Learn how to talk about your impressions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hello, and welcome to FinnishPod101! This is Lower Beginner season 1, lesson 10. Tell Me About Your Impressions of Finland. I’m Brandon |
| Nico: Hei, minä olen Nico. Hi, I’m Nico. |
| Brandon: Nico, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Nico: In this lesson, we’re going to learn to talk about impressions. |
| Brandon: The conversation takes place at home. |
| Nico: The conversation is between Petri and Satu. Petri has come home after his first day at a new job, and his wife asks him how it was. They’ll be speaking standard Finnish in the casual register. |
| Brandon: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Satu: Miten töissä meni? |
| Petri: Hyvin. Työkaverit vaikuttivat mukavilta. |
| Satu: Miltä paikka muuten vaikutti? |
| Petri: Ihan kivalta. Ensimmäinen projektikin tuntuu mielenkiintoiselta. |
| Satu: Hyvä. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Satu: Miten töissä meni? |
| Petri: Hyvin. Työkaverit vaikuttivat mukavilta. |
| Satu: Miltä paikka muuten vaikutti? |
| Petri: Ihan kivalta. Ensimmäinen projektikin tuntuu mielenkiintoiselta. |
| Satu: Hyvä. |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Satu: Miten töissä meni? |
| Brandon: How was work? |
| Petri: Hyvin. Työkaverit vaikuttivat mukavilta. |
| Brandon: Fine. The colleagues seemed nice. |
| Satu: Miltä paikka muuten vaikutti? |
| Brandon: How was the place otherwise? |
| Petri: Ihan kivalta. Ensimmäinen projektikin tuntuu mielenkiintoiselta. |
| Brandon: It seemed good. The first project seems interesting, too. |
| Satu: Hyvä. |
| Brandon: That's good. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Petri seemed quite happy with his new workplace. |
| Nico: So it seems. He seems to be happy with his new colleagues, too. |
| Brandon: I think that’s really important. If you don’t like your colleagues, going to work every morning is much more difficult. |
| Nico: That’s true. I think encouraging colleagues to get to know each other better is one reason why many companies have activity clubs for their employees. |
| Brandon: Oh, what kinds of activity clubs? |
| Nico: Well, they can arrange various kinds of events, such as going to the movies or to the theatre together, or various sports. |
| Brandon: I see. And does the company pay for the activities? |
| Nico: Usually, the company pays some part of it, and the employees pay the rest. It’s voluntary, of course, so you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. |
| Brandon: Sounds great. Now, let’s have a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Nico: miten [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: how, what a |
| Nico: miten [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: miten [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: vaikuttaa [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to seem; to have an effect; to influence |
| Nico: vaikuttaa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: vaikuttaa [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: mukava [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: nice |
| Nico: mukava [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: mukava [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: muuten [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: otherwise; by the way, incidentally |
| Nico: muuten [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: muuten [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: kiva [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: nice |
| Nico: kiva [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: kiva [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: ensimmäinen [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: first |
| Nico: ensimmäinen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: ensimmäinen [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: projekti [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: project |
| Nico: projekti [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: projekti [natural native speed] |
| The last word is.. |
| Nico: tuntua [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to feel (soft, hot, etc.), to seem (nice etc.) |
| Nico: tuntua [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: tuntua [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s our first word? |
| Nico: The first word is vaikuttaa. In the lesson, we had it in the sense of “to seem”, but it can also be used in the senses of “to have an effect” or “to influence”. The sentence structure is different in the other senses, though. |
| Brandon: Let’s not go into sentence structures yet. This word is pretty much like the other verb we had, tuntua, right? |
| Nico: That’s true. Vaikuttaa and tuntua can often be used interchangeably. They both mean “to seem”. But tuntua also has the concrete meaning of how something feels to the touch. For example, you could say Vesi tuntuu kylmältä, meaning “The water feels cold”. |
| Brandon: I see. So, would you use tuntua for more concrete things, then? |
| Nico: I think it’s more a matter of being personally involved. If you say Päätös vaikutti epäoikeudenmukaiselta, it’s simply an objective statement “The decision seemed unfair”. However, if you say Päätös tuntui epäoikeudenmukaiselta, it means that you have personal feelings about the decision. |
| Brandon: Got it. So you would translate it as “I feel the decision was unfair.” |
| Nico: Right. The last word we’ll look at is projekti. If you see it written down, it’s almost like the English word “project”, but the pronunciation is quite different. |
| Brandon: I suppose it’s a loan word, but how come the pronunciation is so different? |
| Nico: Actually, it’s loaned from Swedish, where it’s projekt. That’s much closer to the Finnish version. |
| Brandon: Oh, i see. So all you’ve done is add an -i at the end. |
| Nico: Yes. Most Finnish words end with a vowel, so consonant-ending loan words often get an -i added at the end. Other examples are the words for mug and police. “Mug” is muki in Finnish, and “police” is poliisi. |
| Brandon: Okay. Let’s move on to the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Brandon: In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to express impressions. |
| Nico: It’s very important. Finns are quite eager to hear your impressions about Finland and the Finnish language. It’s probably among the first questions a Finn will ask you. |
| Brandon: I see. What would the question be like? |
| Nico: Miltä (something) vaikuttaa? or Miltä (something) tuntuu? Just replace something with whatever you want to ask about. |
| Brandon: Okay, and how would you answer? |
| Nico: Often you can just say the relevant adjective in the ablative case. That is, the case that ends in -lta or -ltä. “Fun” is hauska. If you want to reply something seems fun, you can just say Hauskalta. |
| Brandon: But if you want to say how something seems without anyone asking you, you’d need a full sentence. |
| Nico: Of course. Then you’d say (something) vaikuttaa hauskalta or (something) tuntuu hauskalta. And, of course, the verb will take different forms depending on the person and number of the subject. |
| Brandon: Let’s have some examples. How would you say “How does the Finnish language feel?” |
| Nico: Miltä suomen kieli tuntuu? |
| Brandon: And how would you answer? |
| Nico: Helpolta. |
| Brandon: [laughs] I see, Of course you think it’s easy. But imagine someone who’s only just started learning it. |
| Nico: Vaikealta. |
| Brandon: But it’s not too difficult, though, I hope. How would you say “The plan seems good”? |
| Nico: “Plan” is suunnitelma, so it’s Suunnitelma vaikuttaa hyvältä. |
| Brandon: Then, how about “The new neighbors seem nice”? |
| Nico: We haven’t actually learned the ablative plural yet, but we had the form we need in the dialogue. Uudet naapurit tuntuvat mukavilta. |
| Brandon: Listeners, now it’s your turn. I’ll say a sentence in English. Please say it in Finnish before Nico gives the answer. The first sentence is “The house seems new”. |
| Nico: In case you don’t remember, “house” is talo. Talo vaikuttaa uudelta. |
| Brandon: Here’s the next sentence. “This book seems interesting.” |
| Nico: Tämä kirja vaikuttaa mielenkiintoiselta. |
| Brandon: Let’s take one more. “Sunshine feels refreshing”. |
| Nico: Here’s a hint for you. “Sunshine” is auringonpaiste and “refreshing” is piristävä. Auringonpaiste tuntuu piristävältä. |
Outro |
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| Brandon: Well Listeners.How was it? Please leave us a comment on the lesson page. Is it difficult? Easy? We’d love to hear from you! |
| Nico: Thanks for listening. See you next time! Hei hei! |
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