Are You Finnish?

Slavic countries - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Slovakia and Slovenia. The language sounds alike. I live in Bulgaria and I've traveled around, I can perfectly understand what people in those countries are saying.
 
predator2353 said:
ROFL and you know whats the funny part? That the curse words are exactly the same!
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Hell yeah! That's not funny at all, at least down here. Spanish and French have the world up their asses so they think each time we (Portuguese) curse we're calling 'em assholes or something like that. :bah:
 
SaatananPieniSisar said:
Fuck, so I really threw away 4 years of my life..... Maybe I should just keep talking English next time I'm in Finland :guh:
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Haha, whilst a lot of Finns do speak English, it's still useful to know Finnish. Some of my English friends and I went over there to my family's summer house and, whilst in Helsinki and Lahti, they found it awkward trying to ask questions of people (stuff like, "where are the toilets?", "do you know where a cash point is?") whenever I wasn't around. Plus, people generally seemed a lot happier when addressed in Finnish than in English.
 
I'm going back in October, but somehow I really don't feel like it..
I've always seen Finland as my true home.. but now I can't wait to go back, and on the other hand I don't feel like it..
I don't know why :S

I've had good and bad experiences when I addressed people in Finland in Finnish.. In Helsinki I don't do it, because I really understand absolutely nothing of Helsinki slang.. In Savonlinna last year I spoke a lot of Finnish.. that went ok..
Tampere last April.. It was a mix I guess.. some ppl understood my bad Finnish, other ppl switched to English.. and some ppl just pretended to really not understand anything.. I doubt they would have understood a Fin speaking Finnish really.. and that worked in a store :S
 
I didn't know enough Finnish to hold a conversation either time I was there, but I found people were okay with speaking english with me. If I wanted to ask a question, I would generally start out with something like "excuse me" and then ask if they spoke english. Once I said I was from Canada, and not the States, people seemed to be perfectly fine with it. (A few even offered to buy my friend and I a beer once they found out we weren't American.) :lol:

SaatananPieniSisar: Did you teach yourself Finnish, or did you manage to find a school or classes to help you? There's nothing here. I believe we only have two universities in the entire country that offer Swedish as a second language, so the choices aren't so great if you're interested in anything Finnish or Scandinavian.
 
reignofterror said:
SaatananPieniSisar: Did you teach yourself Finnish, or did you manage to find a school or classes to help you? There's nothing here. I believe we only have two universities in the entire country that offer Swedish as a second language, so the choices aren't so great if you're interested in anything Finnish or Scandinavian.
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I went to University, but I had some personal issues so I had to quit the first year twice, and the third year I didn't have the trust of my teachers and failed 2 courses so I wasn't allowed to start the 2nd year.. Even though my teachers in Finland at summercourse were very positive about me..
So in September I had to wait out the first semester only to hear at the beginning of the second that I had to go to the examination committee to see if I was allowed to start the second semester and that my other teacher wanted a talk with me first but she only had time three weeks later :S

That's why I decided to go work.. and even though I now have a job I like, it still kills me that I couldn't continue my studies.. I try to work on it at home, but when there's no one around to help you.. it's hard..
 
^ I've been teaching myself Norwegian through a "Teach Yourself Norwegian" book. And yes, I agree it's hard when you're not in a formal classroom with a teacher to guide you and discipline. But really, if you work on at least three times a week, you'll start noticing the improvements. You just have to be persistent. And language is something that is learned through frequent studying sessions, rather than intense spaced-out studying. So don't pick up your book once a week, try to go over the vocabulary every day, and go over grammar rules at least 3 times a week. That's when it'll start to sink in.
 
I've had 3 years of intensive Finnish lessons, 6 hours guided lessons and 28 hours a week of homework.. Both grammar, vocabulary, listening and speaking.
And one 3 week Summercourse with about 40 hours a week of only Finnish lessons, several 'fieldtrips' and other things..
So I can say it kinda sank in allright..

thing is, with no teachers around and not doing as much with Finnish language as before, it also sinks away very fast..

Besides, Norwegian is said to be easier than Finnish to learn.. But maybe it's just that way for Germanic languages..
 
Considering how similar Norwegian is to Swedish, it is MUCH easier to learn than Finnish.
From personal experience, if you put a little time in, Swedish doesn't take a huge effort to learn. I'll be taking the second year Swedish courses at University next year and will hopefully have a quite good knowledge of the language at the end of that time. But my Swedish teacher is absolutely awesome. Languages do go away fast unless you are using them often. I try to watch movies and listen to band interviews and what not in Swedish to try and keep up over the summer. It's hard to find the time to keep up on it too when you're not in a structured environment.

Now that I know all of the basic terms used to describe grammar and different aspects of learning a language, I am planning on giving Finnish another chance. I will have to teach myself though, which might be okay because I know a few people who speak Finnish so I can practice with them.

SaatananPieniSisar: When you were speaking about university, did you take university classes in Finland?
 
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