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Title: Teach Yourself Finnish: Complete Course (Book & CD) by Terttu Leney ISBN: 0-07-141394-4 Publisher: Teach Yourself Pub. Date: September, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 2 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (9 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Not enough
Comment: Not an awful book, but it really shortchanges you on exercises and drills. One example is often deemed enough to explain a pattern and in Finnish that's really not true. For example: an early dialogue in the banking chapter gives you a canned phrase for `What is the exchange rate of the pound?' but they don't explain the construct and they don't illustrate how you would ask about the exchange rate of the dollar, franc, ruble, etc. You're left to guess about it, and you'll probably make a mistake somewhere when you guess because Finnish words have lots of little quirks when you put endings on them. It's a shame to get one canned phrase instead of a useful, reusable pattern, but that's how this book works.
Chapters are by topic, like banking, asking directions, travelling, having a sauna, and so on. This also leads to a neglect of pattern and structure, and you get quite a load of unexplained grammatical features from very early on in the book; the dialogues just don't do enough to illustrate the structures.
The exercises are very limited, often of the form `What does x mean' or 'Which of the following means x.' There are also little games like word finds which are of dubious usefulness.
There is a glossary at the back, but it is Finnish-English only.
On the plus side: you get a lot of dialogues; the speakers on the audio tapes are clear and free of annoying mannerisms. You will get lots of practice with basic niceties of conversation and the grammar explanations are easy to understand (just not illustrated enough.)
If you can find / afford it, go with FSI's Conversational Finnish instead; it's better organized and moves at a much more sensible pace. The FSI graded reader is nice for intermediate syntax and vocabulary, too.
Rating: 5
Summary: Better than taking a class in school!
Comment: Why bother with the drive, finding parking, walking all over the campus only to find the professor has cancelled classes for the day? This combination of tape and book have been so helpful as I practice learning a language rarely spoken outside the country of Finland. It is a beautiful language, straight-forward and fairly easy to comprehend. I'm certain by using this book and tapes I will better enjoy my upcoming visit to Finland.
Rating: 4
Summary: Nice, but could be a little better
Comment: I think that this book could possibly start at a little more elementary level. This was the first tool I used to learn Finnish until I took classes at a university with a major in Finnish Studies. It presents a lot of the rules of Finnish grammar and vocabulary, maybe too much in each chapter. Just take your time with studying. I think if you study about one chapter per week with a small review and then proceed, you should do well. Go at a faster pace if you feel you can. Finnish is a wonderful language once you learn how it fits together. A few good things is that you don't need to memorize genders(no masculine, feminine, neuter genders in Finnish) such as many other languages have. Also there are very few irregular verbs. So the rules are pretty straight forward once you understand them and that will take time and practice. I don't think Finnish is necessarily "hard", just different from the logic of English and its related languages. For a beginner, I think "Finnish For Foreigners" is better since lessons are divided into small units each with a new topic instead of many topics grouped into a few chapters. Another text/cassette pack is "Mastering Finnish", by Borje Vahamaki. Finnish for Foreigners is rather expensive and harder to come by. If you can't purchase it, try out Teach Yourself or Mastering Finnish. Audio cassettes are also a great help in memorization and correct pronunciation. You can get these courses I mentioned with cassettes if you want to. Best wishes with your language study.
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Title: Say It in Finnish by Dover ISBN: 0486245918 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 March, 1984 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: Finnish: An Essential Grammar (Routledge Grammars) by Fred Karlsson ISBN: 0415207053 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Culture Shock! Finland: A Guide to Customs and Etiquette by Deborah Swallow ISBN: 1558685928 Publisher: Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co. Pub. Date: July, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Berlitz Finnish-English Dictionary/Englanti-Suomi Sanakirja by Berlitz Publishing ISBN: 2831563097 Publisher: Berlitz Travel Guide Pub. Date: August, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Finnish Phrase Book & Dictionary (Berlitz Phrase Books) by Berlitz Editorial Staff ISBN: 2831577349 Publisher: Berlitz Travel Guide Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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