re: Learn Finnish or Welsh?

If you're American when you go into bathroom, what are you when you come out of the bathroom?

Finland is better than Wales.

Definitely Finnish, it’s closer to russian.

Been to both. Friends from both, Finland is much better.

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What did your Finnish friends say was the most difficult aspect of learning the language?

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It translates over to nothing we know. Grammar isn't hard but you have no reference for words. Some of the words I've picked up on I just have to force myself to associate to something. With a germanic language, often I can read new words and immediately associate them to a word in english. With Finnish it looks like you slammed your head on the keyboard and threw vowels (a's and i's especially) allover.

I'm going to throw some random words out there, try to see which ones you can pick up on. Sound them out and think of the closest english word you can think of.

fisk / kalastaa

brød / leipää

øl / olut

vindu / ikkuna

regn / sade

en mann / mies

hund / koira

jeg liker du / pidän sinusta

Mandag Tirsdag Onsdag Torsdag Fredag Lørdag Søndag / Maanantai Tiistai Keskiviikko Torstai Perjantai Lauantai Sunnuntai

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I've tried to learn Icelandic but materials were severely limited

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For Icelandic:

You can find natives here: LINK (keep in mind it's a younger community, probably around college age)

You can text/voice chat with native speakers. there are channels with educational resources in there as well. It is definitely harder to find good material for learning Icelandic

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I'm quite good at Russian and German and have managed to find native speakers to talk to.

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Russian is sweet. We have a decent amount of Russians in Miami so I get to practice every so often. I know the alphabet but I have yet to dive deep into the language. I know some basic stuff. Definitely want to learn more.

This is gonna be fun. Let’s see how my very limited knowledge of Finnish is. Not googling any of these.



fisk / kalastaa -Fish

brød / leipää -bread

øl / olut -some type of beer. There’s a Finnish drinking song with this word in it

vindu / ikkuna -ah, it was the German that gave this one away. Window or opening or something like that

regn / sade- king or royal or something?

en mann / mies - man?

hund / koira -hound/dog

jeg liker du / pidän sinusta - hmmmm...well, minu rakistan sinua I love you...and the sinu root in sinusta must be a variation of that. Jeg I think is referring to the self in Nordic languages...du is you in German...

So it’s got to mean “I like you” or something to that effect

Mandag Tirsdag Onsdag Torsdag Fredag Lørdag Søndag / Maanantai Tiistai Keskiviikko Torstai Perjantai Lauantai Sunnuntai -days of the week obviously

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While native speakers for both are rare, what sounds more "cool" to learn?

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I used to travel to Swansea for work. When I would go to the pubs, they would all speak Welsh until the figured out that I wasn't British. It was a really cool language to hear.

Learn Spanish or Mandarin.

I think I only completely missed the Mark on one.

The regn-sade one. I mistakenly thought it might have a Latin root. Like reign (instead of rain. Duh)

I always loved speaking what little Finnish I could with my grandma and papa.

I really regret that I didn’t take a trip to Finland with them back when I was a teenager. Would have been a memory to see my ancestral homeland.

I would love to go there before I die. We still have family there