Hey, it\u2019s\nBarbora again. A second-year master\u2019s student in International Strategy and\nSustainability. This one\u2019s for all of those who fear the Finnish language (I\nused to be one of you). Or those who feel the uncertainty of moving to a\ncountry, where you don\u2019t speak the language. Or anyone who\u2019s thinking of giving\nup on learning Finnish (can\u2019t blame you really). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I moved\nto Finland, I didn\u2019t know what to expect in many different areas of daily life.\nLanguage being one of them. And like most people moving to a country where you\ndon\u2019t speak the language that is mostly used, I was freaking out a bit. Sure,\nthe fact that Finns are known to be great English speakers was slightly\nreassuring, but still. I\u2019ve heard horror stories from people trying to learn Finnish,\nwith most of them ending in the same way \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve tried for about 10 years and\nthen I just gave up\u201d. What a motivation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My only\nadvantage probably was my (for a foreigner definitely unusual and excessive)\nknowledge and liking of Finnish music \u2013 mind you, obviously not the one\nperformed in English. And so I was coming to Finland equipped with words such\nas vapina (tremor), varikko (depot) and tarunhohtoinen (fabulous\/legendary).\nOkay okay, I just picked these here on purpose and the translations are only\nsomehow right, but once again, I\u2019m sure you get my point. With such an \u201cextensive\u201d\nvocabulary, I\u2019d probably be quite comfortable at a concert of some Finnish artists,\nbut the outlook wasn\u2019t too good for just asking directions to the nearest\nstore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyways, my\npoint is \u2013 it was really scary, coming here. My friends were trying to comfort\nme by pointing out that literally everyone in Finland speaks English. However \u2013\nI actually perceived that as a problem and a barrier to my Finnish learning.\nIt\u2019s just way too easy to NOT speak Finnish in Finland. You just don\u2019t need to,\nin most parts of your everyday life (but sure it\u2019s useful for a lot of things \u2013\nmay I refer you to my other blogpost about finding a job in Finland here). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With my\nfirst day in Finland began my difficult and ongoing journey to learning\nFinnish. I\u2019d say it\u2019s been actually going better than expected. I started\ntaking Finnish courses straight away \u2013 not just at school, but additional ones\ntoo. It\u2019s been just over a year now and I managed to get through the first\nthree Suomen Mestari books (basically a bible of Finnish language learning),\njust starting the fourth one now. Officially, my level is something around\nB1.1., which I\u2019d probably find quite disappointing after all the effort that I\u2019ve\nput in \u2013 if it were any other language but Finnish. Finnish is\u2026special.\nInterpret that in any way you want. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, how did\nI get to where I am? I\u2019m sure there\u2019s many ways to learn Finnish, but here\u2019s\nwhat I did! First of all, what are you going to need?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now,\nhow to learn and what resources to use?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two last\npieces of advice I\u2019ll leave you with \u2013 don\u2019t be too hard on yourself and don\u2019t\ngive up. Learning a language CAN be fun, but just like a lot of other things,\nit is what you make it. So – make learning fun for yourself and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll\nbe a Finnish expert in no time. And hopefully I\u2019ll be too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Onnea matkaan.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the meantime if you have any questions please drop me a message at barbora.stuhla@student.hanken.fi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey, it\u2019s Barbora again. A second-year master\u2019s student in International Strategy and Sustainability. This one\u2019s for all of those who fear the Finnish language (I used to be one of you). Or those who feel the uncertainty of moving to a country, where you don\u2019t speak the language. Or anyone who\u2019s thinking of giving up … <\/p>\n