Best place to learn Finnish language online
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Sometimes with a language like Finnish with only about 5 million people to use it with it's hard to find really good material online to hear it in practice, and after learning the basics there's really not that much in terms of online material to start to bring your Finnish to a more fluent level. Luckily there's Star Wreck, a Finnish parody of Star Trek that is not only available online for free, but there are also subtitles in a ton of languages, and even an annotated script that explains exactly what the original expressions in Finnish mean. Here is the annotated official English translation (pdf), and the official site.
The movie also has subtitles in Swedish, German, Latin, Klingon, Bulgarian, and just about every other language. I notice that Estonian isn't there, perhaps due to their small population or that a lot of Estonians are able to get quite good at Finnish just by watching a lot of Finnish tv (a person I know from Tallinn became fluent in Finnish without even going there just by watching tv that came in from across the bay).
Here's a good example of how the annotated script looks, from about ten minutes into the movie:
| Original Finnish dialogue | English subtitles | More detailed and literal translation |
|---|---|---|
| Vulgaarien saapumisen piti muka olla ihmiskunnan uuden kukoistuksen alku. Ne suippokorvat saapu maapallolle melkein vahingossa ja päätyivät sitten roikkumaan rokkistara Jeff Cochbranen seuraan. Oli kyllä virhe jättää ne sen pirun juopon huostaan. Sen jälkeen vulgaarit ei enää pistäny tikkuakaan ristiin ihmiskunnan eteen. | The arrival of the Vulgars shoulda been a new beginning for humanity. When they happened along, they ended up with rock star Jeff Cochbrane. It was a mistake, leaving 'em in the care of that bastard drunkard. Soon, the Vulgars could care less about humanity or new beginnings. | The arrival of the Vulgars was supposed to be the beginning of a new era of prosperity for humanity. The pointy-eared freaks came to Earth almost by accident, and wound up hanging with the rock star Jeff Cochbrane. It was a mistake to leave them in the care of that bastard drunkard. After a while, the Vulgars couldn’t be bothered to lift a finger for humanity. |
| Onneks mulla oli kuitenkin varasuunnitelma tilanteen pelastamiseksi. Ja siinä Info ja Dwarf sai luvan auttaa. | Good thing I had a backup plan. But I couldn't do it without Dwarf and Info's help. | Luckily, I had a back-up plan to put things right. Info and Dwarf would help me. Pirk wouldn’t really admit he couldn’t do something. He’s simply telling Info and Dwarf to assist him. |
| INFO: Kapteeni, toivon että teillä on pätevä syy kutsua meidät koolle. Tämä tapaaminen voi vaurioittaa aikalinjaa entisestään. | I hope you have a good reason. We may be endangering the timeline. | Captain, I hope you have a good reason for calling us all here. This meeting alone may cause even more harm to the timeline. Info’s point here is that the timeline is already shaky, with their presence in the past. |
| PIRK: Itseasiassa on. Vilkaskaas tätä! | Yes, in fact I do. Take a look at this! (note: pulls out wrong magazine by mistake here) | |
| INFO: "Vaimot lesboilevat miestensä luvalla"? | "Lesbian housewives getting busy?" | The original mentions the housewives’ husbands sanctioning their Lesbian fun. |
| PIRK: Eikun siis tätä. | At this, I mean. | |
| INFO: Tämäpä yllättävä käänne. | What an unexpected development. | |
| DWARF: Koko kansainvälinen avaruushanke lakkautettu! | The entire space program cancelled! | |
| PIRK: Ei tainnut meidän historiankirjoissa ihan noin mennä. | Not like the history we know. | |
| INFO: Ei, juuri tänään olisi Kennedyn avaruuskeskuksen pitänyt ilmoittaa antimateriaalireaktorin läpimurrosta. | The antimaterial power breakthrough should have been announced today. | No. Today is the day when the Kennedy Space Centre should have publicised the antimaterial powerplant breakthrough. We are aware that the usual word is “antimatter”. This non-word is a running gag common to all SW films. |
| PIRK: Eli siksi meidän pitääkin tehdä itse jotain asian eteen. Me perustetaan oma P-liitto! | That's why we have to do something. We'll make the P-Fleet happen! | That second sentence is actually, “We’ll found a P-Fleet of our own!” |
| INFO: Ehdottamanne toiminta on ensimmäisen direktiivin vastaista. | Your proposal is in direct violation of the First Directive! | |
| PIRK: Mutta jos me ei tehdä sitä, aikalinja on joka tapauksessa romutettu! Miten muuten me saadaan ihmiskuntaan rauha, yhtenäinen kieli, pakkasenkestävät trikoounivormut, ja laivasto, jolla puolustautua Korgeja vastaan? | If we don't, the timeline's history! We'll have to have peace, universal language, tights for uniforms, - and a defense against the Korg! | But if we don’t do it, the timeline is busted anyway! Otherwise, how are we going to have peace on earth, a universal language, sub- zero-proof tights for uniforms, and a fleet to defend us from the Korg? |
| PIRK: Siispä P-liiton ainoana kapteenina mää määrään, että me varmistetaan P-liiton syntyminen, keinolla millä hyvänsä! | As the only Captain, I'm ordering - that we'll ensure the founding of the P-Fleet, by any means necessary! Pirk is referring to himself as the only existing Captain of the P- Fleet, naturally. | |
| INFO: Hmm, tulevaisuuden teknologia nykyisten ihmisten hallussa voisi johtaa katastrofiin. | Future technology in the hands of these people could spell disaster. | |
| PIRK: Siksi maailman tarvitseekin vahvan johtajan. Niinku vaikka... mut. Mää alan keisariks. | That's why the world needs a strong leader. Someone like... me! I'm gonna be Emperor. |
Where else can you find dialogue like this with full explanations of what the original Finnish meaning is? Nowhere, I'd guess.
Ah, that reminds me that there is another good place to learn Finnish online, it's called Selkouutiset, which is a news podcast in slowly spoken Finnish, much in the same way that Deutsche Welle has its Langsam Gesprochene Nachtrichten, news read in slow German for German learners. YLE says this about its Selkouutiset service:
An announcement for our international visitors: Finnish Broadcasting company proudly presents: Special Finnish news, a newscast for those who cannot quite follow fast-spoken broadcast news Finnish, now available as a podcast.
3 comments:
Learning Finnish from Star Wreck, good grief... (I'm a native speaker).
An additional problem with Finnish, apart from it being a small language and not related to the indoeuropean languages, is that there is quite a big difference between the 'proper' written form and colloquial use. The Wreck transcript is a prime example, e.g. the full written form of 'vilkaskaas' ('take a look', imperative) is 'vilkaiskaapa'. (Literally, 'vilkaista' is 'to peek', 'katsoa' is both 'to look' and 'to watch'.) Some of the Wreck characters deliberately speak formal 'written' Finnish for dramatic effect (e.g Info). In real life, you'd only hear language like that from an exceptionally stuck up professor, or someone playing an android, but schoolchildren are expected to write their essays in that language.
Learning to speak Finnish well enough to survive and even to work in Finland is probably not much more difficult than learning any other language, but learning to write grammatically correct Finnish and to distinguish between the formal and the common language takes some doing.
Yeah, that was my favourite part about Star Wreck, the different characters showing you exactly how certain people speak: Info with his 100% correct speech, Pirk who apparently gets his words messed up all the time, people from other parts of the country and also the Russian accents. I don't think there's another place online to find out how a typical Russian Finnish accent is supposed to sound like.
Estonians used to all say kakskend, nelikend for example instead of kakskümmend, nelikümmend but then tell me not to say it when I said it too. Heh.
Learning Finnish from Star Wreck, good grief... (I'm a native speaker).
An additional problem with Finnish, apart from it being a small language and not related to the indoeuropean languages, is that there is quite a big difference between the 'proper' written form and colloquial use. The Wreck transcript is a prime example, e.g. the full written form of 'vilkaskaas' ('take a look', imperative) is 'vilkaiskaapa'. (Literally, 'vilkaista' is 'to peek', 'katsoa' is both 'to look' and 'to watch'.) Some of the Wreck characters deliberately speak formal 'written' Finnish for dramatic effect (e.g Info). In real life, you'd only hear language like that from an exceptionally stuck up professor, or someone playing an android, but schoolchildren are expected to write their essays in that language.
Learning to speak Finnish well enough to survive and even to work in Finland is probably not much more difficult than learning any other language, but learning to write grammatically correct Finnish and to distinguish between the formal and the common language takes some doing.
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