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Learning Finnish: progress check

 Do I speak Finnish?

No. Omg no.

I speak just enough that I can mostly keep up with what my 3 year old brings home from school. I usually can buy something without revealing my ineptitude. I can read many signs with context.

But at the same time, I have come a CRAZY long way. Let me demonstrate.

2015 (trip to Finland)

I cannot hear sentences, words, or even basic sounds. I cannot hear the difference between y and u, and I can’t keep a/ä straight in my head. 

I regularly think people speaking Finnish are speaking Japanese.

2018 (initial move to Finland)

I have studied some words from America. Ironically, this will mostly be unhelpful in the long run because I learned to pronounce them incorrectly. I put the accent on the wrong syllable, thanks to my years studying Spanish, and I can’t keep a/ä and o/ö straight.

 I am super proud when someone says anteeksi (excuse me/sorry) and I know to move out of their way. I cannot pronounce the name of our neighborhood in a way that people understand.

I am better at hearing Finnish sounds, but hopeless at speaking them.

2019

I am studying Finnish using apps and conversations in context. I can hear the different sounds now, and generally can hear words even if I don’t understand them. I no longer think everyone is studying Japanese.

Thanks to the food allergies in our family, I am getting good at food labels. I know a lot of nouns and base verbs, thanks to memorization apps, but I cannot make even a basic sentence but I don’t know how to conjugation anything.

I try a language course nearby, but it’s not a good fit, and I only attend one lesson.

When we travel to Italy, my Spanish helps me understand, but my brain mixes in Finnish words when I try to speak.

2020 

Duolingo launches in July. The app focuses on picking up grammar structure. Since I have memorized so many nouns and verbs, this is just what I need to get over my bump.

Within a few weeks I am understanding very basic sentences I find in signs and in emails. 

A few months in, and suddenly I am overhearing concepts. I can follow many casual conversations with context, though I am way too slow to attempt joining in. Plus the pandemic makes small talk less common.

I enter a weird phase, where my brain hears a word, understands, and goes “oh that must be Spanish!” And then I listen for Spanish, only to realize I was actually understanding Finnish in the wild. It takes a while to turn that switch off.

2021

I have run out of Duolingo.

This is a problem, because the only other source for learning grammar is a text book, which is much less fun. However, with the basics drilled into me, I am finding the book more helpful than in the past.

I now have a language tutor. His is three years old, switches languages on a whim, and corrects me when I pronounce things wrong. I am trying desperately to keep pace with him, but he is learning so fast now!

When I overhear conversations, I mostly understand. Now my struggle is turning off the panic that says “but I don’t speak Finnish!” Even when I actively understand and I know a reply. Confidence is the next step. 

I plan on attending a course in the fall, and I’m very excited to finally practice speaking. My goal is to test out of the first course, but anything will do!


It’s strange, looking back, to when I couldn’t hear the difference between ylös and ulos, and I relied on google translate for even basic signs. Now I can shop without translations on, I can fill out many forms, I can understand many simple yes/no questions from cashiers. It’s amazing what a difference this skill has made, and I hope in one year I will feel even more amazed at how far I have come!

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