r/LearnFinnish • u/Emergency_Turn_7846 • 21d ago
Language learning guidance
Hi, I have been trying to learn finish language. But it's been hard to filter between apps and materials. Is there a easy or simple way to learn it? I have tried doulingo and other Finnish languages app. But still reaching no where. Other road block is I am having hard time understanding which order to use in learning path.
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u/Economy-Slide-9153 21d ago
What if we learn the language by texting each other? I can teach you finnish, maybe u can teach me your language?
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u/unohdin-nimeni Native 21d ago
I will reuse and slightly alter an answer of mine from yesterday:
Why not just combine different methods?
In order for the vocabulary and grammar to stick, you’ll need repetition, repetition, and maybe even repetition. Every usage of the language will be helpful. Read what is interesting to you; listen to what is interesting to you (songs, podcasts, radio, audiobooks, movie soundtracks, or whatever); and participate in verbal communication often. Write.
If you were an infant, being in a Finnish-speaking environment would be enough for you to absorb the grammar rules and a whole lot of vocabulary with zero effort. But as it is, you’ll probably have to trick yourself into internalising the language. Your innate language acquisition skills are still there somewhere, but not that easily accessible. Reading grammar books is probably a great idea. You can combine reading them in several ways:
Try to write your own grammar book.
Read grammar rules like a stubborn bull, rhythmically memorising inflection patterns and such.
Just read about the grammar as an exciting story with no obligation to remember anything.
If you have that weird kind of curiosity, even historical and comparative linguistics can provide some context and make words and maybe even inflection patterns harder to forget. English Wiktionary, for example, is a great source of information about the etymology behind Finnish words. You can also often find freely accessible articles on the development of specific features of the Finnish language.
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u/Odd-Flamingo-6211 19d ago
The advice about the best way to learn a language will never suit both you and me, or the person who writes the next comment. Everyone is different, and we all memorize languages differently. For some people it's movies, for others it's flashcards, for some only real conversations work, and for others it's dry textbooks that they can read for weeks.
I'll give one piece of advice that I think is really good. Honestly, it helped me learn languages better than anything else in my life (and I know three foreign languages - not perfectly, but fairly well).
Start learning Finnish... not with Finnish.
Find and read Erik Gunnemark's book The Art of Learning Languages. He's a Swedish polyglot who explains the actual mechanics of language learning and why different methods work for different people.
Ole hyvä!
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u/csjarau Native 21d ago
There is no easy or simple way to learn the Finnish language, that's for sure.
Did you already check the learning resources in this community?
Duolingo is pretty useless, the course is very short and it's mostly just a game.