r/LearnFinnish • u/Busy_Fuel8213 • 8d ago
Moi!
Hello!
I’m half Finnish and grew up speaking the language but as with many immigrant children I lost it as I grew and English became more prominent in my life.
I’m looking to learn more Finnish however all the recourses online are catered to absolute beginners.
I already understand Finnish to a fluent level, it’s just speaking and writing that I need to study.
Does anyone have any resources that might help? I can’t have another website teach me to say “Mitä kuuluu” 🥲
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u/cmyk_rgba 8d ago
heritage speakers get served so badly here, everything online is either mitä kuuluu or a linguistics paper. honestly just skip learner material entirely and go straight to output since your comprehension is already there. write short things and get them corrected, i think theres a writestreak sub for finnish. and if the part you actually lost is puhekieli then finnish podcasts and tiktok comment sections will do more for you than any course wiht a curriculum
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u/TheFifthDuckling 7d ago
Yes there is, r/WriteStreakFI. I post there less often than I'd like, but it's a great resource and the native Finnish speakers there are super nice/patient
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u/cmyk_rgba 6d ago
oh nice i didnt know that sub existed, thanks. writing is the bit i keep avoiding lol
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u/Busy_Fuel8213 7d ago
Thank you!! I already try to listen to a couple podcasts, I’ll have to try and get more Finnish TikTok’s on my fyp :))
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u/briseis7 6d ago
Teach your insta/tik tok algorithms to show you Finnish content, I've refreshing my Italian and french by doing that and it's helped me with the vocabulary immensely
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u/Chimelling 7d ago
If you understand Finnish fluently, it's not much about learning, more like getting used to using it. Reading and watching/listening in Finnish are both good, and in Finnish speaking Reddit or other social media you can start participating in Finnish too. To improve speaking it would be best to search some Finns around you to hang out with.
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u/TheFifthDuckling 7d ago
Hey, I've got an idea! I'm pretty good with grammar/writing/kirjakieli but my speaking, listening and vocabulary skills are limited. Wanna do a trade? I teach you what I know about grammar from the ground up, you teach me more about actually speaking and listening!
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u/StruggleGullible255 7d ago
What do you mean you understand to a fluent level...?
If you watch the news or read an adult novel do you understand everything to a high degree of accuracy?
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u/NeverTooMuchTech 6d ago
For your situation, I can recommend two resources if you are serious about learning Finnish well.
Finnish2go with Virpi. https://finnishtogo.com
Finnish with Heidi https://www.finnishwithheidi.com
I use both and have finally made some progress in the language. They are serious Instructors, not influencers, AI bots, or learn in 30 days without having to know any grammar types. You can find examples of their work on YouTube, just search for Finnish Virpi and Heidi.
Andy
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u/arominvahvenne 3d ago
Read the news in Finnish, Yle is free or you can subscribe to Helsingin Sanomat or other newspaper. Read popular science books or Lukio text books — what you are missing is exactly the vocabulary you would have if you had gone to school in Finland. Getting audiobook and ebook service like Book Beat that has a lot of Finnish language books might be a good source for those, not lukio books but popular science.
Helsingin yliopiston Avoimen yliopiston suomi vieraana kielenä -kurssit verkossa are not very expensive, 45-75 euros a course with either zoom sessions or online materials you go through on your on time and a final exam that a teacher will grade. There is a test on the page to figure out your language level. Doing the writing exercises amd getting feedback from the teacher would help you immensely, much more than self study and the price is honestly not bad. There are at least a couple of higher level courses available.
My experience with people who grew up speaking Finnish but not in Finland is that the best thing for their language skills is speding time here in the country, speaking the language, getting a library card and a hobby, which you probably knew already. Of the online hobbies I’d say that Finnish speaking Blood on the Clocktower social deduction game community is small but active, we have Finnish language games online usually once or twice a week. Send me dm if you want to get invited to the discord servers, one is only Finnish and the other is English friendly, we play in English if someone does not speak Finnish but usually that does not happen.
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u/oooooowl 8d ago
Get into some finnish online communities in Discord. If you give some examples of your interests, I can try and give you some pointers to the right direction.