Anyone doing Finnish for Foreigners Level1?

scoobymcdoo · Post by **scoobymcdoo** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 1:01 pm

On the 29th August I am starting Level 1. My course is with the Helsinki Summer Uni and will run for 4 weeks.

Back in January I started a beginners FFF (Finnish For Foreigners) course but failed to complete as Sophie was born 8 weeks afer starting!

I cant wait to start again.

Hannah

PS If anyone has been on one of these course, is there a lot of homework? I'm quite happy to work but I need to know how to juggle Sophie and studying....I feel a chat with my neighbour coming on!

**Sponsor:**

Amiel · Post by **Amiel** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 1:26 pm

Hey Hannah, I did Suomi 1 in Jan and now taking Suomi 2 at the university (intensive). We're learning quite fast and there are some readings and not really that much of homework. It doesn't really keep me so busy but it's quite tiring since we're having classes everyday (except Fridays) for 2 hrs. I think you'll do fine

I still have time to do other stuffs.

Paul_D · Post by **Paul_D** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:02 pm

scoobymcdoo wrote:On the 29th August I am starting Level 1.

Duuuuuh.... you are not lucky... I'll join this group too.... I am awfully talkative and I have a strong habit to try monopolizing the teachers...

scoobymcdoo wrote:I cant wait to start again.

Oh, I am not impatient

I'll even skip the first two lessons, because I'll be in England until Tuesday evening.

In fact, I am pretty afraid of the time-consumption of this course... 17:15->21:00, every monday, tuesday, wednesday.... I hope I won't get any serious and challenging project when I'll do those courses. How can one cope with 12hours of language courses, plus homeworks, on one-side, and, on the other-side, deadlines, travels Helsinki-Tampere, trainings, work overtime, documents to write, stress, etc.. ?

/Paul

Pecchio · Post by **Pecchio** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 9:06 am

scoobymcdoo wrote: Hannah

PS If anyone has been on one of these course, is there a lot of homework? I'm quite happy to work but I need to know how to juggle Sophie and studying....I feel a chat with my neighbour coming on!

Plese post any kind of questions in this forum.
and I'll promise to disappoint you with the very wrong answers...

And to write off topic: the forums of a really foreign language (Scottish, and suchlike tryings...

Canada, is it without a hero.? hahaa....!!! hallo!)

This trespassing just feels so humorous... sorry...

Iceldand,, are you gone ... to sea?

Begging everyone's pardon.

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 10:42 am

Paul_D wrote: Duuuuuh.... you are not lucky... I'll join this group too.... I am awfully talkative and I have a strong habit to try monopolizing the teachers...

/Paul

So your Finnish is already quite good then.....

(just for info.... these courses are IN FINNISH, and as some of the students do not necessarily have a good command of English the teachers are usually reluctant to have English conversations during the lessons. Most teachers will stay on after the lesson ends and answer your questions.... even though they don't get paid overtime

)

I recommend Fred Karlsson's "Finnish - An Essential Grammar" as it explains the grammar in English and for those who enjoy memorising inflection tables there are some of those too.

In my experience the ones who don't do the homework are the ones who drop out first.... it's a commitment thing and a motivation thing. You have to be in it a 100% . I found I could get through the homework quite quickly (having a Finnish husband helps

) but I never bothered to file all my notes with cross-referenced post-its and multi-coloured Stabilo hi-lighter etc etc etc

which in my opinion takes forever.

Good Luck....

scoobymcdoo · Post by **scoobymcdoo** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 11:35 am

I have the Finnish Grammar book already, I bought it for my first course..it is very good, though a little daunting to begin with.

My last course was FFF in Finnish, it was great but it was rudely interupted by Sophie being born. This is the first course I have found since she was born. I am really looking forward to using my brain again (if the pregnancy brain cells have regenerated). My aim is complete level one and then go straight onto level 2, but it'll all depend on DPs work travel.

Homework will not be a problem unless Sophie decides that sleep is not for her, is there homework everyday?

Hannah

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 2:00 pm

scoobymcdoo wrote: is there homework everyday?

Hannah

My teachers have always given homework... sometimes just a few gap fill exercises that cover grammar done in the lesson. Rarely any creative writing. Occasionally the teacher would give us a mountain of exercises and revision, if we were nearing the end of a chapter in the book for example (usually over a weekend though) and it would take me several hours to get it all done. The one thing I rarely do - but probably should - is make an effort to memorise lexis. I CANNOT sit and learn words (vesihana, pakastin, jääkaapi, sanko, riepu, liesituuletin, pölynimuri........) it is just too boring and goes against the grain of all my teacher training. But one of my friends would cut up little cards and write English on one side and Finnish on the other and read them to herself in bed every evening. My approach is that my brain will decide the words I need to know (sanko? riepu?) and I will eventually manage to recall them naturally. Besides I have better things to do in bed

Paul_D · Post by **Paul_D** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 12:27 pm

penelope wrote:(just for info.... these courses are IN FINNISH, and as some of the students do not necessarily have a good command of English the teachers are usually reluctant to have English conversations during the lessons. Most teachers will stay on after the lesson ends and answer your questions.... even though they don't get paid overtime )

Hum, in my group, the teacher uses English, just a lot. He also translates sometimes in Portuguese and in French

I guess that he has ensured at first that everybody (or so) was speaking English...

Concerning learning, he made clear that it is irrealistic to think one can learn Finnish without bothering seriously to learn by heart everything : vocabulary, different endings of words, different ending of verbs. There is always explicit homework (exercices to do) and implicit homeworks (review the lessons, learn by heart as much as you head can, anticipate the vocabulary and grammar of the pages we will see in the next lessons...)

Concerning students animation, there is one person more talkative and teacher-monopolizing than me in the group, an american young woman, maybe she reads those lines

/Paul

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 12:47 pm

Paul_D wrote:
penelope wrote:(just for info.... these courses are IN FINNISH, and as some of the students do not necessarily have a good command of English the teachers are usually reluctant to have English conversations during the lessons. Most teachers will stay on after the lesson ends and answer your questions.... even though they don't get paid overtime )
Hum, in my group, the teacher uses English, just a lot. He also translates sometimes in Portuguese and in French

I guess that he has ensured at first that everybody (or so) was speaking English...

/Paul

Don't you find that really boring though that everything has to be said in 4 languages.... it is such a waste of time ??? Some language teachers are real divas and just love giving everyone an earful of their linguistic talent. I found learning Swedish in Russian, Finnish and Estonian to be so tedious that I eventually gave up. Both my Finnish teachers have insisted on speaking only Finnish and after the initial shock I found it really quite clever. I was surprised at how much I understood. But the teachers were always available to answer English questions after the lesson.

It's nice what you said about implicit homework.... makes a teacher like me smile...

efahey · Post by **efahey** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 3:25 pm

I am not actually taking finnish 1, but I have previoulsy taken it. I will be taking finnish 3 at the university starting on september 19th though!

I have to agree with Penelope here though, I really prefer my teachers to teach in Finnish, if they speak too much english it just causes me to be lazy and switch to english myself.

Liz

scoobymcdoo · Post by **scoobymcdoo** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:02 pm

I'm enjoying the course though it is quite tiring. I would like there to be more conversation and practise of what we are learning. I was not prepared to sit for nearly 4 hours without talking! I think the whole course needs to be a bit more practical.

Our teacher is obviously some form of academic linguist...he loves explaining everything in several languages. The other day he used Arabic!

The amount of grammar we are studying is huge...I'll be able to conjugate verbs in the present tense but will have no idea about using vocab!

Anyway, I'd like to do the level 2 but it is too much for John to have be home by 3.30 everyday to look after Sophie...I cant quite see Kimmo letting her come along!

Paul...you win the monopolising contest

...the american girl (megan) is not there that often!

Off now to complete homework!

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:05 pm

scoobymcdoo wrote:I'm enjoying the course though it is quite tiring. I would like there to be more conversation and practise of what we are learning. I was not prepared to sit for nearly 4 hours without talking! I think the whole course needs to be a bit more practical.

I have often heard these complaints about the Summer Uni courses: classes are too big, no time to practise and ALL theory, tables, grammar,

I really recommend the Helsingin Aikuisopisto courses, The classes are much smaller and the teachers give you time to practise in pairs or small groups. I did parts I, II, III and some conversation and continuation classes there and I really enjoyed all of them. I fail to see how anybody can learn to speak a language simply by memorising verb groups and inflection tables.

Amiel · Post by **Amiel** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:02 am

efahey wrote:I am not actually taking finnish 1, but I have previoulsy taken it. I will be taking finnish 3 at the university starting on september 19th though!

I'm taking the same course too! Which class are you gonna enroll?

I've been with the same teacher for 1, 2 and will be in her class again in 3. She uses Finnish only from the very first day of Finnish 1. She does explain something in English though if we still couldn't understand what she's trying to tell us in Finnish, but that's rare.

AZMom · Post by **AZMom** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:17 am

Has anyone had experience with the language courses offered at the Helsinki University language Center? The website makes them sound pretty good. The classes are twice a week.

I have been in Finland 10 days and know only a few words. I went to the Tyovaenopisto one night this week for their beginning course and it was terrible. It wasn't that the teacher spoke only in Finnish, I expected that. But she spoke a fast paced monologue for 1 1/2 hours. It was like watching Finnish TV. I didn't have any idea what she said and she barely interacted with the students. Is this typical? By the end we were all completely bewildered.

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 2:24 pm

I did a Swedish course at the one (Työthingy) in Tapiola and the teaching methods were also cr@p. At one point we even had to stick on headphones and repeat stuff into a mic...

I hadn't actually sat in a language lab since the early 1970s... and I'm a language teacher

I think you will find Helsinki Uni pretty much the same - only more expensive and the class sizes are bigger!!!

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