On Tue, 30 May 2023 11:01:13 +0100
Vir Campestris <vir.campestris@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>On 29/05/2023 19:09, Kalevi Kolttonen wrote:
>> Well, not really. The texts were rather short. One A4 sheet
>> at most.
>>
>> I remember that the teacher liked my translations, but all
>> of it would have been impossible without the dictionary.
>
>I studied French at school, and did a few years of Latin. Italian
>Spanish and German aren't complete black holes either - I can sometimes
>guess what that road sign means... the fact that my wife is a linguist
>helps.
>
>But Finnish? You have a different language. It means almost nothing to
>me. Coming from that as your native tongue to the level you are in
>English to the fluency that you have is really impressive.
>
>The other end of the scale is an ex-colleague of mine who worked in
>Germany for several years, and didn't learn the language. My reaction
>wasn't "Why?" but "How?". Given all the signs, menus, and everything
>else written around you how could you not pick some up?

I have a friend who's lived in Finland for 15 years and still can't
speak a word of Finnish. Whenever I ask him how its going I get some
mumbling about not got the time. Huh? IMO he's just lazy since because a lot
of people in Finland speak english he doesn't have to bother speaking
finnish.

On 30/05/2023 16:46, Muttley@dastardlyhq.com wrote:
> On Tue, 30 May 2023 11:01:13 +0100
> Vir Campestris <vir.campestris@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> On 29/05/2023 19:09, Kalevi Kolttonen wrote:
>>> Well, not really. The texts were rather short. One A4 sheet
>>> at most.
>>>
>>> I remember that the teacher liked my translations, but all
>>> of it would have been impossible without the dictionary.
>>
>> I studied French at school, and did a few years of Latin. Italian
>> Spanish and German aren't complete black holes either - I can sometimes
>> guess what that road sign means... the fact that my wife is a linguist
>> helps.
>>
>> But Finnish? You have a different language. It means almost nothing to
>> me. Coming from that as your native tongue to the level you are in
>> English to the fluency that you have is really impressive.
>>
>> The other end of the scale is an ex-colleague of mine who worked in
>> Germany for several years, and didn't learn the language. My reaction
>> wasn't "Why?" but "How?". Given all the signs, menus, and everything
>> else written around you how could you not pick some up?
>
> I have a friend who's lived in Finland for 15 years and still can't
> speak a word of Finnish. Whenever I ask him how its going I get some
> mumbling about not got the time. Huh? IMO he's just lazy since because a lot
> of people in Finland speak english he doesn't have to bother speaking
> finnish.
>

It is easier for a Finnish speaker to learn English, than vice versa,
due to the different kinds of language and grammar (English is a very
analytic language - it uses pronouns, helper verbs, and separate words.
Finnish is very synthetic, meaning different tenses or pronouns get
combined within a single long constructed word).

It is also easier to learn another language when you are younger - Finns
learn English from a young age at school, while few non-Finns learn
Finnish at school. And outside school, Finns meet a lot of English in
daily life, such as internet use - non-Finns only see Finnish in
internet memes about how hard it is to learn Finnish.

Still, I think if you live in a different country it is important to try
to learn the language, even if you never really master it.

On Tue, 30 May 2023 20:31:10 +0200
David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> wrote:
>On 30/05/2023 16:46, Muttley@dastardlyhq.com wrote:
>It is also easier to learn another language when you are younger - Finns
>learn English from a young age at school, while few non-Finns learn
>Finnish at school. And outside school, Finns meet a lot of English in
>daily life, such as internet use - non-Finns only see Finnish in
>internet memes about how hard it is to learn Finnish.
>
>Still, I think if you live in a different country it is important to try
>to learn the language, even if you never really master it.

Completely agree. I've spent the last 10 years relearning french after
a 20 year gap from school and I know I'll never be fluent in it but I can
get by in conversation and I'm quite good at reading. If you make the effort
you get the results.