Tuesday, April 24, 2007

On Finnish Grammar

A native speaker in Finland Forum:

One of the problems with explaining these things lies obviously in that native speakers – myself included – were never taught any of these finer analytical and morphological details at school (the only exception being those who went on to study linguistics) because, well – it sort of comes naturally to us! So most of the time we can only sit back and watch in awe¹) as those who speak Finnish as their second language fearlessly discuss and analyze our gobbledygook in depth, slicing and dicing it to various components that a native speaker is not really even aware of existing.

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¹) A good dose of creeping, numb horror is usually involved, too.

Still, I'm working towards it. I found a forum where you can sign up for an online language course. Problem is, the second level starts on May 1, so I have to cover everything they learned in level 1 in a few days. Wow:) The teacher has graciously provided the textbook, exercises with answers, and tests.

Also, an invaluable resource for Finnish vocabulary - the blog Learn Finnish.

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