Taking your Finnish studies seriously

Here are my study tips for anyone who needs to brush up his or her study habits. Feel free to leave a comment if you have something to add. 

1. Find out what you like to do.

Here are some ideas for you to try:

• Read the text book (with or without the audio).

• Do the exercises. (Or just read, think and check the correct answers.)

• Read about Finnish grammar in some other language.

• Set a daily goal on Duolingo and study with the app. Take notes if you don’t understand something. 

• Read news with pictures. https://selkosanomat.fi/kuva/

• Read news in easy Finnish. https://selkosanomat.fi/ and https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/selkouutiset/

• Watch series, movies, documentaries and talk shows in Finnish (with or without the subtitles). https://areena.yle.fi/tv is great if you live in Finland or have a VPN.

• Find a band or a singer that you really like. Listen to your favourite songs when you sit on a bus, clean your apartment, fold your laundry etc. Study the lyrics and sing.

• Listen to podcasts or talk shows on the radio. (Or watch Youtube videos.)

• Join Emmi Seppälä's Finking Cap Club (I have written about Emmi here and here.)

• Talk Finnish with Finns or with other foreigners.

• Talk Finnish by yourself.

• Read aloud and record yourself reading.

• Practise 1-minute speeches about various topics. 

• Study vocabulary with apps such as Memrise or Quizlet.

• Write down new vocabulary and phrases.

• Keep a diary in Finnish. Write something every day. Even just one sentence.

• Copy Finnish texts in your notebook.

• Translate from Finnish. 

• Translate into Finnish.

• Connect studying with another acitivity (read when eating, listen when doing physical exercise

• When speaking or writing in Finnish, write down at least a couple of words that you don’t know but you would like to know. Find them out later. 

• Watch, read and listen to the Yle news in Easy Finnish. It will only take 10 minutes every day. 

• Meet regularly with a teacher or a study group.

2. Know where your study material is.

• A suitable level study book for learning things in a rational order

• A notebook for the new vocabulary and phrases and for the questions for your teacher or study group

• A dictionary (online or paper) (For example Wictionary, www.sanakirja.org, www.linguee.com )

• A grammar book (or a link to a good website) for checking up more advanced rules

• Something else to read (a magazine, a comic book, an easy-to-read novel, a non-fiction book)

• Different learning apps, movies, series and music

3. Plan your time and energy wisely and create daily habits. 

• What is your goal? How much is it realistic to study? How much time can you invest in your Finnish studies? 
• Do you feel that you learn and focus better in the morning or in the evening? Before or after eating? With or without background music? Alone or with a friend?  
• Try to study in different ways at different times of the day and take notes on what works for you.
• Once you've found a perfect mix of study routines, stick to them.

No matter how little, do something every day.

Whatever you do, focus on what you are doing. 

Don’t give up. If you fall off the wagon, get back on.

• A printable spreadsheet: Very simple study plan
• Private Finnish teachers
• Material for teaching yourself Finnish

About the author of Random Finnish lesson: 

My name is Hanna Männikkölahti. I am a professional Finnish teacher who gives private online lessons and simplifies books into easy Finnish. Please read more in www.linktr.ee/hannamannikkolahti and follow this blog, if you want to be the first one to know when I post something new.