Monday, December 16, 2013

Finish: The language of the confused scandinavians.

In the past week I've attemepted to start learning the Finnish language. I've learned I should have picked an easier language such as Spanish or German. The Finnish language has alot of enunciation and stressed syllables which makes this hard on an English speaker. However I think the most annoying thing about this new language is that easy words in English such as shower, translate to a super long and precisely pronounced word.

Finnish is a language that has rolled r's and strong enunciation...kind of how the stereotypical Russian would speak..."Das Loomber ez Strong". If you understand what I'm saying. For example if you say "kana" which means chicken you have to enunciate the N and deeply say the K, so now the word sounds like KA-nn-NA. Also hockey, which translates to jääkiekko sounds more like YA-key-Ecko. These words aren't hard to read, but they are tricky to say.

You know how some people may say that English is a mixture of languages...well to me thats what Finnish sounds like. In the finnish language they roll their r's and enunciate certain parts of words. The Finnish language has silent j's that sounds like a Y. To an English man like myself who doesn't have much expierience with other languages...this language is hard as shiz.

I guess the best advice to give in learning this language is to be humble. This language is something you may have never heard. This language is confusing and difficult to understand or pronounce. If you've ever heard any European language like French, German, English(British), or Italian then mix all of those together and you may get a couple similar words in Finnish. I wish myself good luck. On hyvä päivä...have a good day.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Intro to Seth and his Toivo.

Hello world my name is Seth Lyons and I'm proud to invite you to my blog. I'm writing this for a project in my AP Psych high school class. Hopefully my project is successful and interesting to read.

My blog posts will be about learning the Finish language. This year I am hosting a Finish foreign exchange student named Jussi. When  I was told in school that I need to study something I made a quick choice. The Finish language will help me talk to my foreigner and lead me to learning a new language, which is something I believe everyone should be able to do. Jussi(Toivo) is a good guy and he and I bond like brothers, therefore this project will help me becoming even tighter with him.

My goal for these next couple weeks is to speak simple sentences in Finish. I'll do most of my studying I'm sure through my new "adopted" brother Toivo. However I also plan on learning a little bit of the language through the internet. Toivo will help me hear the language and the internet will help me see how it's spelled. Overall this should be a project I can keep up with because I have a Finish speaker in my home. We call him Toivo.