Suomi 1, Jyväskylän yliopiston kielikeskus

'Suomi 1, Jyväskylän yliopiston kielikeskus'

This is the title of my learning sheets from my Finnish class. Yes, I am following a Finnish course! And I am very excited about it! 

I learned 'Suomi' means 'Finland', 'Jyväskylän' is the city of Jyväskylä as an adjective, 'yliopiston' means something with 'university/student' and 'keskus' means center. 
At this moment, this is my way of translating and understanding the Finnish language. I know a couple of words and try to combine them together to a logical sentence. So, that I came to the following translation: 'Finnish 1, Jyväskylä's University's language centre'. Sounds logical to me. 

So, at first I will tell you something about the counting, while this was the first thing I learned. I learned it around June, so three months before I actually had to learn it. Again, i am excited about the Finnish language :) 
I will give you one example of a number, while warning you to stay relax, read my explanation careful afterwards and then maybe try the same for yourself with other numbers! Are you ready?
9999 is translated into: yhdeksantuhattayhdeksansataayhdeksankymmentäyhdeksan
Yes I know... but now don't panic and I will show you the magic.
First, I will help you count from 1 till 10:
Yksi, kaksi, kolme, neljä, viisi, kuusi, seistemän, kahdeksan, yhdeksän, kymmenen.
So, these one you have to learn and now you know that 9 is translated into 'yhdeksän'.
Now you need to learn the following conjugations:
For tens, you use: 'kymmentä. For hundreds, you use 'sata(a)'. For thousands you use
'tuhat(ta)'. *you add the extra 'a' when it's higher then '2+conjugation'. Still there?
Now, it's just about a fun puzzle, we add up. 
9999, means: 9 x 1000 + 9 x 100 + 9 x 90 + 9
Now, without reading back, you try to solve the puzzle. If it worked, you can now count in Finnish and impress other people with it!

Well, the basic stuff, like basic conversation, you can just look up if you are interested.
For example, via this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uye4yT95uwM

I will tell you some other words or sentences I am interested in.
Ofcourse, music instruments, which are surprisingly similar to Dutch, English and probably a lot of other languages. I am surprised, because the similarity with my mother tongue is not that common. However, piano, the for me most important word to learn, is translated into 'piano'. Thats quite easy. Kitara means guitar, viulu means violin, trumpetti means trumpet. 
Now thinking about trumpetti, I learned a couple of words, where you just have to add the 'i' at the end and it's Finnish. For example: presidenti, bananaani, turisiti, professori, kahvi, viini, teatteri, bussi, taksi, Berliini, Pariisi, elephanti, krokotiili, tomaatti, konsertti, filmi. Now, you translate! By the way, the Fins don't use an 'Y' in their language.

Now a couple of facts, to give your brain some cooling down after this mini-course:
- keskiviikko is literaly translated into 'the middle of the week', it means wednesday
- the question marks aren't being pronounced in the Finnish language. So, where 
  I would, as an native Dutch speaker, would turn my voice into a higher sound at the
  end of the sentence, the Finnish people would keep their tone constant. 
- Finnish people are not used to using polite forms of speaking. The same for e-mails.
- when speaking, the numbers are being shortened, for example: Yks, kaks, viis, 
   kuus, kaheksan and kakskyt. If you scroll up, you can look for the answers this time.

I am very enthusiastic about this language, and grateful for the opportunity to learn it.
I would love to tell you more about it right now, but not unfortunately, I have a sauna booking in 30 minutes. Lucky me! 

Hauskaa viikonloppua!

Febe