skip to main |
skip to sidebar
So yesterday i posted about receiving a package from friends in Finland which included some newspaper clippings. Part of Saila's note said, "I've also enclosed a little article to help you learn Finnish and see what the fabulous Gregorius looks like now (he's a library employee)." Being the dense person i am, i totally thought Saila was being weird and funny and sending me some random article about a library employee just for fun and to practice my Finnish on.
WELL, Saila commented on the post from yesterday informing me that the guy in the article is the guy from the Finnish YMCA video. I'm an idiot. For some reason Gregorius didn't register in my brain, even though it flashes "Gregorius" in the middle of the video. Anyways, all of sudden, i understood the article a lot better. I still have a lot of translating to do, but at least i know what it's about now. I feel really stupid for not putting the pieces together quicker, but in my defense, i didn't look super closely at the article until after Saila told me who it was.
So i've been hearing things about this amazing program called Rosetta Stone that's a language teacher thingy. Everyone, when i say i'm trying to learn Finnish, says, "Dude, you got to get Rosetta Stone! It's so good!" So i decided to investigate. And by investigate i mean download illegally. Well, the tables turned on me when i found out they don't offer Rosetta Stone in Finnish....
At first i thought, "Well, that's understandable. Finnish is kind of an obscure language." But then i found the languages they do offer. Along with the major ones, they have Welsh, Pashto, and Tagalog!??!?!?! Are you serious?!?! (Although, Welsh would be cool.) The Finns have been shafted... Well, people who want to be Finns are being shafted i should say. I'm content with my Teach Yourself Finnish book and CD's, but i still thought that was screwed up.
On a side note, i named my new iPod (that i got for free when i purchased my new MacBook) "Anteeksi, en ymmärrä" which means "Sorry, I don't understand" which i find HILARIOUS.
On an additional side note, Saila's dad is mailing me a DVD of this years Eurovision, which is so sweet, i almost cried. I love the Savolainens!
A couple weeks ago i received my Teach Yourself Finnish book and CD's along with my Finnish-English pocket dictionary from Amazon. I don't have any delusion in my mind that it's going to take me forever to learn this language, but i still can't help but be optimistic.
I've been practicing along with the CD's in my car, and i think i'm getting pretty good. My favorite phrase i've learned so far is "silloin tällöin" which means "now and then". It's my favorite because it sounds really cool. I also like "hyvää päivää" a lot also. That means "good day".
The thing that's taking the most getting used to is the vowels. They're 8, and there's short and long forms. The trickiest is "y" because it's doesn't sound anything close what it sounds like in English, so i'm not going to even try to type it out phonetically. I think i've got it down now though.
Speaking of which, i think i'm going to practice now...
