Nyt, minä puhun vähän Suomea!

In a recent post I mentioned my Fresh New Start. Well, that was three months ago and, yes, it was a fresh new start.

I has not been easy to get up in the mornings but the fabulous (and very patient) J has been driving me to "school" every morning. This has meant the whole family getting up & dressed in time to get me there and this has not been easy. Monkey & Mouse take after me and are not morning people, so poor J has three grumpy, tired folk to deal with! 

He really has been a saint... on top of the morning shenanigans, he has become a full time Dad. He does the school run for Monkey and has Mouse all morning and then both children all afternoon. I often have busy evenings, too, with homework and other obligations and so he really has been full-time Daddy.


I love him for that (amongst other things, of course!) 


I am a very social person and starting a full time course has meant a whole new social circle for me, as well as building the knowledge and confidence to start communicating in Finnish, I have made some good new friends and as well as learning, I'm also having fun! I think if I weren't having fun, then I wouldn't be learning... 


We are all together in a class named "Nopea Suomi" which means Fast Finnish. It is the first time such a course has been run at this level. None of us are beginners but we are at various learning levels. Some have a high level of grammar but struggle with vocabulary; others have much vocab but less grammar. I started with a bit of each but had not put them together and used them at all.  


One aim of the course is integration. As foreigners, we must learn about living in Finland. As well as the language, we also learn about everyday life - including the Education System, the Health Service and naturally the job market. We also learn about Finnish festivities! We had a picnic for Vappu (MayDay) and we regularly have "kevyt iltapäivät" or light afternoons when we go bowling or to play billiards or something similar; all the Finnish Language classes together - arranged and supervised by the school. 

These social events actually have helped us to bond as a group and has certainly lead to a greater level of understanding and support in the class. We are not in competition with each other but normally help each other out. In classes that are being taught almost exclusively in the language we are learning, we often don't all understand what the teacher is saying... but we feel comfortable enough to ask our class mates what is happening? what did he/she mean? was it this or that?


As a native English speaker I have noticed particular advantages & disadvantages. Everyone in this class (although not all classes) speaks English, so I am able to communicate with all my class mates BUT... I am the only member of the class who does not have a second language! I learned French at school and even took a few modules at University but since I started learning Finnish, I found I was confusing the two and have been trying to file away all my French. I now realise this may have been a mistake; having no knowledge of another language puts me at a disadvantage in a class which includes bilingual and multilingual people - even some translators & interpreters!  

Billiards

Playing Mölkky at the Vappu picnic

Kielioppi/Grammar - just to prove we do some work, too!

The Finnish Language is not easy but I am getting there... recent tests proved to me that, on paper, I am definitely improving. This weekend was Midsummer, spent with J's family, so I put my new found confidence to the test and had whole conversations with my mother-in-law & sisters-in-law. This was, for me, a far more realistic test of my speaking & listening skills - and far more successful, too!


Now we have a week off, so I have a chance to catch up with the rest of my life and maybe find my desk... and catch up with my blog.... 


... this has been fun... I really should do it more regularly!

Random Culture Returns...

Turku may not still be the European City of Culture but that doesn't mean we have no culture... Along the riverside, new bits & pieces are still there to be discovered.

 

 Monkeys on the rubbish bins!

Not by the river but... an Finnish-Australian Celtic harpist! I met him on the bus and joined him in the market square. A lovely sound.

Riverside Markets

Every April & October in Turku, we are treated to a riverside market.  In April it is the Saaristomarkkinat and October is Silakkamarkkinat. Saaristo is the Archipelago so everything has a link to the local islands. Silakka are herring... so October is the fish market. In theory each has it's own speciality but in fact we often see the same stalls at both; but we enjoy it, anyway. 

Monkey took some of these pictures... learning about photography! They are from April's market.

Spring Break (ish)

No, I haven't decided to don a bikini and party with the youngsters (you'll be relieved to hear). This is about the abundance of holidays just about now! Easter was late this year, so on consecutive weekends, we've had Palm Sunday, Easter, Royal Wedding & May Day and next weekend is Mothers' Day! 


Palm Sunday
The tradition in Finland is for children to dress up as witches (or to be fair more like wise old women) and go from door to door in the neighbourhood offering decorated branches & blessings for the next year in return for sweeties! (and apparently cash on occasion, too!). Sounds a bit too much like trick or treat to me, so I politely declined but Monkey went along with her friends (dressed as a bunny rather than a witch) and had a good time.

These are the decorated branches, collected round the neighbourhood and decorated with crepe paper and coloured feathers - only a few branches had catkins but that didn't stop the decor! 

The Palm Service, led by the Anglican Minister from Helsinki, started with a procession around the outside of the Cathedral, singing and waving our palm crosses. The children (normally at Junior Church from before the service starts) joined us on our procession, making it all the more joyful!


Easter Weekend
A visit to Mummi, lots of chocolate & good food! Then on Easter Sunday itself, an unusual family service; the Junior Church is based on a Montessori method called Godly Play and for the family service, the whole congregation were treated to Godly Play. For a family service it was quite long and for an Easter Sunday service, it was subdued but it was an interesting insight into what Monkey gets up to normally when I am in church.


You can find out more about Godly Play and about our Junior Church at this blog. 


The Royal Wedding
Of course, Friday 29th April was NOT a holiday in Finland but it was in UK. I am a member of a group of English speaking ladies - The Ladybirds -  who meet regularly for fun, friendship & fellowship. This month we decided to have a tea party to celebrate the Wedding of Prince William & Catherine Middleton. 

Oh, what fun we had! We each contributed to a very English tea - cucumber sandwiches, cream teas (with fresh baked scones & Mrs Bridges strawberry preserve), egg mayonnaise, union flag cupcakes, shortbread, real tea in a real teapot drunk from proper English bone china, strawberries & cream and pink champagne! 

We all gathered at one house in our posh hats and watched the whole thing from start to finish on BBC World - with English commentary. We commented on the hats, we sang the hymns, we admired THAT dress and we stood for the National Anthem - all terribly patriotic and British. It felt good to share it with other "ex-pats", although they are my friends and I see them regularly, this was something special. 

Monkey's Playschool held a Royal Wedding of their own and were featured on TV and in the the local paper. Monkey was staying with Mummi so wasn't there herself, but so many of her friends, and of course her teachers, were featured.

Vappu/May Day
I must admit that we had a very quiet Vappu. Normally it begins on the night before - this year, Saturday night - with BBQ, drinks and friends and continues into May Day itself with a National Holiday and plenty of time to recover from the night before! We were due to spend Saturday evening with friends but didn't (long story - not here) and then as today, May Day, is Sunday anyway, we had a pretty normal very quiet day. 


I did take time out to watch my friend's 3 year old daughter on Swedish Language TV - she was serenaded as part of the Abo Akademi celebrations in the park near the Observatory - the sun shone and everyone had fun!



Mothers' Day
So, next Sunday is Mothers' day here in Finland and I am hoping for a trip to the Garden Centre. The weather has been improving and despite a hail storm today and snow predicted for later this week, it's time to get planting!

New Year

Well, the storytelling at the Christmas Market went well. Despite the organisers not expecting me on the first day and  people continuing to chat over coffee while I was trying to entertain them on the second, I also got some lovely feedback from complete strangers. 

I was so, SO delighted that friends came to support me, too. To look around the room and see familiar faces made me feel so much more comfortable.

The Storytelling continues. I have now told at Monkey's playschool and have plans for a friend's primary school class. There are also some story café events coming up - so I'll be there too. 

I have also added a new string to my bow. I am now the proud holder of a TEFL Certificate! I am certified to teach English as a Foreign Language. The course, at Kingston University, was a very intensive and fun-filled three days. It included skills which will cross over into my storytelling - I need to develop some school workshops to support the stories. 

With Mouse turning 3 in just over a year (already!!!) I have to build up some kind of earning potential... I am hoping that the Storytelling, Book Selling and English teaching together will allow me a decent income doing work that's flexible enough to work around Monkey & Mouse while at the same time not relying on me learning Finnish well enough to work in Finnish! 

My Finnish language lessons are ongoing... I do feel like I'm learning and I do get fairly good exam results but I am not practising and with a primarily english speaking social circle I don't really have to.

I used to be a person who watched with scorn TV programmes about families relocating abroad without learning the language. Now I have become an immigrant who can't communicate with the locals.. oh dear... note to self... must try harder. Hmmm sounds familiar ;D

Collecting Stories, putting down roots.

I've been buying books of stories to tell. As I'll be telling in English, in Finland, I've decided to concentrate on Finnish tales (familiarity for those studying English), English tales, London tales and possibly some Irish/Celtic tales (to reflect my own culture).

I have also been revisiting some of my folk CDs. I was particularly struck a song called Roots, sung by Show of Hands. It includes the line 

"Without our stories and our songs, how to we know where we come from? We need roots"

It reminded me that although I live in Finland I am still English, as is the Monkey. I was born in London, as were my parents and grandparents but 2 of my great grandparents were born in Ireland, 1 in Manchester and the rest in London. Of course my children's cultural heritage is even more of a mix - including their Finnish Daddy, grandparents, greatgrandparents etc. Further back there are links to Sweden and Russia - bearing in mind that Finland has only been independent since 1917. The Mouse was born in Finland.

So, my Finnglish family is more than just Finnglish. It is FinnEngIriSweRussian!?!?

The books I have started my collection with are collections of stories retold or simply collected. There are "Tales from a Finnish Tupa", "Siberian Folk Tales" (which includes Saame, or Lapp tales) and "London Lore". 

I also have an incredibly abridged version of the Kalevala, called "Songs of Power" with all the adventurous distractions and complicated language reduced to simple verses over less than 50 pages. It is a great introduction to the central characters and the basic themes of Finland's great Epic. It will allow me to start telling a simple tale which will be recognised by most Finns. Over time I can build on the central story, adding in the extra characters and their adventures.

I'm looking forward to my first storytelling - probably at a storytelling cafe; a sharing of stories with other storytellers - hopefully some others in English, although it will be good for my Finnish to listen to some in Finnish, too! 

If anyone has christmas, winter, winter solstice or just snowy stories to share with me, I'd love to hear them, I hope to be telling some at the Christmas Markets in December!