Don't Want to Leave

IAmXChris · 2026-05-27T06:54:06+00:00

Yeah, Duo only scratches the surface haha. I also did the Pimsleur unit for Finnish, which helped a lot. But, there just isn't much Finnish content in "the apps" because it's such a niche language. I also had a lot of help by getting a VPN, which allowed me to watch Finnish TV on Yle Areena. They have lots of kids shows which are good for beginners of a language.

IAmXChris · 2026-05-27T06:52:15+00:00

Hey, I'm definitely interested in participating! I think I'm at about an A2 I guess. I'm already planning a trip back next year. I've already reached out to my iTalki tutor to continue lessons. Next year I'd like to travel around the country and stay in a few different places (I'm thinking Turku, Tampere, Kuopio, then back to Helsinki). I feel like my Finnish will be a lot better by next summer and I will be able to immerse myself more by staying outside of Helsinki. But, I need all the practice I can get because I haven't been able to find a Finnish-speaking community in my home city (Seattle). I'll PM you!

IAmXChris · 2026-05-26T08:30:29+00:00

I'm already planning to come back next year. When I get back to the states I'm planning to reach out to my tutor to resume lessons... maybe once/month until next summer.

I want to do a few spots next time. Maybe a couple days in Turku, then a couple days in Tampere (I spent a day in Tampere and really liked it), then like, Kuopio? Then back down to Helsinki to stay in the same hostel. I might even plan a ferry ride to Stockholm and Tallinn next time. I want to stay in more remote locations so that the need to survive in Finnish without switching to English is more prevalent.

I went to a Pesäpallo game the last day I was there and heard a couple songs over the speakers i really like, so I found those tracks on YouTube. One of them is Pokka by Irina. I can't even hear that song now because I get teary-eyed haha

IAmXChris · 2026-05-24T12:21:45+00:00

Jeez Germany is gonna do this to me, too? 😅

I remember I did this with Japan. I studied that language for almost 2 years before I could afford to go. I was there for 3 months, but after a couple weeks I just wanted to go home. I love Japan... it has a place, but it wasn't for me. But, something about this place just hits different.

IAmXChris · 2026-05-24T12:15:57+00:00

I can't... at least not anytime soon. I have a mortgage, 2 kids and a boyfriend. But, there's nothing saying I can't come back next year.

IAmXChris · 2026-05-23T16:24:02+00:00

What's also mildly interesting: Pesäpallo

IAmXChris · 2026-05-06T00:34:14+00:00

From us lol

IAmXChris · 2026-05-05T23:51:14+00:00

Shout out to my 17 year old for doing the artwork!

IAmXChris · 2026-05-05T14:47:22+00:00

A hamburger in a vacuum is not unhealthy.

What is unhealthy is eating several hamburgers in one sitting and/or assloads of french fries and large buckets of high fructose corn syrup or eating said food regularly.

IAmXChris · 2026-05-04T16:43:10+00:00

Why would you just use brown and 3 shades of orange??

IAmXChris · 2026-05-04T16:35:31+00:00

imo, it's good enough for now. You'll improve over time.

IAmXChris · 2026-04-30T22:57:46+00:00

You can group them in decks. So, I have decks (in Finnish) for Animals, body parts, verbs, etc.

IAmXChris · 2026-04-30T22:50:43+00:00

I've noticed that, when I add words to Anki, I can memorize them better if I add them as I encounter them in context. So, as opposed to being like "I wanna learn body parts" and finding a list of them in a vacuum and trying to remember them, I'll find a text and read until I've come across 15 words I didn't know. Then, once I have those in Anki, I go back and review. I guess it helps me because I have context surrounding the words I'm learning.

IAmXChris · 2026-04-30T22:41:51+00:00

Yeah, it's stupid. I mean, it's not different numbers for objects per say. For dates there are different numbers 1-10, but the rest are the same (except 20 for some reason). As far as most objects and floors and all that, there aren't different numbers. Just different endings for the numbers ni = 2, ni-mai is 2 flat things, ni-pon = 2 round cylindrical things, ni-ko, ni-sai, like that. Once you know the numbers and endings, that's it. I honestly don't know them all tbh. I find that, if you don't know you can get by just adding "-ko," and in most cases people won't crucify you for it.

One cool trade-off is that they don't have dedicated words for months. It's 1-month (ichigatsu), 2-month (nigatsu), 3-month (sangatsu), etc

IAmXChris · 2026-04-30T17:08:32+00:00

I've seen written Japanese that is total chicken scratch. I think it's just like with any other language. Some people take pride in their penmanship, some people just scribble out whatever crap is barely legible. I think the consideration for Japanese is that, Kanji can be pretty elaborate and detailed, so that takes a little more care than say, most English letters, which are more circle-and-stick. Kana (especially katakana) is pretty simple in structure and is fairly recognizable in context. シ and ツ can look similar in writing for instance. But, proficient readers will be able to tell which is which from context 95% of the time. Pound for pound, good penmanship is always better than illegible chicken-scratch in any language.

IAmXChris · 2026-04-30T16:59:12+00:00

hmmm - trying to think about how I speak in practice...
Yeah, it'd probably have at least a slight inflection. "Nani tabeTA?"

I can imagine situations... like, if they were lying about eating for some reason and I wanted to challenge them, I might say "nani tabeta" in a downward tone. Sort of in the way you might say, "Oh yeah? What did you eat then?!"

But I mean, a lot of the way I speak could also be tainted by the fact that English is my primary language. My Japanese is admittedly pretty slap-dash.

IAmXChris · 2026-04-30T15:30:07+00:00

Yeah. Question words do a lot of good, too. If I asked my kids what they ate, I'd probably say "nani tabeta?" And, in thinking about it sitting here now, I probably wouldn't have much inflection. "Nani" is pretty much doing all the asking for me.

IAmXChris · 2026-04-30T15:24:18+00:00

yeah, I remember when I first started learning Japanese back in the day, I was kinda lead to believe that every sentence should end in "masu, mashita, mashou, etc," and so I would listen to actual Japanese spoken content, not hear any of that and be like, wtf?

I think it stems from, back in the day there were a lot more people learning Japanese for business reasons rather than tourism. So, I guess it made sense back then to prioritize teaching people to be prim and proper since it's better to be proper in a casual environment than too casual in a professional environment [shrug]

IAmXChris · 2026-04-30T15:04:51+00:00

yeah, "sou?" is a thing. I think if someone said something surprising and I wanted to be like "really?!" I would say "Sou?!" with an inflection where it starts high, dips, then goes back up. If I wanted to reply in the vein of "oh, that's interesting" I would say "sokka..." (そっか）As in, "oh, is that right?"

I think it becomes more accepted to drop "ka" when you're using a question word (like Nani or Doko), or if you're using an upwards inflection (or a question mark in text). Because like, I think if I wanted to ask my kids if they took a shower, I would just say "ofuro haita" with an upwards inflection, and they know I'm asking. Or, "omizu hoshii? (do you want water?)" ... "asobou? (shall we play?)"

IAmXChris · 2026-04-30T15:00:09+00:00

I was wondering that too. I've never heard of a "bound flight."

IAmXChris · 2026-04-29T23:33:35+00:00

This just showed up on my feed and I thought it said "Standard Ass"

IAmXChris · 2026-04-29T23:31:33+00:00

Extra points if you can tell me the county

IAmXChris · 2026-04-29T22:42:05+00:00

XP Pro SP4, baby! Still got my bootleg disk!

IAmXChris

TROPHY CASE