FSI Conversational Finnish

[Pursuivant]

it is devised for USmilitary or diplomatic personnel to learn Finnish,

Onko kylässä kommunisteja?
Jos ette ole kiltisti niskaan tulee napalmia.

[Tuonelan Joutsen]

Best explanation of consonant gradation ever!

[Bavarian]

it is devised for USmilitary or diplomatic personnel to learn Finnish,

Onko kylässä kommunisteja?
Jos ette ole kiltisti niskaan tulee napalmia.

When I studied in what's now St. Petersburg, I picked up a Russian/Finnish phrasebook, since the program involved flying in and out of Helsinki and taking the Helsinki-Pietari train. The book, having been written in Soviet times, includes some wonderful phrases, especially in the "socio-political life" section, such as:

Onko Suomessa esillä kansallisuuskysymys*? or
Mikä merkitys on Paasikiven-Kekkosen linjalla Suomen ulkopolitiikassa?

If you need a dictionary to look up those questions, you sure as hell aren't going to understand the answers!

*For those who don't know Russian, "kansallisuuskysymys" is the translation of "народный вопрос" or "national question", which in the USSR referred to how to keep the non-Russian minorities a part of the Soviet Union. And try explaining the Paasikivi-Kekkonen line to any Westerner....

[Pursuivant]

Oh theres a fun old USSR era 1930's ABC-book making the rounds.

Kolhoosissa on syttynyt tulipalo.
Tuholaiset ovat sen sytyttäneet.
Tulipalo sammutetaan.
Tuholaiset ammutaan.