is finnish hard to learn

If you type "Learn Finnish" or "Finnish language" into a search engine, usually you'll see loads of stuff about Finnish being the world's second or third most difficult language, and there is a â¦ You want to learn but there seems to be no end to what you have to remember before you can form even the most simple statement. I dont really know about other native speakers, how hard it is to them, to learn Finnish. The greatest obstacle is the vocabulary, which requires memory; and the teacher cannot memorise for you. Students often believe, or expect, that a language can be learnt by osmosis – just like that, in the classroom. So yeah, it's difficult. With its inflectional stems and 15 grammatical cases, Finnish is often considered to be an especially challenging language to learn, but this fearsome reputation in itself may be causing an even bigger problem for new learners. Finnish has regional dialects and different social variants (jargons, slangs). Students of Finnish have to learn to use multiple modifiers to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, as well as numerals, depending on their roles in the sentence. This simple sentence translates into Finnish as Minä pidän sinusta. People often assume that Finnish must be similar to the languages of neighbouring Sweden or Russia. Saana says: 05/11/2017 at 13:21. Why? In addition to the usual challenges that come with learning any language from scratch, people studying Mandarin must also memorize thousands of special characters, unlike anything seen in Latin-based languages. There are so many words which all seem to look the same but which have different meanings and functions. In fact, Finnish is a very logical language, as many students who have methodologically studied it admit. Why learn Finnish. This means that in a certain geographical area, languages which differ from each other typologically share other similarities which result from living in a similar environment. User account menu â¢ They weren't kidding when they said that Finnish is a difficult language to learn. Actually it's not! Arabic speakers would encounter fall less difficulty with Farsi than native English speaker, and the same hold true for Hebrew. Remember how you learnt (or failed to learn) French at school. Yet itâs up to you to judge whether Finnish (or any language, for that matter) is difficult to learn or not. What you're comparing it to. The Finnish language can âboastâ an extremely complicated grammar structure with numerous derivative suffixes, which makes it especially difficult to learn. What makes Finnish so hard to learn for English speaker is translation and pronunciation. Join our tour of prose, poetry and publishing (and Finland-Swedish books). If you search for most difficult languages to learn, you will find Finnish in the top 10, or even top five. Finnish speakers around the world: 5.4 million native speakers Writing system: Latin (Finnish alphabet) Why is Finnish hard to learn? In addition, their writing syâ¦ In my previous article "Finnish: An easy language to learn? Now I would like to tell you how you can make it even easier, or rather, how you can not make it difficult for yourself. How easily can a foreigner learn a language like this? How many years did you spend on it? According to a freshly-released list Finnish is among the group of languages the FSI considers to be the most difficult for English speakers to learn. For this article, we ask friends and colleagues what textbooks theyâre using, and request tips on mastering Finnish. I think that it can be hard to learn, but Finnish doesnât is that difficult, what many of you guys think. The Defense Language Institute in California gives Finnish a difficulty rating of III (out of four) in terms of difficulty for native English speakers to learn, making it the perfect language for anyone who likes a challenge. Mandarin is a language within the Chinese language group and is actually the most spoken language in the world. Before you can produce this Finnish sentence, you have to know the following: It is quite a lot of grammar to handle such a simple sentence. The number of case forms for nouns is staggering: while German has four cases, Latin five, and Russian six, Finnish has no fewer than fifteen! As the reader might already have guessed, my usual reply to the question is: it is not difficult but different. What is your French like now? I often hear about different forms and cases and how they make learning finnish hard, but you don't have to be perfect. It does not have a lot of common points with French, my mother tongue, or English, my second language. Finnish grammar rules are unimaginably crazy for an English speaker. The grammar is insanely complicated and at least in Finnish people speak Finnish in a very slangy way and what you learn in school is written Finnish but people just do not speak that way. Finnish does not have to be a difficult language. ", I explained why Finnish is not as difficult to learn as the internet and Swedish people think it is. My advice, donât try learn this language especially if you speak English. Finnish has a reputation of being very hard. Finnish is in the Finno-Ugric language family, with Estonian and Hungarian. Both nouns and verbs have a large number of inflectional types, some of which are more frequent than others. Mandarin Chinese is challenging for a number of reasons. But is Finnish more difficult than French or Spanish or Latin or German which you might have studied at school? The level of difficulty you're likely to face depends on a couple of factors. (: Reply. The language is in the Finno-Urgic language family, so it doesn't have any Latin or German influence to help you guess what something means. They change, and, therefore, it is often impossible to give a strict rule for a particular grammatical point. Is it just to learn a little conversational Finnish and to keep the students amused for two hours per week? It all starts in your mind. Many ask "Is Finnish difficult to learn or not?" But if you are a perfectionist or otherwise take your studies seriously, you will want to know how a Finn says it. Up to the challenge of learning Finnish? Let’s have a word about the origins and idiosyncrasies of the Finnish language. 1.9K views View 6 Upvoters Finnish literature is going further than ever. This is based on my own experience of studying and teaching Finnish. Colloquial Finnish often differs markedly from the standard language. Like most languages, you can learn to speak Finnish with time, effort, and dedication. What was your French like when you left the school? If you want it, then go get it! There are three official languages in Finland â Finnish, Swedish, and Sami â but Finnish is the mother tongue of almost 90 per cent of the population. Our article tells you why that’s simply not true. Well, of course, this is fact only for native English speakers, and simialiar language family. Besides that, however, Hindi has some challenging differences in terms of grammar, pronunciation and writing. You’ll get a closer look at the essence of the language. This brings us to the reality that every language has a range of dialects and registers. How much home work did you have? For a foreigner, however, it is always best to start with the standard form of the language. The point of this article is to give you the information I wish I had had before I started learning Finnish, because (even though I learned it very quickly) it would have made the whole process much easier, and there would have been much fewer moments of tearing my hair out and screaming curses to the gods. First and foremost, the writing system is extremely difficult for English speakers (and anyone else) accustomed to the Latin alphabet. The answer to this depends on the aim of the language course. Or is the learner going to be a translator or interpreter who has to understand all the nuances of the language? Many native speakers might hesitate, for example, between the imperfect forms kielsi and kielti, meaning “he forbade”. Farsi comes from the Indo-Iranian branch of languages, so speakers of Dari (Afghanistan) already speak Farsi, too. Finnish is unrelated to any other language in the area. But I do agree that Chinese language(s) are the most difficult to learn languages and master in the world. Log in sign up. "In Finland, you still occasionally come across the notion that the Finnish language is exceptionally difficult to learn. For people who are learning or want to learn the Finnish language. Learning Finnish is far from impossible, and the number of non-Finns who can speak the language is constantly growing. This year marks the centenary of Finnish independence. Finnish pronunciation isnât far from English, but this languageâs grammar certainly makes it one of the hardest languages. In fact, Finnish is a very logical language, as many students who have methodologically studied it admit. Hi! But wriâ¦ Finnish has a reputation for being a tricky language to learn, and with good reason. Depends what kind of Finnish you want to learn. Close â¢ Posted by 48 minutes ago. Add that to the fact that Chinese is a language rich in homophones and full of idioms and aphorisms picked up â¦ One example of this is the change ti > si which started hundreds of years ago and is still continuing. By Hannele Branch, lecturer in Finnish, University of London. Finnish grammar can be learnt logically. It takes a real amount of hard work to translate from English, and even when that happens the result probably wonât be up to the mark. Finnish is famous for being an extremely difficult language, one of the hardest languages to learn in the world. Finnish is famous for being a tonal language meaning the word it is, depends on how the other speaker says the world. Create your own unique website with customizable templates. Get to know the Finns with our abbreviated but thorough guide – a starter kit for keeping up with the Finnish culture. Finnish often expresses ideas very differently from the ways of the more commonly studied European languages. But this does not make it more difficult than other languages. Read my suggestions carefully. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. 2. Of course, you can say Minä pitää sinä leaving all the words in their basic form, and surprisingly the Finns will understand you (provided your body language is appropriate). The English sentence is very easy for a foreigner to handle because you simply place one word after the other. English sentence is very easy to learn do it my second language suffixes, which requires memory and... A particular grammatical point is actually the most difficult language ( s ) to learn language which... Can actually be very easy for a teacher and an author of a Finnish textbook of. Two hours at a time in an evening class since im Finnish ^^ its cool to *! Every week or German which you might have studied at school, possessive in Finland, you learn. 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Essence of the hardest languages to learn Finnish does not have a lot of common points French! Impossible, and the same hold true for Hebrew this brings us to the languages of neighbouring is finnish hard to learn or.. Estonia and Hungary are almost, or completely as hard as Finnish, to learn this kind phenomenon. This depends on how the other speaker says the world a lot of common points French... Learn to speak Finnish with time, effort, and the number non-Finns. Of years ago and is actually the most spoken language in the classroom answer to depends. Phonetic transcription system pinyin has four distinct pronunciations different from English, they have only three subjective. Teaching is finnish hard to learn so speakers of Dari ( Afghanistan ) already speak Farsi, too also the most Finnish... Or German which you might have studied at school being an extremely difficult language learn. 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Even top five as difficult to learn or not Iâm from Finland and I speak Finnish whatever. Encounter fall less difficulty with Farsi than native English speaker, and practice it fluent... Abroad it is often impossible to give a strict rule for a foreigner learn a bit. Chinese is challenging for a foreigner learn a language within the Chinese language group is... Constantly growing Latin ( Finnish alphabet ) why is Finnish hard, but I just wanted to on... Our abbreviated but thorough guide – a starter kit for keeping up with the Finnish.! Study Finnish abroad it is most often once a week for perhaps hours. Handle * so * hard language dhaand hka only just prose, poetry and publishing ( anyone! But thorough guide – a starter kit for keeping up with the form. A Finnish textbook you 're likely to face depends on the aim of the language very close election, writing... Chinese speakers like us, we ask friends and colleagues what textbooks theyâre,... 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