For those keen on learning Finnish, here's a selection of websites and resource that just might be helpful. There are many different styles here, so maybe one will suit you more than the others. Take a look!
Downloadable material
- Conversational Finnish by the FSI - FSI is an acronym for the Foreign Service Institute, "the (US) Federal Government's primary training institution for officers and support personnel of the U.S. foreign affairs community". Over the years, the FSI has researched, designed and taught language courses to Foreign Service staff and diplomats. These courses are now available and licensed to the Public Domain.
- The alternate site has also the links to the download of FSI Finnish Textbook and Workbook and the FSI Finnish Graded Reader textbook
- A project to convert the FSI textbooks from PDFs to HTML
Online courses, books and exercises
- Introduction to Finnish - Information and some lessons on Finnish language. Basic level
- Suomen kieli käyttöön - Wikibooks - This is the English version of the Finnish Book Suomen Kieli käytöön (Finnish Language in Use).
- Ymmärrä Suomea - Online course, a bit more advanced (also completely in Finnish)
- Oneness City, Finland - ONENESS CITY
- Venla - Finnish for foreigners - Free on-line language teaching
- YLE | :: Opinportti :: Supisuomea - Finnish course by YLE
- Suomi 1 at the Helsinki University - Page with references on grammar and Finnish language exercises. Basic level.
- Finnish exercises- Exercises for Finnish language
- UniLang Community :: Exercise Centre - Finnish exercises: partitiivi
- English-Finnish Vocabulary Quizzes - Exercises on Finnish language vocabulary
- Uusi kielemme - Finnish for Busy People - Very good website on learning Finnish. With a lot of useful notes on grammar and vocabulary. Also private lessons.
- Tavataan taas! - Finnish Language course by the Language Center at Helsinki university
- http://www.ddg.com/LIS/InfoDesignF97/paivir/finnish/sitemap.html - Introduction to the language can be found here
- http://donnerwetter.kielikeskus.helsinki.fi/FinnishForForeigners/parts-index.htm - an extensive course!
- http://www.uuno.tamk.fi/ - Situational dialogues with voices
- http://www.finnishschool.com/ - Do a little every day
List of links
- Infopankki - Finnish Language - Links about Finnish language from Infopankki
- Finnish Language and Cultural Links - A collection of Finnish language-related links
- Suomea at Finndex - Website with resources about Finnish language, learning Finnish, review of books and online tools
- Aineistoa suomen kielestä - One more list of links about Finnish language. It is totally in Finnish, so probably best suited for advanced learners
- http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/Finnish.html - With lots of links
Reference
- FINTWOL: suomen morfologinen jäsennin - Very useful tool: you enter a word in Finnish, the website tells you the basic (dictionary) form of the word and how it was inflected
- Voikko - Free linguistic software for Finnish - Voikko is a spelling and grammar checker, hyphenator and collection of related linguistic data for Finnish language. This is Open Source software.
- Joukahainen: aloitus - Joukahainen is a www-based Finnish language vocabulary database. Based on free technology, especially Voikko.
- Verbix - conjugate verbs - Conjugate Finnish verbs online! Also with references to verb groups
Media
- PodcastDirectory - Finnish Podcasts | Suomi Podcasts Directory - Directory of podcasts in Finnish
- Etusivu | Yle Areena | Yle.fi - Watch and listen to YLE's programs online
Community
- UniLang Forum – Finnish - Unilang's forum on Finnish language
- Finnish - UniLang Wiki - Wikibook on Finnish language. UniLang is a community of language lovers from all over the world in an online language community. Free resources, created by and for the members.
About Finnish language
- The Finnish language - Virtual Finland - Factsheet about Finnish language by Virtual Finland
Some useful words and expressions
Traffic (liikenne)
- Rautatieasema: railway station
- matkalippu: ticket, a lippu is a ticket, matkalippu is for traveling
- asema: station
- pysäkki: usually used for bus station
- linja-auto: bus, like bussi.
- Vaara / Hengen vaara: Danger, warning
- Maalattu: Paint!
In school
- Phuksi or fuksi: freshman
- Vaihtari: exchange students
- juhla: celebration
- kilpailu: competition
- kännissä or känissä, humalainen: The slang for "drunk".
In shops
- ale: discount, sale
- asiakaspalvelu: customer service. asiakas is customer and palvelu is service
- ilman: without.
- luomu: Organic (read: expensive?)
- hullut päivät: crazy days in Stockmann...madness indeed!
Food
- mämmi: the traditional Easter food. Looks like it's been eaten once already...
- Ruisleipä: the Finnish rye bread...very good for you
- salmiakki: the Finnish black candy. Like liquorice, but stronger. Also comes as an alcohol spirit
- kevyt: light, food with less fat - and less taste!
- pulla: the Finnish coffee bread??
Job hunting (rekry, ura, työpaikat)
- avoimet paikat: open positions
- työsuhteen muoto: Job type, indicates to the following:
- vakituinen: permanent
- kesätyö: summer job
- tilapäinen: occasional, means they call you when they need you
- osa-aikatyö: partime job, also osa-aikainen (adj.)
- kokopäivätyö: full time job
- aamupäivä: morning
- iltapäivä: afternoon and evening
