We discuss the challenges, frustrations and rewards of learning Finnish in the latest episode of the ‘All Points North on Video’ series.
With its constantly disappearing consonants, 15 grammatical cases and rules about vowel disharmony, learning the Finnish language presents a significant challenge to many people who move to Finland from abroad.
But does the language’s fearsome reputation as “impossible to learn” create an even more difficult learning environment?
“Thinking it’s impossible is just not helpful for anybody,” Alicia Iredale of the Brit in Finland Instagram account tells APN.
“Every time I speak Finnish, I make mistakes, but I am communicating. I’m getting a point across. I’m having conversations with people. And if I just believed that, oh, it’s impossible, or I’m never going to get there, then I wouldn’t be at the point I am now.”
Nerea Bartolomé meanwhile tells the show that her decision to share her language learning journey on her own social media account has helped her face the fear of learning Finnish.
“I’m just trying to expose my fears, my failures, my everything, and I think that showing that vulnerability on social media about the process of learning, or integrating, is what makes the process easier because even through that screen you feel that you’re not alone,” Bartolomé said.
You can watch the full episode from the video at the top of the page or on our YouTube channel.
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Ronan Browne produced and presented this episode of All Points North. The sound and video engineers were Tuomas Vauhkonen and Matias Puumala, and the production assistants were Matthew Schilke and Hannah Anderson.
If you have any questions or want to share your thoughts, contact us via WhatsApp at +358 44 421 0909 or at yle.news@yle.fi and allpointsnorth@yle.fi.
