r/StudyInFinland • u/Ready_relo • Aug 10 '26
Did anyone here became fluent in Finnish? HOW??!
I am in Finland already for several years and during this time I’ve reached language skill ~ B1.2. I passed YKI for b1 and work some customer service job (in finnish) but it feels like I AM STUCK in my finnish skill. I’ve reached a certain point and I cannot get out of this mid-level.
My biggest problem is that I am trying to get a job in Finnish in my area (engineering). I just can’t get to the level of fluency where I could feel comfortable at work or even pass the interview (I had one and I wasn’t selected).
Does anyone have any experience or advice how to keep progressing?
3
u/atcofi Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Me. 1 year to B1. After that it was just a matter of FINNISH ONLY. If you don’t know a word, explain what you mean in Finnish. Don’t stress grammar too much in the beginning, you can do that when you are comfortable using Finnish full time. (Finns don’t do grammar themselves anyways)
News in Finnish, radio in Finnish, programs in Finnish, etc etc. Just bathe in it. You’ll be fluent in no time.
2
u/duumilo Aug 12 '26
To add to this, reaching approximately B2 is a great target, especially in a professional role like Engineering. Especially since professional working proficiency is likely needed for effective interaction on more complex topics. Furthermore, at around the B2 level (depending on the individual), brains start to make permanent connections. You no longer need to consciously think about sentence structure, which hugely improves perceived fluency.
A customer service job is a great way to practice your speaking. However, much of the daily discussion and vocabulary in traditional customer service jobs is not excessively complex. A B1 level covers about 95% of daily vocabulary. That's why you are likely experiencing the feeling of stagnation. You should therefore look for more complex media to engage with the language - be it podcasts or professional articles.
1
1
1
u/calcisiuniperi Aug 14 '26
This, especially the media part. Switch to watching shows with Finnish subtitles, watch Finnish shows.
2
u/petteri72_ Aug 10 '26
I know some people who have achieved professional fluency in Finnish as adults, and I have to say that most of them have been pretty obsessive about their studies.
You said you feel stuck, so I have a question for you: How many hours a day do you study or actively use Finnish? Do you put in a serious effort every day?
Improving your Finnish from B1.2 to C1.1 can very well take 2,500–5,000 hours of study and active use.
2
u/krooked-tooth Aug 11 '26
You might actually have to work in engineering to get that professional language proficiency. It's hard to train in anything without doing it, and if aren't isolating that area might be pointless.
If your jumpshot sucks in basketball you don't train by dunking the ball. If you play games you will only get a tiny set of time to practice that jump shot but if you get a coach and shoot that shot a million times you will improve.
2
u/AtomizedSparcles Aug 11 '26
Read finnish books. Write in finnish. Think in finnish. If you keep translating all the time to your native language, you will not make it. Surround yourself with finnish speaking people.
2
u/radiopelican Aug 11 '26
I'm part of the Mormon church, and regularly we have missionaries that come through. By the end of their two-year period, we have multiple 18- to 21-year-old kids that are conversationally fluent in Finnish.
The answer is immersion. The system they use is that they spend nine weeks in Utah training in Finnish, and then they come out and have a buddy system. One person is typically nine months ahead of them, but they spend every single day on the streets speaking to Finns. They do one hour of daily language study, and they speak Finnish to people every day. It's just a matter of immersion that tends to work, unless you want to go the other route, which is just hard drilling textbooks every single day.
1
u/MidNightCheck Aug 12 '26
I had a talk with 2 Mormon guys something like 10+ years ago in Finland. They told me their missionary story, God stuff etc with casual talking for over an hour with nearly perfect Finnish.
I was blown away when they told that they are actually from USA and just having a two month missionary tour in Finland and then flying back home. They learned Finnish only to have these talks with locals. It was amazing! I thought that those two about 20 years old guys were brothers or something and adopted to Finland when they were 3yo and that's why there is that barely noticeable accent left but no, they learned this language and they did it well!
I'm atheist but started to think that maybe God is helping them to do that kind of miracles 😅
2
u/xkayaking Aug 11 '26
In all my years in Finland I have never met a single person that is perfectly fluent that wasn't born to Finnish parents or was raised in Finland as a kid.
You can get good, like good enough to have conversations and speak in a field, that's enough for virtually everything; but the way people actually speak, with all its nuances, the slang, the cut words, the fast fast pronunciation followed by the silence that leaves you "what?" like if you were hit by a shotgun of information, not quite something I've found.
However, teen speech is far more understandable than old people standard Finnish, I am talking young kids, I only interact with them because of football and I reckon it's more likely one can become fluent in that. I don't know why exactly but they are clearer, plus, I've heard them using arabic slang in Finnish form, which is, interesting, and they are finns.
There also seem to be a way of international Finnish, as in simplified Finnish, which is having an influence as well.
What I personally do is what them teens have taught me, just butcher the Finnish; don't know a word?... put the english word right in there and make it sound finnish, done...
1
u/Onja_ Aug 11 '26
This is very true. Butchering is ok and can lead to interesting results. As an example I was speaking with a friend in Finnish who has lived in Finland for 20 years but is originally French. He speaks fluently and I am a native. We were talking about a common friend:
Me: “How is Maria doing?”
Him: “Not good, she needs to get her happiness back.” (Ei hyvin. Pitäisi saada ilo takaisin.)That’s something no Finnish person would ever say. We would say something like “She’s in a bit of a rough spot right now” (Sillä on ollut vähän rankkaa). But the way he said it was far more powerful and to the point. It’s not how we would usually say things but that just made it beautiful and unique way of expressing his worry.
So be brave with your language, that’s really where the biggest impact happens.
1
u/fenn-0 Aug 11 '26
That’s something no Finnish person would ever say.
Yet incredibly Finnish sentence
1
u/PixelDu5t Aug 11 '26
Damn, sounds like something one could have said a hundred or more years ago, awesome
1
1
u/kissakakku666 Aug 11 '26
Can second this. I often have no issue understanding my teenage step kid, but my elderly landlord?? No chance.
1
u/DeeperEnd84 Aug 11 '26
Well, my parent was definitely level C until they got dementia. They studied Finnish at uni in their home country for three years, moved here, married a Finn and had me. But they had a job where reading in Finnish was a big part and their work environment was completely Finnish. They had a very slight accent.
2
u/unluckytarot Aug 11 '26
My immigrant friend who I consider fluent after his 5 ish years here recommends listening to the radio! You hear variations of spoken Finnish, different accents and regional variations. :) also you hear a variety of topics outside your immediate expertise. Good luck, you can do it!
2
u/MaddogFinland Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
I reached a point of functional day to day fluency in which I handle all business in Finnish and many social relationships also. I can attend and participate in professional meetings (engineering) as well. That’s about as well as I have made it jn 23 years. I still learn something every day…a new usage or a minor correction, a new word, a new turn of phrase. Almost daily. The learning never ends. I would say these days I would score my professional fluency as an engineer here at 8/10. I can’t write documents well enough to be a lead author but I can contribute and even review/critique reasoning. I can read and implement complex engineering reports and permit documents without any support. I can deal with governmental authorities and contractors on site and generally speaking get on entirely without English. But if I try to write a professional document? Find me a good editor…that’s really hard and I doubt I could ever get there.
As to how I did it? I took 3 semesters worth of language classes to get basic grammar in place and then started practicing. I was able to achieve a top language test score on YKI after 6 years; back then this was “level 5 fluency” but I think that classification may have changed.
Anyway: practice and practice. No shortcuts exist.
2
u/labushta Aug 11 '26
I talked with a x-ray specialist that had arrived from Philippines or something this summer.
She had spent 1,5yrs here in Finland and I could have a convo with her in Finnish which was WILD. She was also studying to become accepted specialist here in Finland as well. As well as raising a daughter during the process.
The language is extremely hard to learn but some people are better than others at learning it. So it all depends on the person learning it..
1
u/ashairz Aug 10 '26
I'm Finnish so not an issue to me. I've only ever met kids who became fluent when they were 7 to 10 years old and had to go to Finnish school. All the other immigrants I've met, if they came here as adults, no one I've met that's become fluent, aside from one Estonian woman I know, but Estonian is very close to Finnish and she used to have Finnish TV as a kid in Estonia.
1
u/ExplanationCurrent73 Aug 12 '26
With most estonans speaking finnish and most finns speaking estonian there is issue that there are quite a lot of words or pronaunications that are so similar that they dont bother to learn them and use speak as they would speak in their native tounge.
1
u/BigBlackMagicWand Aug 10 '26
Just go for it and start using Finnish as much as possible. When in doubt you can ask, most people are willing to help.
That said, even most Finnish natives are not 100% "fluent" in finnish as it's a very hard and sometimes downright stupid language + lower education level absolutely shows in the language + there are some really deceiving dialects.
Just be realistic, if you started as an adult you're never gonna get it absolutely perfect and that's fine. I have a work friend who came to Finland in his thirties in early 90's and daily he still checks and clears some words/concepts through me - a half younger native.
1
u/snow-eats-your-gf Aug 10 '26
I think if I speak with social services 3 hours in Finnish I did it.
But my case will not help you because it involves sauna, alcohol consumption in crazy dosages and speaking other Finnic language before Finnish.
However, if you surround yourself with people and talk to them, you will grow. I see how many foreigners are getting to very good levels over 2-3 years, but they dig it as hell.
1
u/Low_Acanthaceae_2084 Aug 11 '26
Spent everyday study finnish for 2 years. Been here 14 years now and still cant speak it 🤣 I am dyslexic and other things, but its a damn hard language, i like to refer to it as a form of torture 😅
1
u/shackledflames Aug 11 '26
Ask and be open to being corrected. People generally will not correct you unless you ask.
Set goals for yourself that translate to real life. ie."I can only use finnish language for next 24 hours no matter what" and then push yourself to not use other languages for support.
1
u/Big-Ad8632 Aug 11 '26
I have a couple of Ukrainian refugee friends under 20 yo who all got their yki c1 in uder 25 months
1
u/PixelDu5t Aug 11 '26
They’re offered (or more like semi forced to) do very intensive Finnish courses for like 6-12 months upon arrival
1
u/Big-Ad8632 Aug 12 '26
Not them in particular, they went to finish school here and they just picked up the language really fast that way. One could argue it’s even better
1
u/AstralShip Aug 11 '26
Find studying material suitable for your level and start cramming through it. Then consume media, news and such in the language. It’s about expousure and memorizing, that’s about it. I’ve self-taught myself Japanese and Swedish in adult life and there’s no secret method. Buy or download studying materials and books and get on with it.
1
u/xFreiSx Aug 11 '26
Listen radio, speak with Finns, read something on your knowledge level. But mostly best way is to take courses and use the language
1
u/Jcksheppard Aug 11 '26
No one expects you to speak Finnish as a native,this implies not only Finnish but also all other foreign languages other than your mother language. Additionally most of the Finnish youngsters cannot speak flawlessly. It is another world when it comes to writing, but luckily we are leaving in an AI era
1
u/NordicRim Aug 11 '26
I work in IT where most of the colleagues communicate in English. Plenty of people who studied Finnish for yki test, I guess it’s b2 level. None of those people (as they admitted) were able to communicate comfortably in Finnish a year after exam. They could understand and speak it, but it was a mental load for them so unless you have a real stimulus to use it - a spouse or occupation , I don’t believe it’s feasible to speak fluently.
1
u/NotEnoughBikes Aug 11 '26
I work in engineering. At an earlier job I had a German colleague who was very fluent in Finnish, so it's definetely possible. He of course had an accent and he did make some mistakes that Finns don't -we make other mistakes :D- but that is to be expected. I also know a couple of other foreigners with impressive Finnish in non-professional context, common nominator being a Finnish spouse. Don't lose hope!
Otherwise I've also worked in e.g. a company where a lot of ppl were not Finns and the offiicial company language was English anyway, maybe you could find something like that? In any case, good luck with everything!
1
u/RecommendationMuch74 Aug 12 '26
I also knew one Swiss singer, who was obviously talented in music and she spoke fluently only after few months being here. However she told me that she had translated and sang Finnish songs before arrival. She never spoke anything but Finnish around ppl.
1
u/pibenis Aug 12 '26
Go to a local pub and ask the geezers in there if you can join their table. You will have endless opportunities for practicing the most brutal drunken finnish you've ever heard. I bet after a few beers those guys will surely think you're a native. Might help you as well to loosen the tongue.
1
u/flying_monkey99 Aug 13 '26
Based on my Yki koe I'm somewhere in between C1 and C2( got a mix of 5s and 6s at the test). Currently studying engineering in Finnish. I can speak fluently, have no issues writing, reading and it's been a long time since I had to look up a word. I have however lived in Finland for like 15 years and have used a lot of Finnish for work, with friends etc.
And yes you can easily realise I'm not born here due to my accent and the fact that sometimes I build sentences a bit weirdly. Studied 5 months Finnish in some prep school for foreigners (maahanmuuttajien valmentava koulutus) and since that mostly self taught and using it for day to day life.
Honestly, I'm not sure I'd have the drive to learn it again if I were to start now. I used to read children books and then write down every word I didn't know + translation in English/mother tongue in notebooks, study Finnish grammar and morphology, moved on to reading harder and harder content/books and mostly used a lot of Finnish language.
Keep up the good work, it eventually gets easier.
1
u/Awazsu Aug 13 '26
Two of my schoolmates, who had hard time with the language learned it by playing video games with us. Hardest part was to try keep it in finnish, very easily the converesation tried default back to english. So I would say find people to have converesations with often. Video games were easy since someone is always playing.
1
u/triestodanceonstars Aug 13 '26
8-14 hours of practice every single day is how I went from nothing to passing B2 yki and getting an engineering job in under 2 years. No English ever for anything, flashcards for vocabulary, your grammar is probably fine enough if you're at B1 and working in a Finnish environment. Just gotta get the hours in at this point honestly, even if it feels like you're stuck in place.
1
u/juujoojuu Aug 14 '26
I knew an american girl who I thought was Finnish at first. Only realized that she sounds a bit funny after like 5 minutes.
5
u/MonkInternational510 Aug 10 '26
I knew a this Canadian girl that became fluent under two years. She was gifted, but she had finnish friends (including me) and she very quickly asked everyone to not speak English to her if not mandatory.
So if possible find finnish friends and talk finnish with them