Minä puhun suomea! (I speak Finnish)

I have just finished my second week of Intensive Finnish Language classes and it is a bitch.

There are a total of 5 modules of 25 days each. It is Monday through Friday 9:15 - 4:00 with a 45 minute lunch break. I am finding it interesting, intense, and traumatic.

To start with, the instructor speaks almost no English, so it is a total immersion course for me. I’m not having trouble with vocabulary; I’ve always been good at that, but grammar and conjugation will be the end of me. For some reason, I’m just not getting it and my instructor doesn’t seem able to help me out much. I’m confident that I will eventually learn the proper tenses and grammar, but it will be bumpy and unpleasant.

Another difficulty I’m having is in dealing with my aversion to speaking in class. Throughout high school and college, I was able to avoid speaking in class, for the most part. I’m not consciously afraid, but it stresses me out on an unconscious level. I end up being exhausted at the end of the day, even though I’ve sat on my butt all day. We all have to speak quite a lot and work in groups together. If one could design a course that plays on my worst fears and anxieties, it would be exactly like this.

There are some interesting bits, however. Out of 20 students, I am only one of six other speakers of English. The class is comprised of people from Russia, India, Germany, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Estonia, Burma, Iran, Iraq, China, and America. I am the only American currently in the entire school of 200 students. I think it is pretty cool that there are so many different cultures represented. It also presents all of us with greater motivation to learn Suomi (Finnish).

I’ve started my third week and my enthusiasm is waning. The new car smell is gone and all that is left is the musty odor of hard work ahead. On the brighter side, I am actually starting to learn a little Finnish. I just have to keep my nose to the grindstone and it will pay off in the end… I hope.

Just for fun, here is a paragraph from a friend of mine’s Finnish blacksmith shop website.

Seppä Timo Miettinen suunnittelee ja valmistaa tuotteet asiakkaan toivomusten ja näkemysten mukaan "raudanlujalla" ammattitaidolla. Tuotevalikoimaan kuuluvat niin perinteiset sepäntyöt kuin monipuoliset sisustusartikkelitkin.

(Feel free to check out his work at Viikin Paja .)

As you can see, this is not very much like English. I have quite a job on my hands. I’m sure I will have more on this later.