Finnish language course?

paddymorgan27 · Post by **paddymorgan27** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:49 pm

Can anybody recommend a Good languge course in Helsinki ,that runs in the evenings? Thanks

**Sponsor:**

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:52 am

Top o' the marnin' to ya!

Sorry I'm not in HKI, so don't know much about the courses! But I would suggest that if you're coming from zero on the language front, you would benefit most from trying to get yourself on a 3 or better still, 6 month full time language course. Learning something like Finnish with just an evening or two a week wont even scratch the surface of the grammar that you need to drill into your head

Apart from that, if you've been at work all day, your brain isn't in such great shape come evening time. I'm talking as someone who has been in this situation, but of course just a view of one person. Perhaps some others who have also been in such a situation could comment.....

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:08 am

I'd agree that "good" depends on what you want from the course. If rapid fluency is your objective then a fulltime intensive course is best. If steady progress is what you're after then twice a week is probably OK as long as you do the homework and get some practice in between. Apart from that I think it depends on the teacher and then the student's own attitude to learning (be prepared for hard work, lots of grammar, and no whining in English). Most of the courses (as discussed many times previously on this forum) are Finnish in Finnish which is a bit daunting at first.

I did my courses at the http://www.helsinginaikuisopisto.fi and they were good for me. The group size was reasonably small and we were all encouraged to speak, plenty of grammar but also some conversation work.

paddymorgan27 · Post by **paddymorgan27** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:49 pm

Thanks Penelope, will give them an email

masonb81 · Post by **masonb81** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:48 am

There are some short courses in may/june at the helsinki university for 90 euros which i'm going to look into.

Mason.

paddymorgan27 · Post by **paddymorgan27** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 8:21 pm

That would be great if you could let me know dates and times of those course's Mason
Thanks

Paul_D · Post by **Paul_D** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:49 pm

http://www.kesayliopistohki.fi/sivut/167/505

Rob A. · Post by **Rob A.** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 10:17 pm

Paul_D wrote:http://www.kesayliopistohki.fi/sivut/167/505

Wow!!!...I looked through the schedule on this link...From what I can tell, you get 52 lessons at each of the four levels for €90 per level...each lesson appears to last for 3 3/4 hours... That really is a gift!! €1.73 per lesson!!!... I'm paying CA$12 per lesson (about €8)...2-hour lessons; ten lessons per level...

So the Kesayliopisto rate has to be subsidized!!! Even allowing for some economies of scale...unless maybe they're stuffing 200 students into a class room...

So what might be a typical class size ...30??? So the institution would be getting about €13.85/hour as an overall total to cover salaries, materials and physical plant overhead... (please correct me if I'm wrong...though the rate the student pays will still be the same)...

Thus it would appear the Finnish taxpayers are picking up part of this tab... What more could the "whiners" want??? (and, of course, this isn't directed at paddymorgan...he's simply asking questions...

) ...that a taxpayer come along and shove the language down their throat???... So what are the "excuses" then???...Hmmm...too busy,.... live too far away,....ahhh don't have any money... life shouldn't be so hard....

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:39 pm

Rob A. wrote:
Paul_D wrote:http://www.kesayliopistohki.fi/sivut/167/505
Wow!!!...I looked through the schedule on this link...From what I can tell, you get 52 lessons at each of the four levels for €90 per level...each lesson appears to last for 3 3/4 hours... That really is a gift!! €1.73 per lesson!!!... I'm paying CA$12 per lesson (about €8)...2-hour lessons; ten lessons per level...

So the Kesayliopisto rate has to be subsidized!!! Even allowing for some economies of scale...unless maybe they're stuffing 200 students into a class room... So what might be a typical class size ...30??? So the institution would be getting about €13.85/hour as an overall total to cover salaries, materials and physical plant overhead... (please correct me if I'm wrong...though the rate the student pays will still be the same)...

Thus it would appear the Finnish taxpayers are picking up part of this tab... What more could the "whiners" want??? (and, of course, this isn't directed at paddymorgan...he's simply asking questions... ) ...that a taxpayer come along and shove the language down their throat???... So what are the "excuses" then???...Hmmm...too busy,.... live too far away,....ahhh don't have any money... life shouldn't be so hard....

Was there a point buried in there?

Rob A. · Post by **Rob A.** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:05 am

Sorry if my post came across as obscure...I suppose I was kind of stunned to see what was being made available to foreigners at such a low price...Perhaps I've been reading too much into the FF complaining...

First some clarification ...each level contains 52 lessons of 45 minutes each, which works out to €2.30 per hour of instruction...still a bargain...

I also see there is a free summer public lecture series on Finnish history (Aug 6 to 16), advanced courses level 5 to 8 at the same price and oral skills courses....

And I saw this:
The Summer University is maintained by a foundation set up by the local municipalities (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen), and the University of Helsinki.

This all looks rather positive to me... What "issues" could remain with regard to learning the local language???...

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