When you move to a new country, one of your main concerns should be to learn the language of what will be your new home.
Of course that is not an easy task and there are some countries -Finland is one of them- in which foreigners are lucky enough to be able to use English for their basic daily needs.
However, that does not mean that by speaking English life is already resolved. For Finnish natives, the English language is as foreign as it is for most of us the foreigners in Finland. So, speaking English requires extra effort also from Finns. And nobody is ever so sincere nor ever as comfortable -we could even say that nobody is really oneself- as when can express in the mother tongue.
If you have lived in Finland for years and have been able to live, work and integrate without having to learn the language, then congratulations. You have achieved a great success.
But the reality for the vast majority of the foreigners in Finland is that the Finnish language, due to its difficulty, has become today an immense barrier when it comes to achieving full integration in the country, access to work and socialisation.
For this reason, Foreigner.fi wants to encourage all its readers to learn to speak Finnish. And to make an effort in order to express themselves in the language of our day-to-day companions, who are the Finns. Those who try to do it will notice very soon a huge change, understanding and sincere thankfulness when dealing with the locals.
Lessons start on 11 January
In order to support everybody on this task, on the evening of the Friday, January 11, Foreigner.fi will start publishing a free weekly lesson of Finnish language.
The lessons are part of a special programme designed by Jenni Turunen, who is an experienced teacher of Finnish for foreigners, both adults and children, and who kindly has offered her expertise for free to make this project possible.
Each one of the lessons will combine a brief theoretical explanation with games and video explanations to facilitate learning in a simple, intuitive and pleasant way.
The course will start with 6 lessons of basic Finnish that will allow beginners to learn about greetings and polite words, the numbers, the basic vocabulary to introduce themselves, to talk about the time of the day, the weather, clothing and other issues. After that, there will be other 6 lessons of intermediate level. Our intention is to provide the videos subtitled in English and Arabic.
Do not miss this opportunity to learn some Finnish or improve what you already know. Speaking the language of your host country will help you get to know the Finns much better. It will also improve your social life and give you access to job offers that you can not request at the moment due to your lack of knowledge of the country's language.
