(Brazilian here)

Since I found out about Aki Kaurismäki’s movies, I got completely obsessed with them. His direction is so captivating that I decided to learn Finnish as a hobby.
I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to visit Finland, but even if I don’t, knowledge is never too much. At least I could watch his movies without subtitles!
I’ve been into linguistics since I was a child. Learning a new language is enjoyable for me.

I started learning on Duolingo. I finished a lot of lessons, but honestly, it doesn’t help that much. Now I know how to say I’m a potato. Great success… 🤦
Just kidding. It was actually useful to get a feel for pronunciation and vocabulary.
Then I got into a course from the University of Helsinki, “A Taste of Finnish” or something like that. It was really helpful! But for some reason, the page doesn’t work anymore 😢
I also bought a Finnish dictionary/phrasebook (the one in the picture). I liked it, but I feel like I need a better source to keep learning.

Any suggestions?

by tedtwof

8 comments

  1. You should also have learned to talk about parakeets and wizards, right?

    If you want to learn more, I would recommend to head over to r/LearnFinnish and check their resources section.

  2. Yes, I’ve been learning Finnish for the past two months with Erika from [www.learnfinnika.com](http://www.learnfinnika.com)
    She’s super helpful and patient with me, even though grammar has been kicking my arse. But if you’re looking to get serious about learning Finnish I can completely recommend her.

  3. Speak, make mistakes and don’t be afraid of those first two.

  5. One thing that makes Finnish a bit easier is that the spelling is extremely consistent. You only need to know the pronunciation of the individual letters, and a couple rules to be able to pronounce almost every word in the language just by reading it.

    Also, keep in mind that Finnish isn’t related to Indo-European languages. While there are many loanwords from neighbours, the logic in the language itself is completely different. If you try to use that same way of thinking, you’ll keep banging your head against the wall.

  7. Ha! Do you know that Aki Kaurismäki’s brother Mika Kaurismäki, also a director, has lived in Brazil for years and made films and documentaries there?

    [Moro no Brazil documentary](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_no_Brasil)

    “A musical voyage into the heart of the largest country in Latin America, a legacy of the successive inhabitants of Brazil: Indians, Europeans, Africans… All these cultural influences have piled up in the same way that geological stratifications do, offering a variety of rhythms: Forró, Frevo, Embolada, Samba… To make this documentary, the Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki has traveled 4,000 kilometers, crossed three states in the Northwest of Brazil, and spoken to more than thirty musicians, most of them street musicians and unknown to foreigners.”

    [Mika Kaurismäki (English Wikipedia)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mika_Kaurism%C3%A4ki)

  8. Most important phrase: No niin. Check YouTube for Ismo Leikola

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