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! |
Comments
HideEveryone, practice saying where you're from in Finnish!
Hei! (Hi!) Samar,
Mukava kuulla sinusta! (Nice to hear from you!)
Hienoa, että jaoit kanssamme, että olet palestiinalainen. (Great that you shared with us that you are Palestinian.)
If you have any questions about Finnish language or culture, feel free to ask!
Have a great day!
Kiitos (Thank you),
Team FinnishPod101.com
Olen Palestiinilainen
Hello Tiffany,
Thank you for your sentence! It is correct! Good work, Tiffany! 👍 Hauska tutustua!
Let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hei, olen ameriikkalainen.
Hello Noushin Madani,
Thank you for your comment! Yes, Nationality = kansallisuus or kansalaisuus. Two words mean the same thing. 👍
Let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Nationality = kansallisuus
Hei Sigrid,
Kiitos esittelystäsi! It is correct.👍 Well done, Sigrid! Hauska tutustua!
Let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hei, minun nimeni on Sigrid. Olen alaskalainen. Hauska tutustua!
Hei Karla,
kiitos esittelystäsi ja hauska tutustua! 😄
The difference is what kind of last vowel is. In this case, it is -ä (Venäjä) so the ending is -läinen. In Finnish language vowel harmony rules plays a major role when it comes to endings. So, please ask for more info about this from your teacher. We offer private mentoring service with our premium plus subscription. Hope this helps a bit though. 😄
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hei, minum nimeni on Karla, minä olen meksikolainen!
I have a question regarding the spelling of the ending -lainen
How come some nationalities are spelled lainen and others läinen? what is the difference between them?
Kiitos!
Hei jui,
Are you a free lifetime user? If so, please note that for our free users only the newly published lessons are available for a limited (3 week) period of time, as well as the first three lessons in each series.
Kind regards,
Levente
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hei Sam,
Your sentence is correct! Hauska tutustua, Sam!😄
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hei, minun nimeni on Sam. Olen brittiläinen. Hauska tutustua 😄
I can't hear the audio.Because when I click in the audio then it open another page that want a premium package to buy!!what can I do now to listen the audio?
Hello Dan,
Thank you for your kind comment and the introduction!
Hauska tutustua, Dan! ❤️️
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Kiitos palijon ! Olen kotoisin Danny ! Olen Vietnamilainen ❤️️ Hauska tutustua.
Hello Samira,
Thank you for your kind feedback! ❤️️
Hope you enjoy our next lessons too.
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hello Daisy,
Thank you for your kind feedback and introduction! ❤️️
Have fun learning Finnish!
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
This is the best Finnish program I've found, Kiitos paljon! Olen kotoisin Yhdysvalloista!
Hei ,minun nimeni on Samira olen kotoisin Iranistä.☺️