Also has anyone attended the summer courses run by CIMO http://finland.cimo.fi or the summer universities http://www.kesayliopistot.fi. ? and recommend them? Three weeks in Finland being forced to use the language, I am sure would progress things even further.

Ari
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I obviously don't have problems with rolling my r's

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 4:40 pm

One trick with speaking/pronunciation is to get a Finnish newspaper and read it out loud. Preferrably to a bunch of Finns. You don't need to understand what it reads, you just need to read it so thet the Finns understand what you read. When they stop laughing you know your reading is up to par. After that it is easier also to figure out what the said words look like (works both ways).

tjawatts · Post by **tjawatts** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 8:06 pm

ari wrote:I'm now enroled on an evening class at the university of Westminster in London for the next year (two hours a week)...I've started at Grade 1, there are 6 grades in total.
[/quote[

They are OK course. Who is your teacher? I did level 4 before I came and was also taught by Tia Tempakka at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

Is there any finnish radio station available across the Internet?
Check out http://www.yle.fi

Also has anyone attended the summer courses run by CIMO http://finland.cimo.fi or the summer universities http://www.kesayliopistot.fi. ? and recommend them? Three weeks in Finland being forced to use the language, I am sure would progress things even further.

Yep, been there done that. The CIMO course I attended was a great fun 4 weeks in Kuopio (plus it is free!). Lots of interesting people on the course (some without a clue about English, which really helps, you have to communicate in Finnish). The summer univerisities are pretty intense and concentrate (at least the Helsinki one) on grammar. The prices are not too bad especially if you use your student card to get a discount.

Definitely check out the church and the student club, and in October/November there is ther Christmas bizaar to get some finnish goodies (but with your family connections you probably knew that anyway!!)

Hope it helps

Tony

ari · Post by **ari** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 11:45 am

Many Thanks

They are OK course. Who is your teacher? I did level 4 before I came and was also taught by Tia Tempakka at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

Yep Tiia is the teacher....it was the first lesson last night, I expected a handfull of people....but no...last year apparently 36 started.

Definitely check out the church and the student club, and in October/November there is ther Christmas bizaar to get some finnish goodies (but with your family connections you probably knew that anyway!!)

I'm aware of the church activities & cheaper flights too.....The bizaar isn't cheap....probably twice price than in Finland for food.....

Ari
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I obviously don't have problems with rolling my r's

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Sat Sep 27, 2003 1:42 pm

This might help you a little :

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/finnish-cases.html

Andrew_S · Post by **Andrew_S** » Sat Sep 27, 2003 7:11 pm

One of the first things you'll probably be taught is syllable division. This is very important to pronunciation and how the stems of words change when you add endings (consonant gradation). Syllable division is not difficult though.

I learnt from books studying alone mostly. Something the books did not tell me was about the unwritten stop in the throat (glottal stop). This is very useful to be aware of even if you don't pronounce it. In fact some Finns don't always pronounce it, but I believe in well-spoken Finnish it is there. It's seems less strong than the Cockney glottal stop and a little higher in the throat. Anyway the important thing about this stop is that it counts as a consonant and causes consonant gradation by closing the syllable. Knowing this the system of consonant gradation makes more sense.

Example:
sade (rain) sateen (of rain)

sade' has the stop which closes the syllable and changes what would have been a "t" to a "d" as is usual in consonant gradation. It also affects some verb forms. You can learn where it is as you learn the consonant gradation and the words which have it (they are common).

When I learnt about this (from a Dutch friend doing a degree in Finnish) a lot of seeming irregularities became regular.

Remember little and often is the key to language study. Try to do at least 20 minutes every day, or at least 5 times a week. Don't expect a miracle. It will build up little by little over months and years.

Most ordinary words are completely different in Finnish, unlike say German or French where quite a lot are similar to the English. One of the several nice things about Finnish is that after you have learnt a core vocabulary of say 2000 words vocab building actually gets easier because Finnish uses compound words a lot and root words get adapted to provide new words. So you will find increasingly you already know the root meaning and remember it more easily. So give it time. It will get easier.

Tom and Jerry · Post by **Tom and Jerry** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 6:25 pm

"I'm thinking of attending the summer language course at Savonlinna next summer, has anyone attended this and recommend it? "

Yes, very good course, but......
it is intended for people who are studying Finnish full time abroud. (teachers, students of Finnish language etc.). Not for ordinary people.

Otherwise the course in Kuopio is quite good.

Tom and Jerry · Post by **Tom and Jerry** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 6:31 pm

"This might help you a little :

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/finnish-cases.html"

Hei Kalmisto,

I am not so pleased with the texts of Jukka Korpela. He just can't seperate his own opinion and the one that is normally accepted for the use of the Finnish language. Beside, even I can tell you that his style of writing is not so ... efficient? But, ok, he has built an impressive collection of pages on the Finnish language.

ari · Post by **ari** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 2:06 pm

Tom and Jerry wrote:"
it is intended for people who are studying Finnish full time abroud. (teachers, students of Finnish language etc.). Not for ordinary people.

As I found speaking to the people that run it, it isn't intend for ordinary people, there is a selection process for students.

I suppose it to be expected, since the course is free. I'd be happy to pay for a course during the summer for a couple weeks.

My Finnish is progressing now, slowly.....but the amount of effort going in a massive

Ari
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I obviously don't have problems with rolling my r's

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