Who do Finns mercilessly pick apart foreigners' Finnish...

misu · Post by **misu** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 9:49 am

yet foreigners/non-natives are supposed to ignore the many mistakes of Finns' English? Every time I make a post on Facebook or somewhere else making a statement in Finnish, one minor spelling or grammar error will result in 20 Finns jumping in to correct and point out my mistake. No one commenting on the actual content of the message or anything, just wanting to point out how my 99% correct Finnish sentence isn't 100% correct. Yet I get the feeling that it's bad taste, as a native English speaker, to point out constant errors in the English of non-native speakers/writers. I don't see the point in picking it apart when a Finn makes a ton of grammar/spelling/pronunciation mistakes with their English because the main point is I understand what they're saying despite any minor errors. So what gives?

**Sponsor:**

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:08 am

It's very likely that they're trying to be helpful rather than spiteful. Maybe just politely point out that you don't need every small error correcting. After all, as you said, if you embarked on correcting Finns' English language mistakes, you wouldn't have time for everyday life

interleukin · Post by **interleukin** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 9:01 pm

It´s also a question of Finns not being used to seeing/hearing bad Finnish. I find that English speakers tend to be more used to people mutilating their language, and they still understand what´s going on. Finns are not yet that used to foreigners speaking bad Finnish, or any Finnish, so they will either correct you to be helpful (or they think they are, I can see why it gets frustrating when it happens ALL the time), or just not understand you at all. My Swedish speaking Finn SO runs into this sometimes. He says something in grammatically perfect Finnish, but the Finns don´t understand him because the accent is a bit off. I´m the same in Icelandic (another language with complex grammar), I have a really hard time understanding people who speak bad Icelandic (=bad grammar) because my brain is not used to it.

if people keep correcting your FB posts, you should let people know. If you don´t want to piss anyone off, you can always write that you are focusing on quantity of Finnish at this stage, so people should ignore problems in quality unless they are too bad.

And then again, grammar nazis will always exist. Or people who just HAVE to point out to you every time you do anything wrong. That´s life.

tuulen · Post by **tuulen** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 3:08 am

There are cultural differences between nations. Here in the US we are long accustomed to hearing all sorts of American English, and nobody here suggests any language corrections to any foreign speaker. Basically, as long as we can understand the meaning of what a foreigner is saying then that is good enough.

Yet my experience in Germany was quite different, many years ago. I had studied the German language in high school and at college level, and then I lived in Germany for a year. But if I made a mistake in speaking the German language then a German would not hesitate to correct me.

Oombongo · Post by **Oombongo** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 1:49 pm

tuulen wrote: Yet my experience in Germany was quite different, many years ago. I had studied the German language in high school and at college level, and then I lived in Germany for a year. But if I made a mistake in speaking the German language then a German would not hesitate to correct me.

You must have spoken Swiss German in French accent

As to OP, they don't mean anything bad at all..They are trying to help...in their own way

Perhaps, it would be another story if Finnish had different varieties like Australian Finnish, US Finnish, British Finnish, Irish English etc etc

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 2:44 pm

Oombongo wrote:Perhaps, it would be another story if Finnish had different varieties like Australian Finnish, US Finnish, British Finnish, Irish English etc etc

Well, there are... Finglish, Karelian, Meänkieli, and Ingrian, probably a couple of others too.

But they’re all dwindling minority dialects/variants with relatively few speakers, and in the danger of becoming extinct. None of them is exactly the dominant language in the country or area where they’re spoken.

There’s also not too much cultural interaction between the speakers of these variants and the Finnish speakers in Finland — at least nothing that would approach the extent of cultural exchange between the UK, the US, Canada, and Australia.

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:29 pm

Jukka Aho wrote: But they’re all dwindling minority dialects/variants with relatively few speakers, and in the danger of becoming extinct.

You made a mistake!

(Tongue now firmly in cheek) Which is extremely rare for you, as your written English is usually better than many people in the UK!

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:33 pm

Not our problem the English let foreigners to rape their language, is it?

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 7:01 pm

Pursuivant wrote:Not our problem the English let foreigners to rape their language, is it?

One error, not bad. 8 out of ten.

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 8:25 pm

Karhunkoski wrote:One error, not bad. 8 out of ten. :D

I got the impression the Finns in the original complaint were at least trying to be useful by actually suggesting corrections instead of just tallying the number of errors...

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 9:04 pm

Jukka Aho wrote:
Karhunkoski wrote:One error, not bad. 8 out of ten.
I got the impression the Finns in the original complaint were at least trying to be useful by actually suggesting corrections instead of just tallying the number of errors...

Oh ffs Jukka, dismount your serious horse

You of all people, should be aware what the

means in an internet post. Hank made a post about "foreginers raping the English language", whilst inadvertently raping it himself. I saw the funny side, did you?

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 10:19 pm

We're Finns! We demand to know about our errors so we can lament on them whilst drinking to our sorrow!

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 10:23 pm

Ah, I think that’s a bit hasty interpretation. Lack of yellow ball thingies is hardly a reliable indication of the presence of equines. (But if present, they’re nothing less than amazing.)

linforcer · Post by **linforcer** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 11:32 pm

If I were in your position I would want them to correct even the tiniest mistake, however I would also want them to respond to the content of the message.

Perhaps the right message to send them is: "I'm fine with you correcting my Finnish but only when you have something to say about the content as well."
One might add: "Once the mistake has been pointed out, it isn't quite necessary for more of you to do so."

That said, I think it is preferable to the attitude of my people (the Dutch) as they tend to ignore anyone's attempts at speaking Dutch and simply speak English to them if there is even the slightest accent or error, though they too think they are helping.

Finally, I just can't resist, so ignore me if this is annoying: Did you misspell "How" in the thread title, or is there a meaning of "Who do... , yet..." that I am not aware of?

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 1:03 am

even the slightest accent or error

Finns an Dutch seem to be very familiar with this person who finds it, as they have created the exactly same term

kommaneuker = pilkunnussija
(you did notice I corrected you a comma there in your other sentence)

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