Early on Saturday morning, the three of us – Laura and Christoph from Germany, and me, Lenka from the Czech Republic – set off in a campervan towards Helvetinjärvi National Park. The plan was simple: to enjoy Finnish nature, spend a day hiking, and at the same time teach and learn each other’s languages.
As soon as we started our trail, we mixed hiking with teaching. We pointed at trees, mushrooms, and lakes, trying to remember how to say them in the other language. Christoph and Laura taught me Baum and Pilz, while I explained that in Czech, those are strom and houba. It was also nice to see some similarities: in German, a toadstool is called Fliegenpilz, where fliegen means “to fly,” and in Czech it is called muchomůrka, where mucha means “a fly.”
It was fun to see how different the sounds were – especially when they tried to pronounce the famous Czech “ř”. The hiking rhythm somehow helped, and we laughed a lot each time they managed to get close to the correct sound.
Along the way, I also taught them a few pronunciation rules. I explained that when there’s an accent mark above a letter, it means the sound is long – for example á, é, í, ó, ú. They were fascinated by how the Czech alphabet works and how different it is from German.
The hike was longer than expected – around 18 km with some “adventurous” shortcuts, balancing on fallen tree trunks and climbing down steep rocks. But every challenge brought more conversation and laughter. By the time we reached our camper, we were tired, hungry, but in great spirits.
We celebrated with a well-deserved beer and practiced our pronunciation once again – Na zdraví! Afterwards, we headed to the nearby lake. The water looked calm and peaceful, but it was icy cold, probably around 10°C. Still, we couldn’t resist. One after another, we jumped in, screaming as the freezing water woke us up instantly.
In the evening we grilled vegetables and cheese while watching the sunset. The smell of the food mixed with the sound of the forest – it felt like the perfect Finnish moment. Later, some friendly Finns joined us by the fire, bringing along an adorable dog. We talked for hours about life, culture, and the little things that make Finland unique.
By the time we crawled into our sleeping bags, tired and happy, I realized how much we had learned that day – not only new words, but also about each other and the country we were in. It was our first big trip together, and it felt like the best possible start to our project: full of nature, friendship, and learning by doing.
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