Learn how to talk about your ethnicity using the verb meaning "to be"
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| Series Introduction |
| Tiina: Hi everyone, A here, and welcome back to Basic Bootcamp Lesson 2: Talking Nationality in Finnish. This is the second in a five-part series that will help you ease your way into Finnish. |
| Reeta: Hei, minä olen B. I’m B! |
| Lesson Details |
| Reeta: In this lesson, you will learn how to introduce yourself and tell people where you are from. |
| Tiina: Which is essential while traveling to Finland, because that will be the first question people will probably want to ask you. |
| Reeta: Whether you’re in a language class, in a new country, or in your own city, in our small world, you can always find someone from somewhere else. |
| Tiina: And in this bootcamp, we’ll be talking about ethnicity. |
| Reeta: We’ll also go over one of the easy building blocks of learning Finnish: word order. |
| Tiina: So have a listen to these Finnish students talk about where they are from. And while you’re listening, try to guess their ethnicities. |
| Reeta: And I’ll give you a hint. The first part of the words for nationalities are transliterations. |
| Tiina: So, if you do some mental gymnastics, you might be able to guess the nationality. |
| Reeta: Hei. minun nimeni on Mikko. Olen suomalainen. |
| Tiina: Hei, minun nimeni on Mari. Olen brittiläinen. |
| Reeta: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Tiina: Nyt kuunnellaan sama hitaasti. |
| Reeta: Hei. minun nimeni on Mikko. Olen suomalainen. |
| Tiina: Hei, minun nimeni on Mari. Olen brittiläinen. |
| Reeta: And now with the translation. |
| Tiina: Ja nyt käännös! |
| Tiina: Hei. minun nimeni on Mikko. Olen suomalainen. |
| Tiina: Hello. My name is A. I’m Finn. |
| Reeta: Hei, minun nimeni on Mari. Olen brittiläinen. |
| Reeta: Hello, I'm B. I'm British. |
| Reeta: One of the most fun things about Finnish is that it is used all over the world! |
| Banter - Same as the cultural insight (12 lines) |
| Tiina: Finland is maybe more famous as Finns like to think. |
| Reeta: Of course, Finland is a popular vacation desTiination. |
| Tiina: While people interested in Nordic countries and Finland will want to study one of the most particular languages in the world. |
| Reeta: Right, Finnish is spoken only by less than 6 million people. Since then Finnish has been influenced by German and Swedish languages there might be some vocabulary you can figure out if you know some of those two languages. |
| Tiina: Of course, and nothing beats being able to order delicious food using only Finnish. |
| Reeta: Or going hiking and being able to interact with the people you meet on your way. |
| Tiina: It’s a truly wonderful experience and worth all the hours of study. |
| Reeta: The fact that it is becoming more and more of an international desTiination makes it even more exciting to learn. |
| Tiina: Yes, I kind of what to start all over again! |
| Tiina: Okay, now, let’s take a look at the words we used in these phrases so all our learners will be able to share where they are from. |
| Vocabulary: Take these words from the Vocabulary table in the write up. |
| Reeta: The first word we shall see is: |
| Tiina: suomalainen |
| Reeta:Finnish. |
| Tiina:suomalainen(slowly) |
| Tiina: suomalainen |
| Reeta: The next word is. |
| Tiina: Minä olen |
| Reeta: “I am”, |
| Tiina: Minä olen (slowly) |
| Tiina: Minä olen |
| Reeta: Next we have. |
| Tiina: brittiläinen |
| Reeta: British |
| Tiina: brittiläinen (slowly) |
| Tiina: brittiläinen |
| Reeta: And then we have. |
| Tiina: minun |
| Reeta: My |
| Tiina: minun(slowly) |
| Reeta: minun |
| Reeta: And finally we have. |
| Tiina: nimi |
| Reeta: name |
| Tiina: nimi (slowly) |
| Reeta: nimi |
| Vocabulary Usage (25-26 lines) |
| Reeta: Cool, we already learned the greeting Hei in Boot Camp One. |
| Tiina: And the Minun nimeni on Mikko. |
| Reeta: Right, “My name is….” minun nimeni on. |
| Tiina: Now before you say your nationality, you need one phrase. It is extremely important and you will use it all the time. |
| Reeta: Minä olen |
| Tiina: That’s right. The phrase means “I am” in English. It is pretty straight forward. Let’s hear it one time, slowly. |
| Reeta: Minä olen |
| TIINA: And one more time fast? |
| Reeta: Minä olen |
| Tiina: So in the dialogue, we heard the speaker say Minä olen and then the word |
| Reeta: suomalainen |
| Tiina: Which would translate as “I am Finnish.” |
| Reeta: That’s right. |
| Tiina: So altogether that’s |
| Reeta: Minä olen suomalainen. |
| Tiina: Listeners, listen and repeate |
| Reeta: Minä olen suomalainen. |
| Tiina: So what was the other nationality we heard in the dialogue? |
| Reeta: Brittiläinen |
| Tiina: Hmm. that sounds a lot like British |
| Reeta: That’s right, A. It comes directly from the English word for … “British”! |
| Tiina: That should be easy to remember! Listeners, listen and repeat the phrase. |
| Reeta: Minä olen brittiläinen |
| Tiina: Notice the Minä olen didn’t change. Just the word for a British person. In this case, brittiläinen. |
| Reeta: Sounds easy, but let’s move on to the Grammar section |
| Tiina: Good idea! |
| Grammar Section |
| Tiina: Ok, the focus of this lesson is Nationality in Finnish. |
| Reeta: That’s right. We’ve learned how to say “I am Finnish” or “I am British”. |
| Tiina: Right, the main phrase here is “minä olen”. |
| Reeta: Minä olen, is a phrase you will use more often than you’ll be able to count. |
| Tiina: The easy thing about Fininsh is that it is a very straight forward language and there are few times when you have to change a basic phrase or word to make it intelligible to Finns. |
| Reeta: Minä olen, can be used in any situation you would be used to say “I am” in English. |
| Tiina: I am from Italy. |
| Reeta: Minä olen Italiasta. |
| Tiina: You can also use it for phrases like “I am tired.” |
| Reeta: Minä olen väsynyt. |
| Tiina: But let’s concentrate on Nationalities now. |
| Reeta: While the name of each country in the world has its own spelling in Finnish, the difference from English is not that large. |
| Tiina: So, let’s take this word and boot camp it up a little…what do you say? |
| Reeta: I’m not sure what "boot camp it up" really means, but I guess we’re going to find out. |
| Tiina: We’re going to list a number of nationalities. |
| Listeners, try to follow along and catch the nationality before we say the English name. |
| Tiina: Okay, let’s start. |
| Reeta: suomalainen. |
| Tiina:Finnish. |
| Reeta: amerikkalainen. |
| Tiina: American. |
| Reeta: brittiläinen. |
| Tiina: British. |
| Reeta: japanilainen |
| Tiina: Japanese. |
| Reeta: kiinalainen |
| Tiina: Chinese. |
| Reeta: ranskalainen |
| Tiina: French |
| Reeta: italialainen |
| Tiina: Italian. |
| Reeta: espanjalainen. |
| Tiina: Spanish. |
| Tiina: Listeners, did you catch all of them? |
| Reeta: If you didn’t then just jump back and go over them again til you get it. |
| Tiina: Yes, and when using them, remember “I am.” |
| Reeta: Minä olen |
| Tiina: Okay, let’s recap. Listeners, how do you say, “I’m Finnish”? |
| Reeta: {Pause} Minä olen suomalainen |
| Tiina: And what about if you’re a British? |
| Reeta: (Pause) Minä olen brittiläinen. |
| Tiina: Great. Now, listeners, try to make some simple sentences with your own nationality. |
| Tiina: Have some fun! |
| Reeta: You’ll find more of them in the lesson notes that accompany this lesson. |
| Tiina: So, we hope everybody isn’t too tired after this boot camp! |
| Reeta: Yeah! I think we’re pretty nice boot camp instructors. We don’t like, yell at the listeners or anything like the boot camps I’ve seen. |
| Tiina: So keep practicing and you’ll have these down pat in no time. |
| Tiina: That’s it for this lesson. |
| Reeta: Thanks for listening. Bye (in Finnish) |
| Tiina: See you! |
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