Jenna in Finland

First things first: what is this blog about and why did I start it?

I’m Jenna. I’m in my 30s, from the USA originally and live in Finland. I speak Finnish. Yes, you read that right: minä puhun suomea. I know, magical unicorn status achieved, but don’t get too excited. It’s been a long, difficult journey and I don’t speak the language perfectly. I make grammatical mistakes here and there but I make it work and keep working at it. I’ve been living in Finland for 5 years.

Challenging, not impossible.

I was inspired to start writing about this weird adventure of language learning because I got sick of hearing people complain about how Finnish is impossible to learn. I’m additionally fed up of Finns smugly announcing “Ulkomaalaiset eivät opi suomea koskaan!” – “Foreigners never learn Finnish!”

Yes we do, and ofttimes we learn it really friggin well. I and many others are living proof that learning Finnish is not impossible. Hard? Yes. Annoying? Frustrating? Infuriating when Finnish people switch-back-to-English-but-you’re-just-trying-to-order-a-dang-coffee-and-they’re-talking-too-fast-and-AGGHHH?

Yes. All of that. But it’s not impossible. Learning any language as an adult is frustrating and annoying (hello there, Slavic languages). Finnish is not special in this regard, it’s just different from languages that English speakers are accustomed to learning. I am speaking specifically from someone educated in U.S. schools (we had German or Romance languages on offer). I’ll be speaking from my own viewpoint as an AMURRICAN in Finland.

Ryhtyä: to set out, to start, to begin (+ illative (of the third infinitive))

The first inkling I got that I should write about my experiences is kind of obvious: writing is a hobby. I journal daily, write little ditties on my facebook page, and have blogged off and on for many years. The second indication that maybe I might have something useful to add is that my first Finnish teacher Hanna of Random Finnish Lesson asked me to be on her podcast. She features immigrants in Finland who learned Finnish and asks questions about what we did to achieve it: the process, the challenges, all that jazz. From afar, she’s watched me learn, study, continue studying, not quit, and keep going. We had our first lesson in 2017 and I took lessons from her occasionally over the following years. I still haven’t done the episode because of creeps on a dating app finding a different podcast episode (unrelated to Finnish learning) I was on which delved into a lot of personal stuff and listened to that instead of making any effort to have a conversation with me. It spooked me real bad and I’ve been a bit hesitant about sharing my name/photo anywhere afterwards.

I digress.

Hanna is a great teacher, you should check out her blog if you haven’t already because this blog was my very first exposure to Finnish language learning, all the way back in 2016 when I wasn’t even living in Finland yet. I recommend checking out her content, or taking lessons from her. She understands the plight of foreign speakers of Finnish and she’s just genuinely a nice, supportive person. I have always enjoyed lessons from her and I imagine my whacky life adventures have kept her sporadically entertained over the years.

My Finnish Learning Story

I started studying Finnish in earnest after I rocked up here in December 2018. Like I said, I took lessons from Hanna off and on during the years 2017-2020, but then started formal classroom lessons in early 2019. I had a lot going on in my personal life in 2019: a 3-year-old child, adjusting to moving, geriatric cats, and an impending divorce – and I figured the language studies would ground me a bit and give me something to focus on. Well, the cats got old and died, I got settled in as did the now 8-year-old child, and eventually I got divorced. I’m sharing these personal details because I understand that life can get in the way. COVID, anyone? But I’ve still carved out time to study and keep learning.

Language studies have been a constant for me over the years. I now speak B2-level Finnish. I speak it reasonably well, but make noticeable grammar mistakes and haven’t quite mastered idioms and turns-of-phrase, but I’m getting there. I understand about 90% of what people say to me, even with slang and regional dialects (except my one buddy from Ylläs). I took the keskitaso YKI, the Finnish common language test, in 2021 to show I speak mid-level Finnish. I am now a Finnish citizen (though I can’t sing Maamme to you, sorry). My Finnish skills continue to improve and develop, and I don’t plan on ever taking a break from it nor returning to doing everything in English (my mother tongue) and expecting people to switch to English for me.

What to expect

I don’t plan on having a regular schedule for this blog as this is just a hobby project, but if anything I write or add here has some value to you, be it commiserating or finding a useful resource to get you started on your own studies, then I’ll have added something to the world.

To quote Kummeli: Kyllä lähtee!