#very much a puhekieli thing though

[kuivamustekala]

Both are in common usage in my life! I feel like "bansku" has a bit more of a... not childish, but cutesy feel to it? Like, it isn't weird for someone to use it, but it tends to stand out to me a bit. But "omppu" is just everyday vocabulary, as far as I'm concerned

I literally just found out another word for "omena" (apple) is "omppu", and another word for "banaani" (banana) is "bansku".

I learnt these from my children so I don't know if this is just something kids say.

[finnishdaydreams-blog]

my messy Finnish learning path story, part II (months 4-6)

Part II in a series of posts in which I attempt to answer the question: “what have you been doing to learn Finnish?” (with an ample, rambly, whiny honest dose of “and how has that been going for you?”).

prequel

part I

Here's where it gets gritty.

Months 4-6 A bunch of really disheartening things happen. I get extremely whiny and throw a huge pity party.

I have finished the intro workbook and I want more, but I hate all of the books I have access to. I also feel very alone. I have no classes (and the ones in the neighbouring town are only offered at times when I work), I get the weird feeling I have less free time than other people, I can't find a lot of active learners who are around my level or who appear to be dedicated who are actually living outside of Finland.

Everything feels fake. My Finnish is fake. The things in the books are fake. Native conversations where I have the opportunity to interact almost don't exist and when they do I have no fucking idea what is going on. Finland is fake.

I laugh wearily at the conspiracy. I almost understand.

I also noticed that this is sort of the point where people give up. Learners are coming and going in the Discord seemingly abandoning Finnish after learning a handful of words and phrases. This makes me sad because Finnish is beautiful and awesome I want to keep going. Finns assure me that that I'm doing well, that mistakes are okay, that it doesn't matter and just try your best and do what you can, etc, etc. I want to believe them. Why don't I really believe them?

After I get so annoyed with my own whining I can't take it anymore, I make a bunch of important decisions.

1 - I decide that I will talk to learners every chance I get. Either to be social, to help if I can, or to listen about their learning. This provides me with some much-needed perspective. I start participating in voice chats whenever I see people around, even if I am too shy to say anything.

2 - I decide that since I am in this for the long haul (or, you know at least a year, which is what I originally set out to do, which I can explain in a separate post) I am going to need some quality resources. I order every book I can find.

3 - I decide that I am going to need more active structures in order to make progress. I do a search on finnishcourses.fi and find the syllabi for the Finnish for Foreigners courses at the University of Helsinki. I resolve to "pace" the objectives in their courses in the Suomen mestari textbook. This will help in 2 ways: 1) measurable progress that reassures me of my level and 2) something to grab onto when I feel like my wheels are spinning. Suomen mestari ends up being the one resource I wish I had gone with from the start. I devour it. It makes me use the structures and explains things in a clear way that doesn't overwhelm me.

4 - I decide that mass exposure to vocabulary will be a key factor in increasing my fluency. It doesn't matter if I can produce everything, but I need to read.  I aggressively introduce new words using Clozemaster. I also start using Word Dive. For some reason I start to resent Word Dive almost immediately, even though it is Finnish and well-made. But I keep doing it.

5 - I decide that if I can't have courses at home, I am just going to have to take a trip at some point. This gives me a long-term vision to focus my energy.  I start writing small stories (which I may or may not post some other time).

I still can't get myself to speak. I freeze. I get panicked. I don't know what to say, and even when I can form the phrase in my head, it won't come out. I look at Kato Hei (a textbook meant to introduce puhekieli forms). It seems like the perfect solution to my woes. Realize I really do need the base forms before I can ladder into the spoken. This annoys me. I wish I were the kind of person who could just pick that up but no, I'm not ready.

And then magic things start to happen.

-By the end of the first 6 months, I can recognize about 3000 words. Since I have been practicing these words in context, I don't need to translate them or anything. I can just see them and think in Finnish. I was already doing this before, but now entire sentences are chunks.

-I find that depending on the conversation, I can spontaneously read even spoken things when natives are talking, if it's a topic I know and I have context.

-I hear Anna Puu's Matkalla on Spotify and on a first pass I realize I know exactly what she's saying.

-I start actively figuring out grammar rules and attempting to explain them to other people to see if my theories work (the partitive, the exact circumstances under which consonant gradation happens, how specific noun types work).

-I use my reader to practice speaking by having storitaims on Discord. My pronounciation improves.

Tsuu tsuu, the progress train is in motion.

Comforted by: Finland conspiracy, Justimusfilms, 3 or 4 shared Spotify playlists.

New resources: Suomen mestari 1, YLE Areena, Kato Hei, Finnish: A Comprehensive Grammar, Responding in Conversation, Finnish Conversational Exercises, Basic Course in Finnish, Finnish for Foreigners Oral Drills, Assimil: Le finnois sans peine. A bunch of websites: The Finnish Teacher. Uusi kielemme. Eksote for immigrants. Smashwords. Digital dialects. infopankki.fi. A taste of Finnish. And a bunch of apps: Mango, Vocabulary trainer, Finnish Words Quiz, Foreign Numbers, Finnco Verbs, Learn Finnish, Anki (some premade decks).

[norwegiatlas]

day 21: write a dialogue between 2 people (A & B) about anything, each having 10 lines

When the Finns speak Finnish, they do not speak as it is written (kirjakieli = book language), but they speak another form of it called puhekieli (speech language). I will try my best to make this dialogue in puhekieli, but it won’t be pure puhekieli as my knowledge in it isn’t the best. It will only be the basic puhekieli.

Matti: Moi Liisa! Liisa: Hei Matti! Mitä kuuluu? Matti: Mä oon hyvää, kiitti. Entä sulle? Liisa: Mä en oo hyvä. Se on liian paljon läksyy ja liian vähän aikaa.  Matti: Voi ei. Millainen läksyy? Liisa: Matematiikanläksy, espanjanläksy ja historianläksy.  Matti: Haluatko sä mitään apuu?  Liisa: Toi on liian kilttii susta, mut ei kiitti.  Matti: Nonii, ootko sä varmaa? Mä voin auttaa sua. Liisa: Mä voin tehdä sen itseni. Mut kiitti sun tarjousta, Matti! Matti: Ole hyvä. Onnea sun läksyn kans!  Liisa: Kiitti! 

Seuraava päivä ...

Matti: Moi Liisa! Ootko sä pystynyt tehdä sun läksyä eilen? Liisa: Ei kaikki, mut mä opettaja sanoi, että oli okei.  Matti: Mä sanoi, että voin auttaakin sua tekemään sen. Liisa: Mä tiedän, mut ... Matti: Mut ... mitä? Liisa: Mä en tiedä. Mä oletan, että mä olin vähän itsepäistä. Matti: Kuin aina? Liisa: Joo Matti, kuin aina ...

ENGLISH:

Matti: Hey Liisa! Liisa: Hi Matti! How are you? Matti: I am good, thanks. What about you? Liisa: I am not good. There is too much homework and too little time. Matti: Oh no. What kind of homework? Liisa: Math homeworks, Spanish homeworks and history homeworks.  Matti: Do you want have help? Liisa: That is too kind of you, but no thanks. Matti: Oh really, are you sure? I could help you. Liisa: I can do it myself. But thanks for your offer, Matti! Matti: You are welcome. Good luck with your homework! Liisa: Thanks!

The following day ...

Matti: Hey Liisa! Were you able to do your homework yesterday? Liisa: Not all, but my teacher said it was okay. Matti: I said I could have helped you to do it though.  Liisa: I know, but ... Matti: But ... what? Liisa: I don’t know. I suppose I was a little stubborn. Matti: Like always? Liisa: Yes Matti, like always ...

Well this sure wasn't easy. There are most definitely mistakes here, so feel free to correct them all :) There were many things here that I was very unsure of, and there also may be some typos and such. However, I am proud of myself that I barely used any form of dictionary though!