About Finland, its language and citizens.

[espanjalainen22]

Thanks for the link, it's very interesting

Well, you all are right when you say that oneself doesn't think about what kind of grammar rules he's using when speaking his mothertongue. For example when some friends who are learning Spanish ask me "why do you use the subjuntive tense in that sentence in Spanish?" I can't find a proper answer because it obviously pops up in my mind since it's my language.

So, my question in other words, what do you think about the easiness of writing Finnish and achieve it looks like written by a native Finn. How hard do you consider it? In my case, with Spanish language, some people who I know after studying Spanish and living here just some months they could write some sentences or even quite longs texts and when I read them I think "Wow, besides being correct it even sounds like written by a native Spanish speaker". Professor Andrew Chesterman says in that interview after 30 years he still has some grammar troubles, although I have no idea if they are important ones or just minor details.

[sammy]

So, my question in other words, what do you think about the easiness of writing Finnish and achieve it looks like written by a native Finn.

That's a tricky question.

Again, you have to bear in mind that not all Finns write "good Finnish". Looking at some texts by advanced-level Finnish learners (Finnish as a foreign language that is) you might in fact notice that they write "more correct" Finnish than some natives. And while it sounds a bit odd, sometimes you can tell it's a non-native because the text is too correct. (Depends on the situation and context of course.)

It's sort of hard to explain, and I can't think of good real-life examples really, but the "mistakes" a native would make and those made by non-native learners probably are a bit different. They might, for example, encounter a word they haven't used before, look it up in a dictionary and then use it in a context where a native would not; or they might assume that some saying or proverb is directly translatable into Finnish... in many cases this is not so, and the result, while perhaps grammatically correct, betrays the fact that it's a non-native speaker. Every language is full of little intricacies like that... and it may take years and years to even come close to a "native".

For example, I'm aware of my own English being on a pretty good basis - but still, I would never pass the "native test", say, in the UK. Not as a speaker, or even a writer, although maybe in the latter I could fool the inquisition for slightly longer. Not very long, however. How could I? I've only spent about three months of my life in the country. No amount of book learning or pronunciation practice could arm me with all the quaint idioms, all the hidden tiny colloquialisms and shades of expression that you "absorb" when you actually live the language.

But do not despair, as said it's unfair to compare natives (mother tongue, an acquired language) and non-native learners (a learnt language). While the latter can be thought of as a "skill", the same can not be so easily said of the former.

Our professors at the uni (Brits) put it nicely - the only profession where you need perfect, native level foreign language skills is a spy.