Couple of questions about learning Finish?

BuzzLightYear · Post by **BuzzLightYear** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:56 pm

Can anyone recommend any good book/cds that "sucessfully" used?

What does "mistäpäin" mean?

**Sponsor:**

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:05 pm

wherefrom lit. "wheredirection"

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:12 pm

>> What does "mistäpäin" mean ? <<

Mistäpäin Suomea sinä olet kotoisin? = From what part of Finland do you come from?

Mistäpäin sinä olet kotoisin? = From what part of the country do you come from?

Mistä? = from where?

"Mistäpäin?" sounds to me like "from what direction?"

It is all right with me if somebody wants to correct me or give a better explanation.

BuzzLightYear · Post by **BuzzLightYear** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:12 pm

Hank, do you have AIM, or MSN? Curious to speak about life in Finland.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:18 pm

You can also ask colloquially "oletko mistä kotoisin" - but I wouldn't necessarily recommend using that before getting a knack of the long and short sounds; as it is two close to "oletko mistään kotoisin" and that means more or less "are you worth anything" ...

tämä piirros ei ole mistään kotoisin. lit. this drawing isn't from anywhere, meaning it is not worth calling art

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:19 pm

BuzzLightYear wrote:Hank, do you have AIM, or MSN? Curious to speak about life in Finland.

I have a linux these days, and no IM, not even IRC, but you can use a PM.

BuzzLightYear · Post by **BuzzLightYear** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:22 pm

BuzzLightYear · Post by **BuzzLightYear** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:31 pm

do you have IM?

I'm not sure who I just sent the PM to now? What a forum idiot I am. lol, if I can't get that straight how is learning Finnish and option?!!

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:59 pm

BuzzLightYear wrote:do you have IM?

I'm not sure who I just sent the PM to now? What a forum idiot I am. lol, if I can't get that straight how is learning Finnish and option?!!

I have a suggestion for you : You could write to Rich Hammett and ask him about the Finnish language ( how difficult is it to learn? ).

http://home.hiwaay.net/~rhammett/html/rindex.eng.html

Rich is a former Mormon missionary . ( He served in Finland 1990 - 1992. )
Do not let that scare you! Mormons do not try to force their religion on other people!

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 6:50 pm

talking about mormon missionaries in Finland this is a classic:
http://www2.helsinginsanomat.fi/english ... 010502IE14

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 4:52 pm

BuzzLightYear

Is Finnish really such a hard language to learn? :

http://fromfinland.blogspot.com/2005/06 ... guage.html

"The purpose of consonant gradation is to make it impossible for foreigners to find words in the dictionary."

BuzzLightYear · Post by **BuzzLightYear** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:27 pm

She didn't sound very encouraging. But I'm hoping having learned a 2nd language (Spanish) that the 3rd might, might be a little less difficult?

Who knows, but what I did find out is that there is a Finnish America club in the city near where I live. That should be a huge help.

Thanks again.

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 7:38 am

BuzzLightYear

I did not know that "mannapuuro" would be a difficult word to pronounce for an American :

http://www.ldsn.org/fma/stories.php?sID=2

Write the word "mannapuuro" in the text field of this Finnish speech synthesizer, then click on "Kuuntele puhe" !:

http://www.mikropuhe.com/demo.asp

Here is a short Finnish-English-Italian word list for you ( just for fun! ) :

http://www.posio.fi/sk_2.htm

PS. I love "mannapuuro" !

etippets · Post by **etippets** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:16 pm

I attended Salolampi Language Village in Bemidji Minnesota and the Finnish Language School Association in Northern Virginia. Both of these were wonderful experiences. These organizations serve multiple purposes (language instruction, socializing with Finns and people of Finnish descent, promoting other Finnish events and organizations, etc.) Therefore, interest in really learning the language varies greatly among the students. I have used two sets of books: "Finn Talk" parts 1 and part 2 and "Finnish for Foreigners" 1 and 2 by Maija-Hellikki Aaltio. I found the second set more useful. They have many practice exercises. The best CD I've found is the one that comes with Teach Yourself Finnish by Terttu Leney. Finnish is the 4th foreign language I've studied (after Spanish, French, Russian) and by far the most difficult.

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 5:45 pm

etippets

Here are some language tools for you :

An excellent morphological analyser of Finnish ( max 500 characters ) :

http://www.xrce.xerox.com/competencies/ ... sh.en.html

The analyser "unconjugates" Finnish words for you - all kinds of words, not only verbs ! It also tells you how the words have been conjugated.

Here is another one ( this one takes one word at a time ) :

http://www.lingsoft.fi/cgi-bin/fintwol

Tags here : http://www.lingsoft.fi/doc/fintwol/intro/tags.html

A verb conjugator :

http://www.verbix.com/languages/finnish.shtml

The Verbix verb conjugator can conjugate any Finnish verb and it does it perfectly !

Here is an on-line spell check of Finnish :

http://www.lingsoft.fi/cgi-bin/finspell

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