Heya everyone! And here I am again with my new teaching experience and updated knowledge of Finnish language.
I want to take an opportunity to publicly announce that my partner Sebatjan is an absolute genius. During our previous lecture I explained him 3 specific rules of Russian pronunciation which are:
– The Akanie and Ikania Rules;
– Devoicing at the End of Words;
– Adjusting the Voicing of Consonant Clusters.
After several minutes of questioning, Sebastjan instantly got the rule and started applying it in the next pronunciation exercises. I learnt that in Finnish language, you have to lay stress on the first syllable. Unfortunately, this simple rule does not work with Russian. It’s more like a tangled rule understanding of which requires minimum Russian origin. (I’m saying that coz even native non-educated speakers have some difficulties in proper pronunciation). After all we did some interesting tasks to complete the word, find a right letter and read once again what we just learnt.
We still have some troubles with the letter/sound “Ы” which Sebastjan, I believe, truly hates. Each language includes some untypical sounds. I perster myself with questions of how to explain my student where to allocate his tongue and how to twist is properly in order to produce such a weird sound ЫЫЫ!!! Anyway, he doesn’t give up and his эюящчывнпрг is getting much much better. I’m proud of my student, and as a reward we took some refreshing walk to TAMKO to grab some coffee…
Alright, now the scary part is coming. My fear of Finnish language and its unexplored rules is growing from lecture to lecture. More you learn, less you know. After a relatively simple exam, Sebastjan explained me the rule of possessive suffixes and possessive pronouns. I10-11 groups of words have its specific way of formulating the ending. Minun, sinun, hänen, meidän, teidän, heidän and its beloved “friends” -ni, -si, -nsa, -mme, -nne and -nsa seemed to be pretty easy to remember. Until the moment when I saw this:
Apparently, each of the cases has its own way to form the ending. My relief about +1 rule dissappeared after I realized that I slightly underestimated all possible obstacles of Finnish grammar rules. After that, Sebastjan made me work even harder. It felt that my brains actually made some sounds. My teacher brought me an audio which I was supposed to listen and write down. It took me ages but it was a very useful exercise for listening comprehension. There’s always a space to grow…
I’ve got some home work. So… I’m moving from the virtual reality to the world of Possessive Suffixs, Cases and Type of verbs.
See you soon! Yuliya.
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