Ignore the rumors. Do not believe it. Just in case you have heard differently, everyone in Finland does NOT speak English. Especially the food at the grocery store. We have had mystery meat a few times for dinner.
I told my friend Kaija, affectionately known as Mummo (Grandma) Kaija, today that I cannot hear Finnish, I need to see it written down to hear the sounds. Later, in the same conversation, we had a mixup between tutti=pacifier and Tytti=girl's name (means little girl, y makes an "ew" sound). I also cannot keep names straight. Seija, Soile, Sinka, Sinikka, Sini... and I think I am spelling those incorrectly. Most of our time here has been spent figuring out life in our new country, but I have started in earnest to look for real Finnish classes for me to attend instead of my shoddy attempt to study at home.
All the women just love to hold and cuddle Patrick, and he gets a lot of Finnish lovey words from them. So far so good. They all tell me he will be a Finnish boy.
Jane seems to go with the flow on the new language. Her new playmate, Vilja, only speaks Finnish to her. Nursury, or "lastenhuome," at church is only in Finnish. The kids at the playground play with her in Finnish. After our first week at church she started telling me, "Ei, Mama," instead of, "No, Mama," and she started using, "kiitos," and "thank you," interchangeably. She was playing by herself and she counted her hops in Finnish without prompting. She now counts to ten in Finnish, knows many of her animals, and some colors. She has begun to try to put words together; "Nelja koira," to say "four dogs."
I should give some credit: An AMAZING amount of people here do speak English with some level of fluency. Many can communicate and most are willing to try. I think all Finns speak better English than I speak Finnish. Before we got here, I was excited to learn what it was like to be the language minority. It is something I have studied. I have worked with so many English Language Learner students as a teacher. I am learning a deeper appreciation for my past students and what they and their families were adjusting to. It takes courage to just go out and do everyday errands in another language and culture and system, let alone going to work or school. We knew Finland was a possibility for a few months, but we did not know until July that we were moving in August. Even if we had known and studied Finnish for a year, it would not be sufficient to learn a language. I continue to be grateful for a hand up and helpful hints about how things work here from kind people around us who have made themselves open to our questions.
5 comments:
Wow! That sounds difficult and exciting. And way to go, Jane! Spanish isn't coming so quickly for Emily. :) She still just ignores people when they speak Spanish, because she doesn't realize they aren't speaking gibberish. ;) Haha! Glad there are people there taking care of you! Take care and good luck with Finnish!
It probably does't help that the Lindells have all the "S" names! It all sounds so wonderful. Maybe when it is warm (those three days in July) I will get to visit - a quick trip through Finland and Scotland, right?
The Tardis...isn't that the phone booth thing on Dr. Who where you walk into it and it's much bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside? So, are you saying that your couch feels like it's a lot bigger when you sit on it than when you first look at it?
--Jeremy
I'm so jealous. Not of the cold, but the out of country experience. :) Good luck! Keep writing! I want to know everything.
Learning another language is a challenge and that is great you are so open to it. I remember feeling incredibly tired when I would visit Brasil and I was still learning the language... good luck! Glad that Jane is doing great... it's neat to see "statistics" in action and you'll be there long enough she should be able to retain it well... Patrick is so cute!
Post a Comment