#i know to my irls i am a fucking enigma on account of not being an avid tiktoker or vker

[simcardiac-arrested]

i feel as the years go by i become less and less unreachable on the internet. people ask me for my socials and it’s like, sorry i dont have tiktok, vk, insta, twittor, but you can have my phone number^_^ oh but i answer calls like 30% of the time, and i never answer if it’s an unknown number. But coming back to social media, one sure way to reach me always used to be discord. i was pretty much always available and if u shot me a message i’d get back to you in a matter of 0.2 seconds. now though? i could be watching 5 hours of youtube videos and be none the wiser of the fact that somebody Needs to speak with me, because i can’t see the notifications on my computer anymore. so unless i get my ass up (which i dont like doing) and get my phone, i’m practically dead to the world. but see even beyond that i Also can’t be fucked to go through the trouble of turning my vpn on (clicking one button) because im lazy. i know people are messaging me on discord right now but im just lazy. and in that way it sort of feels like emails, where if i don’t see it it basically doesn’t exist. And so i become more and more of a concept. like a vampire or perhaps like franz kafka, i have been metamorphosed into the concept friend they warned you about. you cannot reach me in a way that matters

[viahhapocalyptica]

I really want to learn Finnish but it scares me so much more than the other Scandinavian languages I know...teach me ur ways ;—;

Heeiiidon’t be scared young Padiwan, Finnish is more of a beautiful enigma than a scary monster :3 (apart from Helsinki slang and the stuff you read onSuomitumppu… That shit’s terrifying XD).Firstup: Finnish is not a Scandinavian/Norse language, that’s possiblywhy it’s intimidating. Unless you speak Estonian,Hungarian, or various indigenous Siberian languages, it’s not gonnabe familiar. But that’s why it’s fun! ‘Cause it’s totally different :3 You just throw away everythingyou think you know about how languages work and you start fromscratch.Secondly: Here’s some facts that make it sound less scary– there’s no grammatical genders. There’sno gender pronouns either, there’s just “hän” for he or she (or“se” in spoken Finnish which literally means “it” XD).There’s also no articles, which means that sometimes I forget tosay “the” and “a/an” in English now. And also the spelling istotally phonetic. Every letter only makes one sound, so spelling andpronunciation are simple. Oh, and there’s only two tenses: Present and past. Bloody marvellous Myways you say? Well personally I began witha book called Teach Yourself Finnish by Terttu Leney. I HIGHLYrecommend investing in this book, preferably a more recent version (oldest oneis too formal). I taught myselfspelling and grammar and basically the most important shit solelyfrom that book for something like 8 years before I got lessons, and Istill go through it from time to time. Honestly you should see thestate of my copy XD When I finally started lessons, my teacherscouldn’t believe I had taught myself. So I literally can’tpraise it enough.Thatsaid, there’s other good books out there too, I’ll put themin a list at the end of this ramble :3NextI got lessons. I am lucky that I live a few towns away from anAnglo-Finn group called Camberleyn Suomikoulu (Camberley’s Finnishschool), who are basically a bunch of Finns who mingle whilst theirspouses/kids get taught Finnish. I’m their novelty student XD But they treat me as a Finn too. :3Anyway,I know it may not be so simple for most people to get lessons. If youhave looked/googled all over and can’t find any near enough to you,are there any Finnish embassies or groups in your country that dointensive courses a couple times a year? Also consider gettinglessons over Skype. There are teachers who even have group lessons ifyou are nervous :3 Or find Finnish speakers who don’t mindcommunicating with you often, there are people here on tumblr forexample in the langblr community, and loads more on forums andlanguage communities across t’internet who may be able to help.Honestly my knowledge on this is not great as I am not that involved(would you believe I am quite shy irl -__-), but I’m sure it won’tbe difficult to find more info about other communities if you findsome Finnish langblrs. I don’t follow loads but I will put themat the end of this ramble too.Forhelp with vocabulary, there are websites and apps that can help you.Memrise has absolutely FUCKTONNES of useful vocab, for example. The courses are put together by Memrise users so it’s all free, thoughsadly that also means you might want to be wary of accuracy here andthere. “3000 most common words”, “Beginner’s Finnish” (with amoomin for a pic), and “Vocabulary from Selkouutiset”, areparticularly good vocab lists. Interesting to note that the appexercises (at least on iphone) are different from the website, but both are good.Mondlyis also great! You get a free lesson every day, even if you don’tbuy the full version :3 I’m dreaming of the day I can afford ittbh, it has speech recognition like on Duolingo, which is so rare forFinnish *____*Clozemaster is something I’ve just discovered, it’slike the last two apps/websites but it presents the words in context,which is pretty damn useful in Finnish. There are so many other random/smaller websiteswhich are good for reference also, not just for vocab but alsophrases and tidbits of grammar. I’ll put them at the end.Ifyou can, try to listen to Finnish radio, news, or even watch the Moomins,so that you can hear more every day and casual subjects andconversation, as opposed to song lyrics and interviews, or thosebloody voice actors who speak slowly for the accompanying audio totextbooks. I mean, that’s useful at first, but nobody speaks likethat irl.

Oh,also I better acknowledge the cases, conjugations, and consonantgradation. It seems pretty intimidating I know, but don’t worry!There is method in that madness. The rules of Finnish grammar arelogical with only very few exceptions, and therefore in time becomequite easy to apply. Chances are you won’t know what to do at timesand that’s fine - I don’t think anyone will give you shit for gettingthings wrong. But if you are unsure and want to check how toconjugate words and such, use Wiktionary. You can search for a word there and it should have awhole table of all possible conjugations when you click the little “more”button :3 Sometimes there are examples in context as well.Personally I’ve always had a little table of case names with examples on my wall where I work, because sometimes a textbookwill say “use ___ with the elative case” and I can’t rememberwhat the fuck that means (because I just know it as “the -sta/-stä ending”,for example XD) and it’s made life so much easier than having to lookit up every time. East to reach conjugation tables/lists are definitely your friend.BeforeI stop rambling (finally) and get to the links - maybe this willapply to other languages, maybe not, but imo keeping on top ofFinnish is a daily thing. Doing my Mondly lesson and two Memrisesessions a day has greatly improved my listening skills,and it helps with keeping vocab fresh in my mind. That is my bareminimum a day - I can do more, but never less. It’s a new-ish routinein my life, but it’s already helped soooo SOOO much. Just five littlemeasly minutes a day, every day, find something to practice whetherit’s vocab or reading about grammar, or one exercise in a book. Thenyou can choose to do extra or not. If you choose to do loads, do NOTgive yourself a day off the next day. Still do those five minutes. Ipromise you will learn faster than cramming it all in your head forlike three days straight, then burning out for a month, then beingintimidated by the pile you have to catch up on. I speak fromexperience. XD

So,onto those links. 

Websites mentionedhere:www.memrise.comwww.mondlylanguages.comwww.clozemaster.comwww.wiktionary.com

Otheruseful websites for just abouteverything:www.uusikielemme.fi/index.html– “Finnish for busy people”, great for simplified explanationsto grammar and lists of important vocab. Also inSpanish.www.101languages.net/finnish/- This website has audio samples of common words, a conjugator, atranslator, radio, news, vocab and phrases, a conversational course,the whole friggin’ works.www.livelingua.com/project/fsi/Finnish/- some free and extensive courses with audiohere.https://twitter.com/kaikkisanat– a twitter account posting literally every Finnishword.www.sanakirja.org - online dictionarywww.urbaanisanakirja.fi– dictionary for slang words. The definitions are in Finnishthough.http://extreme-finnish.teachable.com/- a course on spoken Finnish.www.randomfinnishlesson.com– a great blog with lots of useful anecdotes, grammardeconstructing, slang words, vocab etc… The owner occasionallyteaches over skype, she also does podcasts in simple Finnish andstuff.http://donnerwetter.kielikeskus.helsinki.fi/FinnishForForeigners/parts-index.htm– useful exercises andsuch.https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/selkouutiset/- the news in simpleFinnish.https://viahhapocalypticalangblr.tumblr.com/post/154651215026/starryskiesandlanguages-memrise-finnish#notes– A masterpost of other helpful Finnish content.Some langblrs/tumblrblogs with useful Finnishcontent:@blackteaandlanguages​@letslearnfinnish​@useless-finlandfacts​@learnsuomi​@uselessfinnish​@thisisfinnish​@finugriclanguages​@hiiru-lainen​@finnishproverbs​@finnishwords​@catfinnish​@just-finnish-learning-things​@finland-is-cooler-than-you​@viahhapocalypticalangblr​(this is mine, I’m not terribly active there but I try to reblog anyuseful shit I see and occasionally talk about life inFinnish.)Books I can recommend:Teach Yourself Finnish byTerttu LeneyFrom Start To Finnish by Leila WhiteHyvin Menee!Suomea Aikuisille (series)Suomen Mestari (series)BerlitzFinnish phrasebook & dictionary (good for travelling)I haveloads more in my collection but I haven’t managed to read them yetso… Watch this space for more info maybe?I have probablyforgotten some things here and there but I hope you get the idea, andsome kind of starting point. I wish you the best of luck learningthis unique and beautiful language, and please feel free to ask any questions if you get stuck. Tsemppiä! And may yourencounters with the partitive case be peaceful and easy to understand XD