Finnish learning thread!

[Ann Marie]

Come on, I know there's at least one more of you out there.  Want to celebrate/commiserate?

[starfallz]

AAAAAA ALL THE VOWELS.

Ahem. I have problems differentiating U, Ö, and Y.

I'm sloooowly working through a Teach Yourself Finnish book that Flik gave me, but find it hard to listen to the CDs. I've been poking at Memrise, but it is just vocabulary memorization. So, all I can do so far is say my name, my nationality, and what languages I speak.

[Ann Marie]

Yay!  I'm not (completely) alone!  I go to memrise a few times a week, but it's so hard to learn words without context.  Especially all the ones with lots of ys and äs, I cannot keep those apart.

I have a phone app, "Finnish in a month" that seems more helpful, but there's not a whole lot to it.  Haven't found any books locally, so I'm going to have to order one online.  What is the book you have? 

Y is hard!  Especially before another vowel.  Double consonants make me cry.  :-(  And double vowels at the end of a word.

[Synthpopalooza]

Plus I think it is the only language that I have seen so far that uses a double ää umlaut.  As in "Hyvää syntymäpäivää!", what you wish someone on their birthday.

[JoB]

Plus I think it is the only language that I have seen so far that uses a double ää umlaut.

Well, Germans use the onomatopoie of "määh" for the sounds sheep make ...

... wait, that's not going to turn out to be a particularly well-hidden racist slur, is it?

[Kata Kissa]

I'm trying to, or trying to find a place to try to.  The downside is I don't know where to even start

[Ann Marie]

I need a pronunciation guide I can actually load and listen to.  I don't think ää is so bad?  Not like yy. 

Job, I find German umlauts harder!  I think määh would sound like a sheep.  Don't see how it would be racist, though.  If you were going to make inappropriate implications about Finns and livestock, wouldn't they involve reindeer rather than sheep?  In fact I once found an old illustration... oh. Never mind.

Hei Kata Kissa!  Hauska tutustua!  Is that Lalli under the ferry table in your icon?  Where did you get that?

[Kata Kissa]

Hei Kata Kissa!  Hauska tutustua!  Is that Lalli under the ferry table in your icon?  Where did you get that?

Hauska tutustua! And that is Lalli under the ferry table, I made it myself.   I roleplay on Dreamwidth a bit and I have a friend who was looking for Tuuri icons.  I ended up making a bunch of Lalli and Emil as well. 

[JoB]

I think määh would sound like a sheep.  Don't see how it would be racist, though.

Well, by implying that the language having more of those double-Ä's sounds like animals bleating ...

If you were going to make inappropriate implications about Finns and livestock, wouldn't they involve reindeer rather than sheep?  In fact I once found an old illustration... oh. Never mind.

Then it'ld be a slur that fails to exist at all, as Germany has virtually no reindeer. (Matter of fact, I wouldn't have the slightest what sounds reindeer make, short of shaking silver bells while pulling Santa's sleigh ...)

Also, when inventing a slur, we wouldn't want to imply that Finns are so much taller that they ... moving on. Nothing to see here.

[starfallz]

Complete Finnish by Terttu Leney: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Finnish-Two-Audio-CDs/dp/0071766189/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424875186&sr=1-1&keywords=complete+finnish

One problem with pronunciation guide if you don't listen to the CDs is that it is for southern British English. But listening to the samples works well.

Finnish Phrasebook: http://wikitravel.org/en/Finnish_phrasebook (no voice samples)

Here's an online one that Ruth found.: http://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/
I think she said it was from old (1960s) diplomat learning courses.

Venla: http://venla.info/ (somewhat broken)

Tavataan Taas! http://donnerwetter.kielikeskus.helsinki.fi/FinnishForForeigners/parts-index.htm
(the audio clips are a little weird and all load on a page at once, but then you can click one and have it play when you need it to)

For the vowels, I just have to keep remembering a source word to get the sound. With enough practice I should be able to handle it.

löyly is a fun word!

[Solovei]

I somehow had this in my bookmarks even though I never studied finnish, but I thought it might be useful for some of you!

http://www.uusikielemme.fi/index.html - Finnish for Busy People

[Fimbulvarg]

I somehow had this in my bookmarks even though I never studied finnish, but I thought it might be useful for some of you!

http://www.uusikielemme.fi/index.html - Finnish for Busy People

I was half expecting a list of ways to tell people things like "make way" or "not now, I'm in a hurry".

Minä kuulen ääniä - I hear voices
... Useful to know.

[Nimphy]

Minä kuulen ääniä - I hear voices
... Useful to know.

XD I will definitely go around telling Finns that. I now know not one, but TWO sentences in Finnish! Granted, both of them would make me look crazy, but that's... good, right?

[partofacitygiant]

Here's a sentence for you to practice some peculiarities of finnish pronounciation : "hyökkäävä karskihko roikale karkasi köyhänpuoleisen asuinalueensa kätköihin kaartamalla kulman ympäri huutaen samalla, 'kyttiä!'"

(the attacking somewhat brutish thug escaped to the hide-outs of his poor sort of neighborhood rounding the corner while shouting : 'coppers!')

the mail brought the dictionary finnish - karelian I bought in January, so I might join you guys here on occasion to write something on the language closest to eastern finnish dialects. Wishing courage in your endeavour!

[jayen_aitch]

I have been learning little bits of Finnish for a while now, often while on walks or in saunas with my Finnish other half.

It is a lot of fun, especially when I come across stuff that confuses me greatly and try to ask for an explanation.

I can't really do any written Finnish though.