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Finnish defies your prejudices
I read your forum and I saw many people who say that one language is better than another (I won't mention any names but you know which I'm talking about) because it has a growing number of native speakers. Well I am a student in St. Petersburg, and many people here like and study Suomi. Some people even choose it instead of English and German. And Suomi, as you might know, has only 6 million speakers in the world
Ymmärrättekö suomea? ;)
Кто же бы учился финскому языку? Какая потеря времени! Может быть, вы пьете слишком много водки! Все знают, что финский язык скоро исчезнет с лица мира, потому что некие страны собираются свалить в Финляндию свои ядерные остатки.
Ну, хорошо, если ты хочешь заниматься финским именно по этой причине - ты будешь одним из уникальных людей на свете, кто все еще говорит на нем!
Дорогой Франко, в Финляндии высокий уровень жизни. Финляндия может быть маленькая, но рай это и есть рай, какого размеры он бы не был. К тому же это европейская страна, которую ещё не успели засрать иностранцы (ну кроме нас, русских ;) ).
Also, think about all the great music that came from that "insignificant country": Ville Valo, Rasmus, Levan Polkka ... :))
Thats very interesting, even if I understood only the English half;-) What are the reasons? Is it only the fact that Finnland is the neares neighbour of Petersburg area with non-communist history?
Svetlana ja ljublju tebja. :-) Ty prava. Vce jazyki mogut byt' krasivye i interesnie Poka iz Italii
Isn't Finnish immensly complex, or is that just one of the common prejudices?
I understand olaszinho's message for the most part. Why is that? Is it Russian written with the roman alphabet? The only other Slavic language I know a little is SCB and I mean, very little.
I don't have a Russian wordprocessor. Is it common to use the roman alphabet for Russian?
"Is it Russian written with the roman alphabet? The only other Slavic language I know a little is SCB and I mean, very little".
Yes. it is :-)
I'm not surprised at all that Russians want to learn Finnish. After all, Russians and Finns are neighbours.
Probably any enthusiastic polyglot will choose Finnish or Hungarian to add to his or her accomplishments as well. I don't think any language is "better", but English certainly is useful. People with a limited amount of learning time will choose languages that they can use and practice imo. Finnish seems like a logical choice for Russians. I check out what languages are popular in bookstores whenever I stop in Borders or a similar store. For children, French and Spanish are popular. Italian and Chinese were also offered. For adults, I noticed Farsi had arrived....German, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Greek and LATIN were offered. Quite a few offerings were available for Korean too. But don't you just hate it-most courses are just basic courses (except German for some reason.); it makes me wonder if this is why so many people give up learning a language-not enough material! I'm sorry, but I didn't see anything in Finnish. What kind of languages are offered in the stores in St. Petersburg for children and adults?
<<I don't think any language is "better", but English certainly is useful. People with a limited amount of learning time will choose languages that they can use and practice imo. Finnish seems like a logical choice for Russians. >>
And I've been harbouring feelings that English, French and German are all useful languages just for language learning. Not even Chinese. Chinese scholars are good at writing grammar books and dictionaries... but that's it. For me, this language is naturally the best reference language, but it is short of good, natural and, above all, interesting and motivating language programs to get me started and let me get very far in a new language.
So, Xie, does that mean that you use another language like English to learn German?
If so, that's a good method. Use a second language to learn a third if you can. You've read Farber, though. You know that, then.
<<it makes me wonder if this is why so many people give up learning a language-not enough material!>>
It's not why. It's because there is no demand for advanced material, because most quit. And also, if one is advanced why study simple silly language books? When advanced, one does study subjects interesting to him , written by natives for natives. I think, many German advanced books exist, because people have great incentive to learn German so they can learn the works of Freud, so more demand for advanced materials.
K. T.: Yes, that's what I wrote in ??another?? thread. I do have two dictionaries, one grammar book and several textbooks in Chinese, but if one day I were granted "being able to speak German well to deal with most daily situations" by German speakers, I would certainly attribute this largely to English-based courses, esp. audio-based ones.
-- Indeed, I think beginner's books and advanced level books are both important in terms of quality. Bad books for the former category would be off-putting, while ... I don't know, advanced ones, if not comprehensive enough, could be keeping people from making progress.
think, many German advanced books exist, because people have great incentive to learn German so they can learn the works of Freud, so more demand for advanced materials.
Por qué deberia leer a Freud, el psicoanalisis Freudiano ya està anticuado. Si pudiese escoger leeria a todos los grandes filosofos alemanes...:-) |