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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Zeitgeist Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5821 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French, Russian, Dutch | Message 1 of 14 28 July 2012 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello everyone,
So I've just finished my undergraduate language studies and am ready to embark on my first self-taught language - Finnish. Having visited friends in the country several times already, I think it's about time I started learning some of the language. Since I don't have any previous experience of self-teaching a language, I would be very appreciative of any advice people could give me on general tips and, more specifically, recommendations for learning materials such as books, audio courses etc. I have already seen the link below to a Pimsleur course but will have to look into that further as I am completely unfamiliar with it. So yes, any tips on general self-teaching and recommendations for study materials are very much appreciated! Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6968 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 2 of 14 28 July 2012 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The answer reduces itself to how you best like to learn.
In the revised Finnish profile, scroll to the sections DIFFICULTIES, GRAMMAR, PRONUNCIATION, and VOCABULARY for a summary of what you're up against, and BOOKS and LINKS for concise information about available learning material. In case you don't find them in the profile, there're also links to feanarosurion's experience with several online learning resources and Inge Holsteyn's website which has her recommendations for what to use when learning Finnish independently depending on how much of the language that you already know. Lykkyä tykö! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6409 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 14 28 July 2012 at 6:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi! Finnish was also my first self-taught language :)
Pimsleur is expensive and doesn't take you very far. Their official site has a sample lesson for download, and you may also want to check out the local library/ask them to get it for you via an inter-library loan. Its main advantage is teaching the pronuciation though, and I wouldn't say the Finnish one is so difficult that it's needed. Try various techniques listed here http://learnanylanguage.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Techniques For pronunciation, try shadowing. I compiled a list here but that was very long ago, so some links no longer work:( Check the tag to find more links. What do you think of grammar? IMO, the Finnish one makes a lot more sense compared to German, the Romance languages or even my native Russian :D Russian should help you a lot btw. As it's so regular, learning it naturally would be the hard way. I recommend using any book with explanations that make sense to you. Hopefully you can look through some at a physical store. One caveat: although the spelling is phonetic, you do need listening in order to understand the spoken (standard) language. That's where I've had many problems as a beginner, as I only listened to music for some time. (That said, music is great too! I can recommend many Finnish bands, just tell me which genres you like) Listening to a 18-CD audiobook for the Da Vinci Code helped a lot :)) Next time you come to Finland, go to Akateeminen kirjakauppa in Helsinki <333 There are tons of great materials. How good is your German though? The Langenscheidt textbook is amazing and takes you to a very, very high level. It basically teaches ALL the grammar. Finnish is often called a diglossic language. I'd say it's just an informal language: people communicate in a more relaxed manner. So as you reach the intermediate level, a book dealing with puhekieli and/or dialects is a must. Kato hei is great, for example, but if another book catches your attention, go ahead! Here are a couple of great links about other people's experiences with Finnish: The Accelerated Challenge. Several members did 35-40 hours in a month, all using different methods. All made an impressive progress. Evita's log - another successful learner who writes in detail about her learning process. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Zeitgeist Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5821 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French, Russian, Dutch | Message 4 of 14 28 July 2012 at 9:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks Chung! I've found that website already and it really is fantastic. Definitely going to be a great resource. Regarding her recommendations, I'm actually have a few problems finding places to buy them in the UK but I haven't given up quite yet!
Thanks for your reply Serpent and all the tips! Russian and German are what I studied at university - I hadn't realise that Russian would come in useful. How so? Considering where I'm living in the UK at the minute it's unlikely I'm going to have the benefit of flicking through physical books in a shop. That said, I'd be fairly comfortable using a German language textbook so I've been trying to find it online. Whilst I can't find it on the actual Langenscheidt website, I've found "Praktisches Lehrbuch: Finnisch; Ein Standardwerk für Anfänger" published in 1983. Is this the one you were referring to? I already listen to some Finnish music my friends have introduced me to - so actually understanding what I'm reading will be fun! I'm quite open-minded with music, I listen to Kotiteollisuus and similar, even Lauri Tähkä depending on my mood. So any other recommendations are welcome! I've seen there are actually more online resources for grammar and so on than I thought. I think what I need is a structured textbook to follow so that things are introduced in a controlled way with exercises and so on. I'll carry on searching for that Langenscheidt textbook but I can PM you the link I've found if you're not sure I've found the right one from my description. Kiitos :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6409 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 5 of 14 28 July 2012 at 10:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Oh Kotiteollisuus? Saw them live two weeks ago:) Try Mokoma!!! Also Ruoska, Rytmihäiriö, Stam1na, Maj Karma, Herra Ylppö ja ihmiset, Verjnuarmu (Savo dialect but sung very clearly), Verenpisara, Turmion Kätilöt, Viikate, Teräsbetoni (the guys from Eurovision hehe), Kylähullut (a bit punky). From the lighter stuff, Harmaja, Yö, Popeda, Apulanta, Klamydia, Neljä Ruusua, TikTak even... Then there's folk metal, with Korpiklaani, Ensiferum, Tenhi, Kivimetsän druidi (female vocals), Moonsorrow (really long songs though lolol).
You can find even more here:) Yes, it's that one! Really, can't you get a coursebook like Colloquial, Teach Yourself etc in the UK? You may want to download them and see if they're worth buying. I'd say use the German-based one before you can get something in Finland. I'd say that Russian is grammatically similar to Finnish, but more f**ked up:D But if you're already learning a language with 6 case, doubling the number shouldn't be too bad? :D the adjectives aren't a nightmare like in German, fortunately. The endings are the same for nouns and adjectives. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6968 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 6 of 14 29 July 2012 at 2:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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Since you're in the UK, it may be worth checking out what Finn Guild offers in addition to selling their courses "Finn Talk: yksi, kaksi, kolme" and "Finn Talk: neljä, viisi, kuusi" for anyone interested. Even though I've learned most of what I know of Finnish through independent study, the class that I attend is useful in making the experience more social as I get to meet other learners as well as native Finns in my hometown through my teacher. If Finn Guild's fees are reasonable to you, it may be worthwhile for you to take its classes to supplement what you pick up independently.
I too am a bit surprised that you're having some trouble finding books (unless you've indeed been restricting yourself to poking your head in the local bookshops and looking for titles that're normally carried in Finland, which is the case for Inge Holsteyn's recommendations). I just typed in "Finnish language" on Amazon.co.uk and found among others Teach Yourself Finnish, Karlsson's handbook on grammar, Colloquial Finnish, and the medium Finnish-English/English-Finnish dictionary from Gummerus. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Zeitgeist Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5821 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French, Russian, Dutch | Message 7 of 14 29 July 2012 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you to you both once again!
Yes, I was looking for Inge Holsteyn's recommendations but have now bought the Teach Yourself course from Amazon. I figure this is a good starting point and I plan on going from there. Those music recommendations are great Serpent, Popeda is definitely a new favourite! I think I'll start a learning log once my materials arrive so I can add some more structure to my learning and try out a bit of writing. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6968 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 8 of 14 29 July 2012 at 8:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Holsteyn has the advantage over other foreign learners in that she learned Finnish as a newcomer to Finland and has had access to a lot of material that's unknown to the typical learner who's never been in Finland or often quite expensive whenever it's available to people outside Finland. However I do think that her recommendations are sound and someone without the benefit of living in Finland can safely follow her recommendations (in particular I can vouch for beginners the quality of "Kuulostaa hyvältä" (its videos are on YouTube) and "From Start to Finnish" as these use English as the intermediary language).
"Teach Yourself Finnish" isn't a bad place to start (certainly better than "Colloquial Finnish") but you may end up needing to supplement it by doing exercises found on the internet for which there's plenty that's legally available and free. The typical choices among the "do-it-yourself" beginners' courses for Finnish in the Anglosphere (i.e. "Colloquial Finnish", "Teach Yourself Finnish", "Mastering Finnish", "Beginner's Finnish") all suffer from having an inadequate amount of exercises, unfortunately. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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