The way I study Finnish...

[larsonmikael]

I have read many books both from Finland and the U.K. but I have yet to find satisfactory Finnish books(no, one or two, perhaps. Grammar book by Leila White).

I have big English dictionary from WSOY but it is an old one and seriously needs improvement. When I need to look a word up, I go to Lexin's Swedish-Finnish dictionary website. During my last visit to Helsinki (2004) I saw this book "Finnish dictionary for Foreigners" but apparently the book was the very first edition and I was reluctant to buy it (I prefer revised, time-proven work).

I have listened to a Finnish radio station from Sveriges radio since 2003 and this is by far the best resource I have ever come across. I get to listen to many Finnish music and get to know Ultra Bra, Eppu Normaali, Juice Leskinen(spel.), etc. It is a shame that YLE stopped its radio-streaming service (a few survive though).

I watch YLE-uutiset and "uutiset" from Sveriges Television. I make sure to google the new words that I came across so that I can find out the meaning and in what context the word is used.

[enk]

...I go to Lexin's Swedish-Finnish dictionary website.

I highly recommend this, if you're learning Swedish, too. It's a good
way of reinforcing the general concept links between languages instead
of just learning this word is X in Y language.

I've also been trying to persuade Finns that a Lexin-style site would
be a wonderful tool, but no one is willing to cough up the money
or resources for it

-enk

[larsonmikael]

I guess many Finns and Swedes speak enough English to not necessarily need a good English resource. They can consult English dictionary (like Webster) when they need it. Even Lexin is funded by government and started out (and I think still is primarily) as immigrant-use, after all.