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.