Terve! (Hello!)
Now I'll discuss with you the whole truth about the Finnish language. Many people say it's difficult to learn. Some foreigners are in Finland for 10 years and can't even order a meal in a restaurant. I say it's a matter of dedication and practising every day withouth being afraid to speak nonsense. Regardind Finnish as a learning language, we can name some characteristics:
Advantages:
- only one gender (neutral). There is no distinction between he and she (both are "han").
- there are no articles (such as "a" or "the").
- each word contains a lot of information, so sentences don't have many words (maybe a disadvantage..?)
- each letter of the alphabet is read in the same way in all cases. An "Ä" always has the "Ä" sound, as has an "O" or a "Y", for example.
- few verb tenses (it doesn't have the Future tense for example - weird ah?, a language with no future... :)
Disadvantages:
- Finnish has 15 declinations (considering that Portuguese has none and German has 4, that is a lot!).
- totally different language from any other in Europe. For example "Yliopisto" means University (Yli for "high/upper" and opisto for "study") and in other european languages we have: Universidade (PORT), Universidad (ESP), Université (FRA), Universität (GER), Università (ITA), you get the idea. And most words are similar to this case. You can hardly guess what a word in finnish means.
Curiosities:
- it doesn't have the word "please".
- repeated letters are very frequent ("tt", "kk", "aa", "mm").
- uses a lot of sufixes.
- many words sound like italian mixed with japanese (at least to me...)
Basic Sentences:
- Mitä kuuluu? (How are you?)
- Minä olen Eduardo ja minä tulen Portugalista (I'm Eduardo and I'm from Portugal)
- Haluan kahvia! (I want coffee!)
- Hauska tavata. (Nice to meet you)
- Yksi isotaksi, Yliopistokatu kussitoista, nyt! (one big taxi, Yliopistokatu 16, now!)
- On kylmä! (It's cold!)
How to pick up a girl in Finnish:
(never worked this way...but feel free to try it, at least you make them laugh...)
Haluatko tanzia? - Want to dance?
Sinä olet kukka ja kukka on kaunis, siis sinä olet kaunis... - You are a flower, and flowers are beautiful, so you are beautiful also...
Mikä sinun puhelinnummero? - What is your phone number?
Haluatko nukkua kanssani? - Do you want to sleep with me (sleep only)?
Meille vai teille vai metsäteille vai.. eriteille? - My place, your place, in the woods, or different ways?
- Eriteille! - Different ways!
Ei se mitä, Elämä on kaunis suomessa... - It doesn't matter. Life is beautiful in Finland...
Juoppoporo song by Eduardo Gouveia:
Oulun Naiset ovat kauniita!
Minä olen juoppoporo ja mä tarvin apua!
Torstaina Rovaniemellä, kolmetoista naista saunassa...
Minä tulen Portugalista,
ja suomi on kieli vaikea.
Mutta elämä on helpompaa
jos juon... sata olutta!!!
I dare you to translate this... maybe later I will :P
EDU IN OULU - 4 Months in Northern Heaven by Eduardo Gouveia - Porto, Portugal
