Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Tom Sawyer Guantanamera

Bela & Boris have nothing to do with Tom, but you gotta have a backround, right?

I´m long out of language courses now and for quite some time knee-deep in working life. That means speaking Finnish everyday without the grammatic safety belt, helmet or parachute only a teacher can provide. This beautiful language is like an electric eel, once you think you can grasp it, you´ll be left behind in shock.

Of course I can make myself understood most of the time and I also took a leap foreward concerning my puhekieli. I have noticed though that many grammatical forms have slipped my mind, I even start to forget how things are written correctly.

How do you conjugate verbityyppi 4 in past tense?
How many ä´s has this or that word?
And what is it´s monikon partitiivi?
K-p-t vaihtelu...aaaargh!

High time to do something about it!
Since I didn´t get around yet to check on upcoming courses suitable for my level this has to do the trick for the moment: Tom Sawyer´s adventures in basic Finnish!
Didn´t start reading yet but the blurb was surprisingly easy for my to understand. With this book I hope to combine entertainment with a learning effect. Infotainment, so to speak. Let´s see if my plan pans out.

SONG FOR TODAY:

Die Toten Hosen - Cunt in a Mirror

5 comments:

Elena said...

Ha, I know what you mean about forgetting things you really ought to know. So far for me, it's less about grammar and more about vocabulary. For example, today I absolutely could not think up the word "jano."

Enjoy the book. I'll have to look for it when my Finnish is a little more advanced.

JottEff said...

I also have trouble remembering words at times, but I never forget the term "jano" cause my first name shares three letters with it. Can it be a coincidence that my name almost means "thirst" in Finnish?

Friedel said...

Hei.
This looks really interesting. I am just about to come to Finland in May. I spent some time here last year with my suomen girlfriend - and some language courses. Since then I am already looking for a book in Finnish that could suit my skills. Maybe it is not enough, yet. But in the future.
Will check your blog once in a while.
I´m another German guy in the city btw.
Grüsse, F.

Dani said...

Viel Spass beim Lesen und - gute Song for today-Wahl! :-)

JottEff said...

@ Dani:
Der Song passte so gut, da konnte ich nicht widerstehn!

@Friedel:
Hei, ich antworte mal auf Deutsch, in den Comments nehm ich´s nicht so genau. Das Buch kann ich echt empfehlen, im Anhang sind sogar ein paar kleine Fragen zum Textverständnis. Erschienen ist das Teil im "Otava" Verlag und die ISBN ist 951-1-17414-2. Freut mich übrigens, daß dir mein Blog gefällt. Tervetuloa Suomeen toukokussa!