How did you learn Finnish?

[jen]

Many of the responses on this forum state that life is next to impossible in Finland if you don't speak Finnish.

I would like to ask the people on this forum how they learned Finnish before moving there.

We have books and CD's which we study from and we meet up with a Finnish girl living in Glasgow on Sunday afternoons for coffee and help with pronunciation. Does any one have any helpful tips, as this learning a language from a book isn't really working for me.



My husband is doing much better than me, he has been in Finland for 4 days and can understand the adverts on the TV, basic conversation and most of the job adverts. I guess he is a natural.

[blaugrau]

For roughly two years I took Finnish evening classes at adult education colleges in London. That helped me get a job within a few weeks after moving to Finland, even though my Finnish was rather basic back then. During the 9 months I've been living here in Finland I again enrolled in evening classes (2-3 times a week). I guess my Finnish is ok-ish, I can follow conversations more or less, but I'm still not at all fluent (I hate noticing my own mistakes a few seconds after I said something) and don't understand everything (reading and writing works comparably best), which is frustrating sometimes (there are good days and other days where I feel my linguistic pipes clogged.. and I always thought I'm good at languages this being the fourth foreign language I'm learning). My current estimation is that it'll take at least another half a year or a year to be really fluent. I'm happy that I'm at least "conversational" somehow by now, and I still enjoy learning the language, but sometimes it's straining to not be able to follow everything and every register of the language, feels like being somehow "linguistically challenged/impaired"

So try to learn what you can prior to moving, it helps indeed, but the learning process of this language is a long one for most people - I'd say brace yourself for some ongoing linguistic frustrations with blood, sweat and tears

[odon]

one month of intensive helsinki summer university courses, and then straight to a small town where no one speaks english, into working life,then swim or die....the fact that i am alive, states the fact i made it, 6 months after this i was understanding the conversation and say 2 yrs after this, speak fluently with all the grammer mistakes in them

[Hank W.]

My mother held me from the heel by dipping me in the river Vantaa.

[Wikinger]

For me it came naturally, I was sitting on the Senate stairs enjoying an ice cream under the warm beautiful sun When I slipped and started to fall down in an uncontrolled fashion... Aaah Perk! Aahhh Saaata Aaaaa Viiiittt a A aAAA AaA Ouch Perkele!!!

[jen]

These words I learned many years ago while working on a building sit with 2 rather clumsy Finnish males.

[jamie_designer]

I am still learning Finnish, so I hope you don't mind me adding a bit of my own experiences to the thread.

I think the first thing which I do is listen to everyone and everything, over three months I was able to pick up basic patterns and common words which allowed me to follow converstations

I think listening is really important, a tip for when you are not in Finland and don't have access to finnish speaking people is check out you tube
for tv commercials, programs, vlogs, and music videos.

Get some Finnish Music to listen to and sing a long.


The next thing I did was buy a book and audio cd set called teach yourself Finnish, I have went through this book numerous times. I also went to the library and borrowed Finnish for Foriegners and read through that.

Once I leared the basics I moved up to kid books, and then on to donald duck commics.

I think a key to keeping the stuff is using it and repeating it over and over, when you are going to call a friend think about the number in Finnish etc etc

I think thats about it, I also plan on taking some courses once I get to finland on a permanent basis. But who knows when that will be, hopefully before I am too old to learn anything new

[zam]

Try also some of the online resources, you can find some links e.g. at

http://www.oamk.fi/english/degree_stude ... g_finnish/

and

http://www.oulu.fi/kielikeskus/opinto-o ... _links.htm

[cockney]

From the Ladies! Finnish ladies will teach you all you need to know!

[Andrew C]

Cockney - stop being such a useless troll.

[SaxonManFinland]

Well in MHO you WILL NEVER learn Finnish from a book alone. After 3 years experience and mixing with 50 other students I think the following list tells its own story.

3 students got the hang of Finnish, its rules and complexities immediately. Granted they were recent degree language students 1 Chinese, 2 Russian.
They have been in Finland 1 year now and still complain that they use English to explain more complex things to the OH.

Other 47 Students range from 2 years to 8 years in Finland, mainly married to Finns. They will ALL say the Language Course ONLY made sense because they could already speak some Finnish and then they could see how the rules worked.

The BEST WAY is to learn everyday phrases, forget for now the grammar, it will make sense later. 5 phrases a week, is 20 a month. Soon you can swop bits around (Still forget grammar)
You will make loads of mistakes, so what, who cares, its being understood thats important, and the PRONOUNCIATION is vital and only gets better by being corrected and told.

When you can say thirty phrases or so, you will already have understood the basic

I, You, He/She/It, We, You (Plural), They

You will also see how the ending change and when and why........

Right so maybe a year of talking a minimum of 2 hours a day and then get on a course.

Unless you are a Natural highly switched on language type, then basic Finnish is your lot for the next 2 years. Learning it at night school in UK......NOT A CHANCE !!!!

[zam]

Well SaxonManFinland, you did not probably take into account the fact that people learn in different ways? Not only languages but everything. While for some it is easy to pick up the language by following daily conversations, to others that will be impossible unless they first have some sort of comprehension of the structure of the language - for which a language course might be a good starting point, or at least a faster way to learn than trying to figure it out by yourself from a book (or from a fast tempoed conversation).

A good lecturer should always take into account the differences in learning styles and at least offer or suggest alternative ways of learning to his/her students. Learning languages naturally depends also on your previous experiences of language learning. In my experience Britons being often the worst examples (or maybe they all have just had bad teachers in the past? ). In my own opinion this is strongly related to the poor interest in learning languages / lack of language learning culture in the society in general.

The vast differences in languages should not be an obstacle of learning them. The differences between e.g. English and Finnish are as big in both ways; however, most Finns pick up the English language - even without living in Britain, the US or any other English speaking country. Of course the subtitled TV series, cinemas etc. help in this, but hey, if you are living in Finland, you are in the midst of language immersion all the time.

However, it is true that learning languages requires time, for some longer than for others. Time is needed for you to process the learnt things in your mind.

(Maybe this thread should be moved to Kielikoulu?)

[SaxonManFinland]

Well SaxonManFinland, you did not probably take into account the fact that people learn in different ways? Not only languages but everything. While for some it is easy to pick up the language by following daily conversations, to others that will be impossible unless they first have some sort of comprehension of the structure of the language - for which a language course might be a good starting point, or at least a faster way to learn than trying to figure it out by yourself from a book (or from a fast tempoed conversation).

A good lecturer should always take into account the differences in learning styles and at least offer or suggest alternative ways of learning to his/her students. Learning languages naturally depends also on your previous experiences of language learning. In my experience Britons being often the worst examples (or maybe they all have just had bad teachers in the past? ). In my own opinion this is strongly related to the poor interest in learning languages / lack of language learning culture in the society in general.

The vast differences in languages should not be an obstacle of learning them. The differences between e.g. English and Finnish are as big in both ways; however, most Finns pick up the English language - even without living in Britain, the US or any other English speaking country. Of course the subtitled TV series, cinemas etc. help in this, but hey, if you are living in Finland, you are in the midst of language immersion all the time.

However, it is true that learning languages requires time, for some longer than for others. Time is needed for you to process the learnt things in your mind.

(Maybe this thread should be moved to Kielikoulu?)

Well I agree and disagree !!

Language courses in Finland are structured the same, all the same. Its a Grammar course not a Language course. EVEN TEACHERS COMPLAIN !!

No we are not immersed in the Finnish Language and the trickle of Finnish from TV comes slowly.

YEP, everyone learns differently, BUT MOST do not learn the rules first and the words second. The Finns don't do they, so why do all Courses try to teach rules and not phrases.

[Karhunkoski]

1. Learn basic phrases for a few months.

2. Do 3-6 months of full time Finnish grammar course. Talk only Finnish with your course mates during tauko.

3. Sit back and relax, read newspapers, watch TV, read signs/adverts, listen to radio/music, use the language but don't fret too much, it comes with time. Get drunk in a bar and prattle all the Finnish you know at Finns, you'll be relaxed and they'll usually be impressed, telling you that you're fluent, etc. DO NOT BELEIVE THEM.

4. Once you start to get the hang of it, dump the spoken language forms you learnt at school, and try to concentrate on puhekieli, it's quicker to say stuff, seems more forgiving (to me at least) when you make errors/incorrectly formed endings, etc. And most importantly, it seems much more useful to learn than the regimented crap they teach you on the courses.

It's like a foreigner learning the old BBC English, then trying to understand a drunk speaking with a mouthful of vomit from a Glasgow gutter, oh and he's face-down.


I still subscribe to the thoughts of one gentleman on here (Mr.O), who learnt through "osmosis".


I've never met anyone (bar the natives), who have learnt the language in under 2 years. Could be some though.