Making Friends in Finland

[ElleWhilde]

Moikka!

I live in the U.S, but I am currently learning Finnish and I thought it would be a good idea to use a language learning app that allows you to improve your speaking skills with people across the globe. The only problem is that I am having a hard time getting anyone from Finland to respond to my offers for a conversation. I have often heard of Finns being naturally reserved and closed off, but I am wondering if there is something I can do engage them in conversation more, or is this cultural where I have wait for them to open up?

Kiitos!

[FinnGuyHelsinki]

From time to time there are questions/conversation threads about how to make friends in Finland. My suggestion is to try to find like-minded people sharing similar interests, whether it's computer gaming, cars, gardening, fitness,.. on internet forums, in (physical) places and events where those people gather together, and go on from there. Maybe the same could work also in language learning context. It might be difficult to get a "random" person to tutor a complete stranger, but if there's a shared interest, a Finnish-speaker probably wouldn't mind talking about it in Finnish.

[FinlandGirl]

From time to time there are questions/conversation threads about how to make friends in Finland. My suggestion is to try to find like-minded people sharing similar interests, whether it's computer gaming, cars, gardening, fitness,.. on internet forums, in (physical) places and events where those people gather together, and go on from there.

You missed the problem:

I live in the U.S,

[FinnGuyHelsinki]

From time to time there are questions/conversation threads about how to make friends in Finland. My suggestion is to try to find like-minded people sharing similar interests, whether it's computer gaming, cars, gardening, fitness,.. on internet forums, in (physical) places and events where those people gather together, and go on from there.

You missed the problem:

I live in the U.S,

One can join Internet forums from there, too.

[FinlandGirl]

From time to time there are questions/conversation threads about how to make friends in Finland. My suggestion is to try to find like-minded people sharing similar interests, whether it's computer gaming, cars, gardening, fitness,.. on internet forums, in (physical) places and events where those people gather together, and go on from there.

You missed the problem:

I live in the U.S,

One can join Internet forums from there, too.

Doing conversation with a language learner/beginner is quite some effort, this is not something people are doing regularly without getting something in exchange (e.g. money).
Below the level where proper conversation is possible this is a variant of a language course.

The most common setting in Finland are language cafes where several learners are talking with each other.
An online study group with other people in the US would be the online variant of that.

[FinlandGirl]

The only problem is that I am having a hard time getting anyone from Finland to respond to my offers for a conversation. I have often heard of Finns being naturally reserved and closed off, but I am wondering if there is something I can do engage them in conversation more, or is this cultural where I have wait for them to open up?

How would you react if a person from China with beginner level English skills would offer you a conversation?