Learning Finnish

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I used to think that I was good at learning languages. When I took the time to learn something, I picked it up quite fast as long as I kept practicing it. Maybe it's the gift of learning two languages at once as a kid. Well I used to think so highly of myself until I began to learn Finnish. Then that little bubble was burst.

Trying to speak Finnish is like giving your tongue a workout. There are some sounds that are hard to make, and switching between those sounds is like making your tongue do a full set of crunches, or maybe push-ups. The difference between ä and a is barely noticeable to my untrained ear but makes a big difference. And trying to sound out words with y and ö is the worst! I can pronounce words that go from y to ö such as työ (work) but the other way around is a disaster, such as pöytä (table).

I have taken two Finnish classes and even though I earned good grades in both of them, I am still completely incapable of carrying on a conversation with a Finn. They shorten their words aso that spoken Finnish is easier and faster, but if you don't know the abbreviations, you're lost! And don't get me started on long Finnish words, of words that have mostly vowels. Trying to read and pronounce these words is a nightmare. Yö, meaning night, is only two vowels!! How is this possible?!

Then there are the rules and the changes. I won't get into details but it can be quite frustrating at times. When you finally learn one rule, you're introduced another rule that negates the one you just learned. There's a whole system of prioritizing rules. So confusing! Do Finns even know all their own grammar rules?? They must laugh at my stunned face every time my mind is baffled by a new useless rule!

I've decided that people who can learn Finnish are part of an elite group of people. Only those worthy will learn Finnish. It is not for the weak! To those of you who have learned it: congratulations! You deserve an award. To those of you on the struggle bus with me: hang in there, we got this hopefully! Maybe one day we can make to the elite group of fluent speakers!