Pen tied: Learning and Writing Finnish

In the last two or three weeks, I have continued to study Finnish pretty intensively. At this point, I'm discovering that there's quite a lot that I can learn on my own when I stray outside of my course's curriculum. Here are a couple of study methods that have been very helpful to me:

1) I record myself saying 20 - 45 important new vocabulary words just about every day. On such recordings, I'll repeat a Finnish word three to four times and then give a definition of it in English. Then I simply listen as needed. Doing this has helped me a lot with vocabulary acquisition and pronunciation. My guess is that most people prefer not to resort to rote memorization of vocabulary, but I find that this activity helps me to store words in my long-term memory on a short-term basis. Then, when I encounter them in class, reading, or in conversation, I have a greater chance of remembering them more permanently.

2) I read, in English, any information I can find regarding the grammatical structures that I want to learn. Finnish: An Essential Grammar by Fred Karlsson has been immensely helpful as a reference guide.

And that's quite enough of the dull stuff.

On a related note, however, one of my homework assignments for this evening was to write a story using all of the following verbs:
               vihata = to hate
               rakastaa = to love
               ajatella = to think (about)
               lyödä = to hit, strike
               suudella = to kiss
               odottaa = to wait
               etsiä = to search
               käyttää = to use
               löytää = to find
               huomata = to notice
               tuntea = to know, to feel
               myöntää = to admit, agree
               kutsua = to invite

And, without further ado, here is my absurd, completely stupid "story":
Joku mies rakastaa naista, ja hän päättää kertoa hänelle sen. Mies ostaa kukkia ja menee naisen luo. Kun hän saapuu sinne, hän koputtaa kovasti ovea. "Oletko kotona?" hän huutaa. Nainen tulee ovelle ja avaa sen. 
     "Tunnenko minä sinut?" nainen kysyy. 
     "Sinä tunnet minut hyvin! Minä olen sinun rakas! Haluan kertoa sinulle, että minä rakastan sinua! Minä olen etsinyt rakkautta, ja olen löytänyt sen, koska sinä olet kaunis!" 
     "Odota minua pieni hetki..." nainen sanoo, ja sulkee oven nopeasti. Mies odottaa vähän aikaa, mutta hän on kärsimätön. Hän koputtaa ja huutaa, "Tule takaisin! Haluaisin kutsua sinut minun luo kylään!" 
     Nainen tulee takaisin ja avaa oven taas. "Mene pois. Huomaan, että sinä olet vähän hullu." 
   "Höpö-höpö," Mies sanoo. "Minä myönnän, että olen vähän töykeä, mutta olen töykeä vain koska rakastan sinua liian paljon!" Sitten mies yrittää suudella naista. 
     Nainen lyö miestä päähän ja sanoo, "Käytä järkeäsi! Et saa suudella vieraita naisia!"
    Mies on surullisen näköinen. "Mutta minä ajattelen sinua tosi paljon! Haluaisitko mennä kahville ja keskustella sitä? 
   "Voi, voi," nainen sanoo. "Okei. Pieni hetki. Haen mieheni."
Mies murjottaa ja sanoo, "Minä vihaan sinua." 


(Most everything is in present tense because we haven't yet covered other tenses in class. I did slip in a bit of perfekti, though.)


Translated:
A man loves a woman, and he decides to tell her. The man buys flowers and goes to her place. When he arrives there, he knocks hard on the door. "Are you home?" he shouts. The woman comes to the door and opens it. 
    "Do I know you?" she asks. 
    "You know me well! I am your love! I want to tell you that I love you! I have searched for love, and I have found it, because you are beautiful!" 
    "Wait for me just a minute..." the woman says, and closes the door quickly. The man waits for a little while, but he is impatient. He knocks and shouts, "Come back! I would like to invite you over to my place!" 
     The woman comes back and again opens the door. "Go away. I see that you are a little crazy." 
    "Nonsense," the man says. "I admit that I am a little rude, but I am rude only because I love you too much!" Then the man tries to kiss the woman. 
     The woman hits the man in the head and says, "Be reasonable! You can't kiss strange women!"
    The man is sad-looking. "But I think about you a lot! Would you like to go for coffee and discuss it? 
   "Oh my," the woman says. "Okay. Just a moment. I'll get my husband." 
The man sulks and says, "I hate you." 


So what do you think? Do I have a shot at being the next big Finnish novelist? Perhaps after studying Finnish for the next thousand years, you say? Yep, I'm afraid I'll have to agree with you there. When you're constrained by a lack of knowledge and ability, you have no choice but to embrace the absurdity.

Höpö-höpö aside, it was a pretty great exercise.