Minä opiskelen suomea - I'm studying Finnish - and man, it's hard! I mean, I have fun. I like it. I know I should study more at home, really learn all I had in the class and whenever I sit at a table and open my book Suomen Mestari 1, I see how little I know, how hard it is to memorize all the words and all their grammatical forms and how even harder or almost impossible it is to start to use this language. Every time I go out to make groceries, to buy tickets, to ask a mom playing with her kids in a park about those kids, like age or names, so every time I wish I would speak Finnish and I am searching for words but only very few are coming to me and never enough to start a conversation. Little things, but so hard to do this. This is actually the first time in my life when I have an opportunity to study a language (I mean from scratch) in a country if its origin. This means I do have lots of opportunities to use whatever I've learned in the class. This is helpful and I can see it. For example the fact that I've been living in Finland for almost three and a half years helps a lot. I am very familiar with a sound of the language. Even before I started the course I already knew many words - words of food products, some simple verbs or basic adjectives. Of course I didn't know how to conjugate them, but at least a few I've known.
Is Finnish harder than other languages? No, I don't think so. It is just different. And because there is only those 5.5 million Finns who are speaking it, you probably have never ever heard it before. And of course in my case it is also that I am learning it as an adult. All the other languages I learned in my life, that is English, German or French I had during my school years. Was it easier that time? I don't remember, probably not so or I just didn't pay much attention to that. But kids take it easy and are just used to learn many new things, many different subjects, some easy and some difficult. Kids also take it for granted that they are not proficient in anything yet and that they don't understand many things. As an adult and being proficient in one foreign language, like English, you - wanting it or not - you compare your knowledge. For example you can of course speak, write and read books and newspapers in English, so you think - when will I able to do this with my Finnish? But at the same time you forget that you were learning English since primary school and Finnish you started four months ago.
But I can say now that Finnish is quite a logical language. The grammar is very different from all the roman or germanic or slavic languages, but if you are able to think outside the box it doesn't seem so hard. Just stop comparing everything to English or to your mother-tongue - whatever language it is. What is quite simple in Finnish is how you read. Basically you have to read every single letter in a word. There are some hard to pronounce sounds - but of course it is always very subjective and depends what's you mother-tongue. You decline all nouns and adjectives and of course conjugate verbs, but so it is in all slavic languages, it exists to some extend in German too. On the other hand in Finnish you don't have masculine or feminine or neutral forms! Not only for things and animals but also for people. There is only one form - equality in every sense :)
What else? I feel quite lucky because we have a cool teacher, charismatic, funny and energetic, so it is really fun to attend the classes. And the group is also good. Very international. Most are quite committed to it and really want to study. Some are moms like myself. Others just young people who happened to come to Finland. So far so good. Hyvää paivää!
Is Finnish harder than other languages? No, I don't think so. It is just different. And because there is only those 5.5 million Finns who are speaking it, you probably have never ever heard it before. And of course in my case it is also that I am learning it as an adult. All the other languages I learned in my life, that is English, German or French I had during my school years. Was it easier that time? I don't remember, probably not so or I just didn't pay much attention to that. But kids take it easy and are just used to learn many new things, many different subjects, some easy and some difficult. Kids also take it for granted that they are not proficient in anything yet and that they don't understand many things. As an adult and being proficient in one foreign language, like English, you - wanting it or not - you compare your knowledge. For example you can of course speak, write and read books and newspapers in English, so you think - when will I able to do this with my Finnish? But at the same time you forget that you were learning English since primary school and Finnish you started four months ago.
But I can say now that Finnish is quite a logical language. The grammar is very different from all the roman or germanic or slavic languages, but if you are able to think outside the box it doesn't seem so hard. Just stop comparing everything to English or to your mother-tongue - whatever language it is. What is quite simple in Finnish is how you read. Basically you have to read every single letter in a word. There are some hard to pronounce sounds - but of course it is always very subjective and depends what's you mother-tongue. You decline all nouns and adjectives and of course conjugate verbs, but so it is in all slavic languages, it exists to some extend in German too. On the other hand in Finnish you don't have masculine or feminine or neutral forms! Not only for things and animals but also for people. There is only one form - equality in every sense :)
What else? I feel quite lucky because we have a cool teacher, charismatic, funny and energetic, so it is really fun to attend the classes. And the group is also good. Very international. Most are quite committed to it and really want to study. Some are moms like myself. Others just young people who happened to come to Finland. So far so good. Hyvää paivää!
