Day Twelve: Boo Bear ~ ALPHABET.

     I'm currently in my last hour class of the day: Math Enrichment. I've been sitting here for approximately ten minutes trying to figure out a title for this and could think of nothing. Then out of the blue, my friend held up a white board that read: I miss my boo bear! And thus, the title was created.

     Boo Bear. It's an extremely cheesy nickname for a boyfriend but, what to do. Anyways, it got me to thinking, "What kind of cheesy nicknames are there in Finland?" But instead of Googling 'cheesy Finnish nicknames' I googled 'Finland' and got this:

     A lovely map of the country. And then I thought, "What about America?" So I Googled America and got this:

     A glaring eagle with a billowing flag behind it. 

    Anyways, on to Finnish. I've written up a page of the three new phrases: Mitä kuuluu, Hauska tavata, and Puhutko englantia.

     Mitä Kuuluu is pronounced: Me-tah coo-loo

     Hauska Tavata is pronounced: House-kah tah-vah-ta

     Puhutko Englantia is pronounced: Puh-hoot-co Ah-ng-lon-tea-ah

     I've gotten pretty familiar with these three phrases so, on a whim I decided to add three more.

  

     Mikä sinun nimesi on? In English this translates into: What is your name?

     Kuinka vanha sinä olet? In English translates into: How old are you?

     Mitä kello on? In English translates into: What time is it?

     I'm not yet sure how to pronounce these words though so I'll have to add that in the next post. I did however, google up a chart of the Finnish alphabet and pronunciation as seen below. The website I found it on was: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/finnish.htm

This is the alphabet with vowels consonants and diphthongs:

    

And this was added at the bottom:

Notes

• The letters in blue are only used in names and foreign loanwords
• The letter G appears in native Finnish words in combination with N as ng [ŋ]
• Before unvoiced consonants, b = [p], d = [t], f = [f], g = [k] and h = [x]
• c = [k] when it appears before a, o and u, and [s] when in front of e, i, y, ä and ö
• Stress always falls on the first syllable of words.
• Vowels and consonants can be short (written with one letter), or long (written with two letters).
• Finnish has a system of vowel harmony. There are three types of vowels: front vowels (ä, ö, y), back vowels (a, o, u) and neutral vowels (e, i). Front and back vowels cannot co-exist in the same word. Neutral vowels can be used with either of the two other types. For more details, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_harmony#Finnish

     I added 'ALPHABET' to the title just in case it is needed later on in the blogging process. School is out, see you later.

:)

Day Eleven: Slow

     Unfortunately, I do not have Internet access at home. This means that a) I can't access the list of words I'm learning, and b) I can't update the blog to record any of that. So this is me recording that. Long gaps of absence = no Internet access. Or plain laziness, but blaming it on the Internet is much easier. Needless to say, I've picked up three more words. Näkemiin, Ymmärrän, and En ymmärrä.

     Näkemiin, in English, translates to 'Goodbye'
     Ymmärrän, in English, translates into 'I understand'
     En ymmärrä, in English translates into 'I do not understand'

     As far as I've learned, the first word is pronounced: knock-a-mean, the second: Ew-mar (as in Mars, without the 's')- ran. The 'r' rolls a little. And then the third one: N Ew-mar-a. The 'N' quite literally meaning to say it like the letter sounds.

     Now here's the thing. I decided to not only learn Finnish, but get school credit for it as well. How will I do this? Well, I go to an alternative/non-traditional school and in order to graduate from said school, one must present both a Junior and a Senior project. I don't know much about the Senior project, but the Junior project has some requirements of something like, 'must take at least 200 hours, be 30-45 minutes long, and cost at least $200'. But, that also sounds more like it would be for the senior project. Maybe the Junior was 100/30-45/$100.
     The other requirement is that each student preparing for said project must have a community expert. Meaning that there be someone somewhere helping a student learn what their project is on. For example, my friend is learning to crochet. My mom can crochet. My mom is her C.E., and occasionally they e-mail back and forth on patterns and needles and such. That's it. Not a big job.
     The problem with this is that NO ONE I KNOW SPEAKS FINNISH. I have until next trimester to find someone to C.E me because that's when the whole process of this project really begins. It's scary.

     On a happier note though, due to my inability to reach Internet, I've been working on the three words in this blog for a few days now and might move on a bit. If I do, the words will be: Mitä kuuluu, Hauska Tavata, and Puhutko englantia.

     Mitä kuuluu, in English, translates to: How are you?
     Hauska Tavata, in English, translates to: Pleased to meet you.
     Puhutko englantia, in English, translates to: Do you speak English?

     It's exciting to have phrases to work on! Maybe now I'll get to really use them on someone. That should be confusing for them. :)

Day Three: More Words

     So, I've been working at memorizing a few words at a time now and am bumping along quite nicely. Kiitos, Anteeksi, and Ole hyvä turned out to be both easy and fun to write. Maybe it's just me, but the double dots above letters look pretty cool.
     Anyways, while I was in school yesterday I was writing the words over and over and over again in order to remember them. (It's a tactic that I learned works for me a long time ago.) My friend Jenny was sitting next to me and when she saw that I had filled up an entire page of these three words, well, let's just say that her face = priceless.
     In fact, it kinda looked like this:

     Except a 16 year old female.

     Anyways, after a page of three words, I decided that I had become smart enough to take on three more words. Yes, you heard me right. I was being a daredevil. The words causing such an outlandish behavior were: hyvää huomenta, hyvää iltaa, and hyvää yötä. Translating into the English words of: Good morning, good evening, and good night. I know. It's risky. Heaven forbid I formally greet someone.
    
     The first word is pronounced: who-vah who-a-menta. Now, unlike hyvä where it's said in a more curt style, I've learned that the second ä makes the end of hyvää drag out a bit. Like saying Who-vaaah.
     The second word, hyvää iltaa, is pronounced like so: who-vaaah eel-ta.
     And lastly the third one, hyvää yötä, is pronounced like this: who-vaaah, ew-oh-ta. Or something like that. I'm still trying to figure out how the 'y' in finish sounds with other letters.

     So, in an attempt to not only broaden my Finnish vocabulary, but also shock Jenny a little more, I decided to write out those three words too. Unfortunately, this was bad because my hand had not yet recovered from the last page that I'd written and by the end of page two, was half dead.

     My notebook went from this:

      To this:

And this is only the beginning.

  



Day One: SGST

     So I've decided to learn Finnish. Now, I know that Finnish isn't exactly the most used language ever *sarcasm* but I am determined to learn it. When I proposed this question to my mom she asked one question that I can only assume most mothers would ask: Why? The answer to the question is simple. Because, I reallyreallyreally like the language. It looks cool, it sounds cool, and it belongs to a pretty cool country. So really it was a no brainer that I'd wanna learn it.

     Anyhow, the title to this post is as follows 'Day One: SGST' What does that mean? Well, thanks for asking. It stands for 'Second Grade Spelling Test' The reason for this is because I am treating learning a new language the same way I treated learning English. One words at a time, written ten times each, and said any chance possible. Much like a-dun dun da DAA-a second grade spelling test. Furthermore, I have begun writing only three words so far.

     To really get into the point of this blog though (as I believe any blog should have), I am writing this out so that I can record and track my progress throughout learning. I want to record sources or things that I use. You know, in case someone actually reads this and thinks 'Hey! I've always wanted to learn a Nordic language that will ultimately have absolutely no benefit towards my future what-so-ever!' To which I say to them, nice enthusiasm, and if all else fails, move to Finland.

     In my opinion, the people in this Googled image of Finnish People, look pretty happy so moving to Finland may be a good idea.

Some words I'm working on:

1. Kiitos
2. Ole hyvä
3. Anteeksi

     The first word is pronounced 'Key-toes' and translates into the English Thank You.

     The second word is pronounced 'Olay Who-va' and translates into the English You're Welcome.

     The third word is pronounced 'On-take-see' and translates into the English Excuse Me.

    
     So far, this is where I'm at in the whole 'learning a foreign language' thing. Three words.

     Glad I'm such an optimist.