Finnish. Hard to learn, or learn hard

[AkQ]

There are simply put too many gaping logical holes in the proposition "Finnish is the hardest language in the world" to make it in any way an objective statement.

I said, *second* hardest

Anyway, thats not really my words, but the professors, who teached the thing to us. But yes, it lacks some facts that i forgot to mention: Its only tested with languages which are taught, and the information is only gathered from native english speakers. Also, a massive vote has affected little the ranking too, not too much anyway, but some. Voting isnt really a fact, dunno why it affected..
Knowing that there is about 5,2 million native finnish speakers, its quite an achievement to so many to know that its hard language, and might affect the rank, too.
And even if the 15 cases are the most highlight, there is alot of other things too. Another, maybe not so big thing, is the pronunciation. Completely different from english. Several other things are hard too, but i forgot what they were xD

Chinese and Japanese arent so hard anyway, they are "average-hard" for native english speakers, according to this information given by that professor. And as a native finnish speaker, i find japanese quite easy ^^ pronunciation is almost the same as in Finnish.

[Rob A.]

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[Pursuivant]

Ob.ThreadDrift: you know this? http://www.yleradio1.fi/nuntii/

Memoria belli hiemalis

His diebus septuaginta anni acti sunt ex die, quo copiae Unionis Sovieticae bello non indicto in Finniam invaserunt. Simul aeroplana Sovietica complures urbes Finnorum bombis percusserunt. Bellum hiemale, pridie Kalendas Decembres anno millesimo nongentesimo undequadragesimo ita ortum, centum quinque dies duravit. In illo bello paene viginti septem milia militum Finnorum ceciderunt, circiter quadraginta quattuor milia vulnerati sunt, prope mille cives animam bombardationibus amiserunt. Clades autem copiarum Sovieticarum multiplices fuerunt. Armistitium die duodecimo mensis Martii factum est et arma postridie eius diei conticuerunt.

[Rob A.]

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[kalmisto]

Say "kyllä" correctly or be deported ! :
http://www.65degreesnorth.com/content/view/1305/73/

I would have asked them to say the sentence : "Me olimme epäoikeudenmukaisimmillamme." ( We were at our most unjust. )

Lingsoft on "epäoikeudenmukaisimmillamme" :
http://www2.lingsoft.fi/cgi-bin/fintwol ... immillamme

Maybe it was stupid and inappropriate to joke about this.

[Zend]

Hi everyone, im finnish guy, age of 21 (and half, lol) and im not too good in english (laziness, really!)

Anyway, i found this forum about 30min ago, drinking and playing DoTA alone and stuff (normal finnish thingy)

At first i laughed to this one topic viewtopic.php?t=12120 (sorry btw that im making new topic.. )
its about, is Finnish the hardest language. Well, in our university this professor dude, who really studies languages, and knows like everything about everything, keeps this lesson about worlds languages.

Long story short. Conclusion is that finnish is second hardest language to learn for native English speakers, in a whole wide world (excluding all dead languages which have no native speakers). Only Polish is harder than Finnish. Why is that? Well, the grammar of Polish has more exceptions and rules, and the pronunciation is pure crazyness. Almost nothing in common with the word in paper.

Estonia and Hungary are almost, or completely as hard as Finnish, to learn. I prefer ofc "almost", since im finnish ^^ its cool to handle *so* hard language.
Well, of course, this is fact only for native English speakers, and simialiar language family. I dont really know about other native speakers, how hard it is to them, to learn Finnish.

Really funny little detail was, that children born in English, have to study three(3) years to write and read English properly. In Finnish, it takes only one year. This fact was also found in topic i linked
Another funny little detail: average age of children, who can speak and write fluent English, was 12. Polish, 16. Finnish ... 10

I dont know if you did, but... what makes finnish so hard to learn, is that there is huge amount of cases, and for that, we have looooong words..
For example
"Lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas" can be cut for several words
lentokone = airplane (this can be also cut in english "air" and "plane"
suihku = jet
turbiini = turbine
moottori = engine
apu = assistant
mekaanikko = mechanic
aliupseeri = non-commisioned officer (can be cut, but idk how to translate xD)
oppilas = student

sooo .. well, its almost 1:1 to english translation if you pick the words from those. That compound word has been in use.
Well afterall its quite easy to make up long compoun words.. but what about one, single word.. ;D here comes the cases!!
"epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhän" now that one cant be cut. its one word only (and has made to the guiness book for being one of the longest words in world)
Im very sorry that i dunno know how to translate that one. Most of the Finnish people wouldnt know what that even means, maybe in few moments, but i couldnt read more than 10 letters and i was completely confused. Second try and i got it right! Roughly has one word "anti-system" in the very beginning (epä = anti, järjestelmä = system) rest of the word is made from cases and.. uh.. i dont know what that is im pretty sure that no-one uses it, since no-one really understands its meaning without thinking few mins.



I dont know what my point was. I forgot it. Damn alcohol But im gona post this anyway. Im gona track this topic, if any questions raises, so i can answer them. Im sure there are some other finnish people in here if i forget this forum during sleep.

hey dude..i have a question about finnish too.. what does "Rakastaakohan han minua?" means?? i just need to know..

[kalmisto]

>> hey dude..i have a question about finnish too.. what does "Rakastaakohan han minua?" means?? i just need to know.. <<

It means "I wonder if he/she loves me."

[Zend]

It means "I wonder if he/she loves me."[/quote]

thank you..and Rakastaakohan can also be written rakastaa kohan??i mean like 2 words..

[EP]

Rakastaakohan can also be written rakastaa kohan?

[kalmisto]

>> thank you..and Rakastaakohan can also be written rakastaa kohan??i mean like 2 words.. <<

No, it is one word . You have to write it like this : "Rakastaakohan hän minua ?"

"rakastaa" means "to love " and "he/she loves".

hän rakastaa = he/she loves

rakastaako hän ? = does he/she love ?

[obakesan]

To me the biggest obstacle is the books.

Filled with assumptions that you are already a native speaker while presenting lessons in this simple stuff.

[kalmisto]

Filled with assumptions that you are already a native speaker while presenting lessons in this simple stuff.

Yes, I am a native speaker.

[jahasjahas]

Filled with assumptions that you are already a native speaker while presenting lessons in this simple stuff.

Yes, I am a native speaker.

Umm, I think obakesan meant that books that teach Finnish are filled with assumptions that the reader is already a native speaker.

[obakesan]

Filled with assumptions that you are already a native speaker while presenting lessons in this simple stuff.

Yes, I am a native speaker.

Umm, I think obakesan meant that books that teach Finnish are filled with assumptions that the reader is already a native speaker.

::nod::


Finding my old edition of Kuulostaa hyvältä a better book than hyvin menne

[Sami-Is-Boss]

My theory (probably complete nonsense) is that because no group of people are more or less clever than any other, no language is inherently hard or easy to learn. Only factors like exposure to it through culture (English for any non-native English speaker) or common ground with your native language (Russians learning Czech, for example) can make a language hard or easy.

Finnish might be hard, but it's got points that help the learner. The lack of gender and regular spelling balance out the crazy declensions and stem changes .Anyone want to shoot this down?