British girl hoping to move to finland

[Carlylarly]

Finland and other European countries put us Brits to shame. I only had the chance to learn French and welsh in school as they were the only languages that were available.

A lecturer at my university went to Finland for three months and stayed for ten years. Luckily he managed to learn Finnish, so much that he was fluent.

What part of Finland are you living in?

Carly

[Rosamunda]

Espoo.

I have studied and/or taught languages all my life and I am a qualified translator (but not Finnish...). In some ways I think that makes the problem worse: I know exactly what it takes to acquire active fluency in a language and I know how far I am from achieving it with Finnish


If you can speak French and Welsh then you almost certainly have an understanding of how languages work which will give you a head start in learning Finnish (versus the many Brits/Americans who have never learnt a foreign language at all).

A lecturer at my university went to Finland for three months and stayed for ten years. Luckily he managed to learn Finnish, so much that he was fluent

Who?

[AldenG]

A lecturer at my university went to Finland for three months and stayed for ten years. Luckily he managed to learn Finnish, so much that he was fluent.

It happens more than people like to talk about.

Usually it's a case of wandering down into the basement of a hospital or other large government building, getting disoriented, not being able to make heads or tails of any signage, and taking several years to find their way out. Often it is only by learning a bit of Finnish that they're able to extricate themselves.

There's been a government awareness campaign trying to get people to keep the basement doors secured, but this still happens to a few every year.

[AldenG]

In some ways I think that makes the problem worse: I know exactly what it takes to acquire active fluency in a language and I know how far I am from achieving it with Finnish

Or possibly the strategies that are effective for learning a language more closely related to one's own prove to be ineffective or even counterproductive in learning one as different as Finnish.

[Rosamunda]

In some ways I think that makes the problem worse: I know exactly what it takes to acquire active fluency in a language and I know how far I am from achieving it with Finnish

Or possibly the strategies that are effective for learning a language more closely related to one's own prove to be ineffective or even counterproductive in learning one as different as Finnish.

No. I don't think the strategies are so different. By "what it takes" I was thinking more in terms of motivation, immersion, commitment, time and energy rather than specific language acquisition methodologies. Even when teaching European languages such as French, English etc there are as many strategies as there are learners and classrooms and effectiveness depends on finding the right strategy for the learner rather than the target language.

I became fluent in French by spending several years living and working in places where almost no one spoke English. I was an au pair in a mountain village in eastern France and didn't even meet another foreigner for almost a year. There was no internet, no satellite TV, no English newspapers or magazines in the local store, no foreign films at the cinema... Total immersion, bar one short phone call per month from my parents back in the UK. If I could reproduce those conditions today, my Finnish would no doubt improve in leaps and bounds.

[Carlylarly]

The lecturer is a Dr jim Richardson.

Hats off to you for the way that you learnt French. I was advised that if I attempted to learn Finnish that I should always communicate in Finnish and no English at all.

I am going to buy leila whites book and look at attending an intensive Finnish course with the Finn-guild in London as a start.

Carly

[Pursuivant]

Where parts UK are you? I'm near Cambridge and can beat the alphabet into someone they will either give up the idea or become fluent.

[tuulen]

Where parts UK are you? I'm near Cambridge and can beat the alphabet into someone they will either give up the idea or become fluent.

@ Carlylarly

This is an offer you should take. Pursuivant is more than qualified to show you the ropes. Go for it!

Pursuivant is a native Finn, now living in the UK, and you could not ask for better guidance than what he offers.

[Rosamunda]

@tuulen

Did he pay you to write that?

[tuulen]

@tuulen

Did he pay you to write that?

The Finnish language is difficult enough as it is, especially given the controversy between "standard" Finnish and all of the dialects. But Pursuivant is well qualified to tell a young British nurse just what she needs to know.

[Pursuivant]

Tuulen, are you implying I'm a sick individual?

Besides which, I think I've got a diagnosis

[Kutittaa]

@tuulen

Did he pay you to write that?

I would have said the same thing. There's a difference between being an asskisser and just telling facts as they are. Even if the line is fine.

[tuulen]

@tuulen

Did he pay you to write that?

I would have said the same thing. There's a difference between being an asskisser and just telling facts as they are. Even if the line is fine.

Unfortunately, you are totally out of the loop. You know not whereof you speak.

[Kutittaa]

@tuulen

Did he pay you to write that?

I would have said the same thing. There's a difference between being an asskisser and just telling facts as they are. Even if the line is fine.

Unfortunately, you are totally out of the loop. You know not whereof you speak.

'Where' or 'what'?
Who's out of the loop :p

[Pursuivant]

Who pissed in your fruitloops?