Learning Finnish. Problem.............

Learn and discuss the Finnish language with Finn's and foreigners alike
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Keravalainen
Posts: 362
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:00 pm
Location: Finland

Re: Learning Finnish. Problem.............

Post by Keravalainen » Tue Jan 17, 2017 12:21 pm

Hi!
A good way to practice your Finnish (spoken and listening) is to attend a Finnish Language Cafe.
It's free and there's one starting in Rovaniemi at the Main Library on February 8th, 2017.
http://www.rovaniemi.fi/news/Kielikahvi ... 84ba0c6320

We have had a Finnish Language Cafe at Helsinki Main Library running twice a week for several years.
It's very popular and every time there are Finnish learners from many nationalities as well as a bunch of Finnish volunteers helping there.
http://www.helmet.fi/fi-FI/Kirjastot_ja ... ma(115370)
http://www.helmet.fi/fi-FI/Kirjastot_ja ... ra(117897)


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Re: Learning Finnish. Problem.............

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GT3RS
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri May 29, 2015 7:54 pm

Re: Learning Finnish. Problem.............

Post by GT3RS » Thu Feb 02, 2017 3:51 pm

Wow!

Hi everyone and thanks again for the detailed responses.

Unfortunately, things have gone from bad to worse......

I have slipped behind most of my classmates now, in terms of speaking AND comprehension. It's very noticeable that they can understand what the teacher is saying, when I can't. And also, the fact that when they speak, I can't understand them.

I think I'm just not a language person.

Every new topic seems harder than the last. We're doing monikon partitiivi at the moment. The sheer number of rules is amazing and the rules that tell you when to use it are completely overwhelming. We've also done the subject of the sentence and the latest thing seems to be sanatyypit - which to me is totally incomprehensible, let alone learnable. And that's without even thinking about trying to remember it.

Every time a new piece of grammar is introduced, it makes me feel like everything I've ever said in Finnish up until this point was wrong.

The construction seems to be SO different to English that I just can't get it.

I have very strong views that if you live in a country other than your own, you HAVE to speak the language. It's just rude and ignorant not to. Unfortunately, this has created a conflict for me, because on one hand, I DESPERATELY want to be able to converse in Finnish, but on the other hand, I absolutely hate it and want to give up.

Sounds ridiculous, but it's actually causing me so much stress now, I'm suffering with anxiety...............

To make things worse, I now have a 3 week old Finnish son [of course, THAT'S fantastic!], which means if I can't speak Finnish, I won't be able to communicate with him [of course, he'll learn English from me, but Finnish MUST be his first language]. And what happens when he goes to school? Or one of his friends come to our house?

So, I desperately want to give up.

AND, I desperately want to figure it out.

I feel like I've switched off at school now. I'm so far behind in terms of ability, I can't possibly keep up, let alone catch up.

My main hope really is to learn along with my son.

Sorry for being so negative, but I can honestly say, this is one of the most painful, difficult, frustrating things I've ever done. And there's absolutely NOTHING anyone can do to help!


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