This time, Rajdeep and I visited a local market in Tampere. The goal was to practise real-life conversations, especially related to buying food and interacting with sellers. Rajdeep played the role of the seller in Spanish, and I practised phrases like “¿Cuánto cuesta?” or “Quisiera medio kilo, por favor.” In Finnish, I learned phrases like “Paljonko tämä maksaa?” and “Haluaisin yhden omenan.”
This session felt very close to real situations. I noticed that my confidence in using short Finnish sentences improved significantly. I no longer froze when approaching someone, even if I made mistakes. Rajdeep also improved his Spanish listening, as he had to understand me and respond like a real seller.
One new thing I learned was how different the politeness levels are in both languages. Finnish expressions are more direct, while Spanish tends to use polite phrases and softeners.
The main challenge was speed. Sellers spoke quite fast, and I often didn’t catch everything. We followed the plan, but we added more improvisation than expected, which actually made the practice more authentic and useful.
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