I remember the first time I visited a Spanish-speaking country. I was ten years old and on a trip to the Canary Islands with my grandmother. To a little Finnish girl, Tenerife seemed like paradise. Later I would go on to live in mainland Spain with my family for years. Even though I went to a Finnish school and most of my friends were Finns, the highlights of my day were always meeting local people and having conversations with them.…
We have added three new courses to the Comprehensive German course package. The course Everyday Phrases was requested by users, and now it’s here to help you learn common phrases used in German conversation: genau (that’s right), keine Ahnung (no idea) and many more. You will also learn to express your opinion and wish someone a good time, sweet dreams or a nice trip. On the new Home and Living course, you will learn to talk about things related to cleaning, childcare and other domestic matters. The Health and Wellbeing course contains…
It’s easy to stay inside your comfort zone. It’s warm, safe and cozy in there. But if you never step out of that zone, you’ll never know about all the cool things waiting outside. Language learning might not be in your comfort zone – but if you like to travel and would like to get the most out of your time abroad, I would definitely recommend it. I’ve also been to countries where I don’t speak or even understand the…
We know you’re busy. Whether it’s work, childcare, hobbies or all three, something always seems to be more important than studying languages. There are dirty dishes and laundry, the car needs to be washed, you have a dentist appointment… or a pile of books on the nightstand, waiting to be read. How could you ever find the time to learn a language? We put together a few tips for finding time to learn languages even when your schedule is packed…
When talking about the most efficient way to learn a new language, there is one word that always pops up: immersion. You may have seen this in studies, articles and discussions related to language learning and the best way of learning languages. But what does it actually mean? As a teaching method, immersion means that the instruction is given in a foreign language. Meanwhile, in the context of gaming, immersion means strong psychological connection to the game world, a kind…
The stand-up comedian Ismo Leikola thinks the most important word in Finnish is ”no niin”. Depending on your intonation, it can mean anything from ”exactly” to ”dinner is served” – you could almost hold a conversation saying nothing but ”no niin”. Well, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration – but Ismo is right about one thing, and that’s the importance of small filler words in conversation and language learning. Have you ever paid attention to how many extra little…
