At the beginning of the course, I found myself a bit frustrated; we spent about three weeks primarily on three questions and their respective answers: "Mikä sinun nimi on? / What is your name?" "Minkä maalainen sinä olet? / What nationality are you?" and "Mistä sinä olet kotoisin? / Where are you from (originally)?" We covered other things, too, but the focus of the course was squarely on these three questions for a good, long time. It seemed excessive at the time. "I've got it," I thought. "I've memorized the script. Now teach me how to deviate from it."
But, in retrospect, these three questions provide a pretty crucial basis for a lot of grammatical structures one learns early on. Memorizing the script beyond any doubt was actually a very useful, foundational thing to do. I'm not sure if this is the way in which basic Finnish classes usually begin their curriculum, but it was good. Maddening, but good. Plus, if I forget everything else I've ever learned, I'll always know exactly how to ask someone's name, their nationality, and which country they're from in Finnish. Though the last two are kind of redundant, I'll always have at least three tools in my Finnish toolbox.
Now, obviously my classmates and I have come quite a long way since those days, and our teacher has continued to be doggedly committed to our education. I was moved to write about her after an incident last week.
Last week, we started a section on the human body, the names of various illnesses, and what you might say if you ever find yourself in a doctor's office. At some point in the process, she asked us if we knew the names for various bodily functions, using one of the most effective methods available to her: pantomime. "Mitä teet, kun... / What do you do when..." she'd say, as she gestured to her mouth, crotch, and ass, suggesting that she was puking, peeing, and shitting respectively. Everyone laughed uproariously at this scatological display and, as she laughed along with us, she made sure to impress upon us the following: "Kakkasanat ovat tärkeitä. / Poo words are important."
Now, not only is she my kind of woman for her ability to have a good laugh at poo's expense, but this bit of theatre also really increased my respect for her as a teacher. She's utterly fearless. She'll do whatever it takes to get us to understand, to add to the vocabulary at our disposal, and to ensure our grasp of grammatical concepts. And you know what? "Poo words" are important.
If, in my search for an ammatti, I end up teaching English, I only hope I'll be as brave and as good a teacher as she is.
My friend is fairly decent at French - his father has been a college French professor for many, many year and is obviously fluent, and some of the has rubbed off on his son. However, a couple of years ago my friend and his wife were traveling through France, and stopped for a cheese tasting. They ate A LOT of cheese. A LOT. Later, he was forced to stop at the pharmacist, and had no idea what the words for laxative or constipation were. So he tried to get his point across by saying, "We ate too much cheese and now we can't go to the bathroom." So, yes, poo words are important.
ReplyDeleteAnd the French words for laxative and constipation are... errr... laxatif and constipation! With French, it's always worth having a go at prnouncing the English word with a pseudo-French accent...
Deleteembracelife, your scenario is exactly the kind that makes "poo words" critical vocabulary!
DeleteOlli, that's funny. I imagine that rule is especially true for medical words, since they tend to be latinate. I also vaguely remember a blog post of yours outlining a similar method for Finnish words (simply tacking an "i" on the end). Most recently, that trick worked for me when I guessed that "tip" (as in gratuity) is "tippi" in Finnish.
It's always GREAT to have a wonderful, fearless teacher with a good sense of humour. I know one friend who lives in southern Finland (don't remember where exactly anymore) who didn't get a really good teacher full-time 'coz they're out of resources, so her classroom has to share the good teacher half of the course with another classroom. The other teacher is just a native speaker who can't really explain about grammar.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure if you end up teaching English, you'll be a good teacher, too 'coz you've got a zest to learn. :-)))
P.S. I agree totally that poo words are important. I remember that a year after I moved to Finland, I got an invitation to do a free pap smear 'coz I turned 30 that year and I remember having to browse through the internet to find out terms that might be connected to the test. Luckily the gyno was REALLY patient and she explained everything very very slowly in Finnish he he he...:-)))
Yeah, I'd say that it's really important when learning Finnish to have a teacher who knows grammar. It's important for other languages, too, but so much meaning is caught up in Finnish grammar. It's one reason why I love Finnish, but it's also a reason that it really requires an expert teacher.
DeleteI've been lucky, as the couple of doctors I've been to here spoke English. I can't wait until I'll no longer need it. :)
Those words are also quite useful, because if you know them, you don't use them by accident, as I have done (e.g. see the end of http://telefinn.blogspot.com/2011/01/words-dont-come-easy.html)
ReplyDeleteMy classmate and I were joking about the similarity of those two words during this particular class!
DeleteVoi paska, I guess that´s how you get started in any given basic Finnish class, plus the books I see on last post´s pic look very familiar. We did exactly the same stuff in the beginning and I also think it´s quite useful. Apparently "mistä olet kotoisin?" is a standard question in Suomi regardless if it´s directed towards an expat or a native. That´s what people are interested in over here, whereas a standard question in Germany would be "Was bist Du von Beruf?" - what´s your occupation? I remember that one of your entries was entitled "mikä minun ammatti on?", but it feels like people don´t ask you about what you´re actually doing all that often. You can even see that in the most typical surnames of both countries. The Finns quite often have names deriving from places or nature, the Krauts are Müller, Meier, Schneider etc., all coming from old professions.
ReplyDeleteTeaching English sounds like a great idea! You have a kielipää plus you´re a native speaker! 2 thumbs up!
I remember hearing, as you said, that Finns tend to want to know where a given person is from. They don't ask me that question because usually they're already acquainted with me, and therefore know I'm from the land of obese jerkoffs (sorry, I'm a little angry with my homeland at the moment, which I may outline in an upcoming post). English last names are often occupations, too. And, as is probably derived from English culture, Americans also ask about someone's occupation before they'll ask about much else.
DeleteThanks for the encouragement on the teaching. I think I'd really enjoy it.
Great teacher! We didn't get to that so far at our language course yet but I'm hopeful. Something we lately got to know though was where those strange Finnish names for months come from. It's acutally quite intersting http://helsinki-in.blogspot.com/2012/03/finnish-calendar.html
ReplyDeleteOddly we were doing body words, illnesses and the healthcare system last week. Didn't you start in the autumn as well (my course started mid-October)? Perhaps there is like a national curriculum. We also have done imperative, conditional and perfect forms in the last couple of week. Minä olen luenyt sinun bloggi kaksi kuukautta - something like that anyway! :-)
ReplyDeleteI did start in autumn, though it was a bit earlier (mid-September). Sounds like you might be further along than we are, though. We've only touched on the three forms you mention very superficially. Are you in a full-time course? We study for about 2.5 hours 5 days a week. I wish it were more, but I try to make up for it with some independent study and plenty of talking. Kiitos kun luet minun blogia. Minäkin olen lukenyt sinun blogia noin kaksi kuukautta. :)
DeleteI think that's why when people learn a new language, or know someone who speaks another language, the focus is always on words like that. Aside from being taboo, they actually do come in handy, and so many people are so prudish that, you might wind up now knowing how to say those words. I mean, they're body parts, like your arms, your head and your knees, right? Sheesh. Your teacher sounds awesome. I'm sure you guys aren't her first group of "poo words" in the audience. After awhile, I'm sure it becomes old hat, lol.
ReplyDelete