Finished with Finnish class

Yesterday was my last Finnish class. Here are my two Finnish teachers: Marly, age 2, making a guest appearance, and Leena, our guide to all things Finnish. The class met twice a week and I wish it hadn't ended quite so soon.

I wrote about this class for my hometown newspaper and you can read that article here. Language is part of culture and you get closer to a culture by learning (or trying to learn) the language. Language gives you insight into how the mind works.

Our text book, Hyvin Menee, was great. Each lesson was a mini culture lesson: food, apartments, the health care system, leisure activities, Finnish weather. Chris has bought Book 2 of Hyvin Menee for our return to the states. I hope he will home school me in Finnish.

Our teacher Leena taught us not simply grammar. You can see in the top picture that she has brought in her YLIOPPILASHATTU to share with us. (More about this hat in my May 1st blog). In various classes we discussed such diverse topics as

1) Finnish palindromes; e.g. saippuakauppias soap salesman
2) The finnishization of English words; e.g. pitsaa (pizza), rokki (rock music), or jatsi musiki (jazz music).
3) Finnish education

Best of all the class gave me a desire to continue my study of Finnish. I don't know how realistic this is, but I do have Book 2 of Hyvin Menee to bring home.