New Ways To Communicate

No niin, Mä vain kirjoittaa vähän suomeksi, koska se vie on pitkän ajan...Mutta, viime viikonloppuna, mä menit lapissa kanssa mun host-perheeni. Lähdimme perjantaina illalla, ja menimme sinne myöhään illalla! Lauantaina menin lumilautailu kanssa mun host-isäni! Se oli mun ensimmäinen kerta, mutta se oli kylmä...Kävimme myös jääkiekko peli, ja satoi lunta. Sunnuntaina kävin hiihto ensimmäistä kertaa myös! Mutta se oli todella kylmä! (Se oli -27c)  Mä puhuin vain Suomea, ja ihmiset ymmärsivät minua! (He vain nauroivat vähän) ;)


Viime viikolla, opettajani antoi minulle suomen kieli koe, ja sain 8.5! Yayyyyy! Se oli tosi hyvä!


Tällä viikolla on koeviikko, mutta mun on vain 2 koe. Historia ja Maantiedea, mutta mun maantiedea koe on vain suomeksi, niin se on ei hyvä haha, mutta mä voin yrittää. Mä täytyy on myös kirjoittaa vain suomeksi. (Ehkä mä itken perjantaina hahaha)


Mun historia koe on helppoa, koska se on erilainen kuin mun luokkatoverit. Ja se on hyvä. :D


I thought I would tell you about the weekend that I just had, and about the little things that I have learned from it. It was actually a really cool experience for me in MANY ways, because I learned a whole lot more than what was planned! :)

Im not sure if I can explain it all very well, but I will try my best and add some pictures while I go. :D


This last Friday, my host parents and I left for Lapland again to stay for the weekend. We didn't leave until pretty late in the evening, so we didn't arrive to our final destination until almost 2am! (It was pretty late!)

BUT! I have a story to tell you!

 

During our drive to Lapland, I was falling asleep in the backseat- and my host dad woke me up, and was pointing out the window. (I didn't really understand what was going on, because after a certain time in the evening, I get so tiered that I don't understand Finnish anymore, and English is out the window from my brain at this time too, so im just kind of an empty sack.) BUT that's beside the point...

I couldn't tell what he was pointing at, because it was so dark outside; but he kept on pointing- and then I finally saw it!

You could SEE the Northern Lights above SWEDEN!!!

They were pretty faint, but STILL....

NORTHERN LIGHTS....OVER SWEDEN!

Do you know how cool that is?!

Geez!!!!


Anyways,

That was pretty amazing!


On Saturday, I went snowboarding for the first time with my host dad! (It was TECNICALLY my second time...but it was my first time actually TRYING, so I call it my first time.) My host dad is a ski instructor, and so it was nice that he was good at teaching!

However...we only speak in Finnish to each other, so it was REALLY  difficult for us to communicate! I couldn't understand anything that he was telling me, and he tried REALLY hard to get me to understand what he was trying to explain to me. (And I am so incredibly lucky to have a really patient Host-Dad, because im sure that this situation would be REALLY irritating and frustrating!)

Eventually after A LOT of work, we found a system that worked...we ended up dumbing it down A LOT.

We would have to sit down and draw in the snow to understand each other and what we were trying to say, and he would explain things to me by saying really simple words that I could understand.

For example:

When he was explaining to me that I had to LOOK in the direction I was going, he would yell out, "LOOK AT THE RED LIGHT, LOOK AT THE RED LIGHT, LOOK AT THE RED LIGHT!"

And then when I would switch directions, he would yell out, "LOOK AT THE YELLOW PICTURE, LOOK AT THE YELLOW PICTURE, LOOK AT THE YELLOW PICTURE!"

And then I finally understood that he meant that I needed to look in whatever direction I was going, because he was yelling out things that I could see in the direction I was going.


When my host dad was explaining to me how to switch directions, I couldn't understand what he was saying; so we ended up sitting in the snow and drawing pictures. And that helped A LOT.

We probably looked REALLY silly to everyone who was in hearing distance...but it didn't matter because we found a system of communication that WORKED and one we could BOTH understand.



This experience was really interesting for me, because it taught me that you DO NOT have to switch into a language you mutually understand when there is a miscommunication or a language barrier. You CAN find ways to communicate, instead of switching into a mutually known language...even when you both speak different languages.


I learned this lesson a SECOND time this weekend, when my host dad left to play ice hockey for the evening. I decided to cook dinner with my host mom, but it was a little tricky at first. Like with my host dad, my host mom and I only communicate in Finnish.

I didn't really understand what to do at first, but she showed me the recipe and told me to put all of the items she listed in the bowl. I didn't understand everything she was telling me to do, but she started using hand motions to go along with what she was telling me- and then I finally understood that she wanted me to mix them all together.

Eventually, I caught on- and I figured out the rest from there, and I ended up making dinner almost all by myself!

Making Finnish pizza!

 

 

And now time for the cheese!

 

My Final product! :D

(My host mom even told me that I was awesome at making Finnish pizza haha!)

 

 

I started learning different terms for things, and names for spices and different food items...It was really fun! It was a little difficult at first, because I didn't understand; but that was okay because I eventually caught on to what was being said!

 

I LOVE having a host family that ONLY speaks to me in Finnish. It is frustrating sometimes, and I cant even start to imagine just how frustrating it is for them! But I am SO glad that they are super patient with me and willing to explain things SO many times for me to finally understand what is being said.

 

I cant imagine hosting an Exchange Student who BARELY speaks my language, and who never even HEARD my language spoken until they arrived in my home...I cant even start to think how hard it must be for my host family sometimes, but I am sure glad that they stick to speaking to me in only Finnish. They are SO, SO incredibly patient with the Exchange Student they have in their house. (Who is me haha!) :D

 

 

Along with that, this weekend it was THE COLDEST WEEKEND OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!

 

I have NEVER, EVER experienced anything below -6 Celsius before. (I think its 18 in F.)

 

This weekend it was -22, and -27 degrees Celsius at night...which is almost -20 degrees in F!

 

It was literally PAINFULL and scary haha! But I loved every single moment of it! :)

 

 

The view out my window in the morning.

 

 

 

 

As a little side note: It must have been so funny for my host family to watch me literally run from the car inside, and then they would find me standing by the fireplace haha! My host dad  actually asked me once this weekend if I was cold while I was standing in front of the fireplace, and to that I replied, "Outside is cold...but here is warm, so im happy." :)

 

 

 

Overall, this weekend I learned A LOT of things...Not just the basics of Finnish Cooking, Skiing, Snowboarding, and how to survive the COLDEST day of my life haha; but I learned that you really CAN communicate with people in different ways when you speak another language.

 

 

So many people ALWAYS switch into English when they speak to me, especially at school. And yet, I have found that you CAN communicate without a mutually known language. Although it is frustrating, and takes a lot of patience...you can make it work, and eventually you find a way to communicate. :)

 

I wish that everyone would do this with me, instead of only my host family and a handful of my friends...I feel as though with a total immersion, everyone speaking Finnish to me everywhere I go, I would learn Finnish SO much faster instead of little tastes of the language here and there with people who are willing to speak Finnish with me. (Im sure the fact that I mention this in almost every post I write about learning Finnish gets annoying, so I will try to stop haha.)

 

The good thing though, is that a few exchange students and I speak Finnglish to each other, so that's always interesting haha. We say everything in Finnish up until we don't know a word. (Then we say the word in English haha.) So our conversations probably sound really funny when we are out in public. We've gotten a few stares and weird looks...but they are all worth it, because it means that we are learning haha. :D

 

We have started ordering things in Finnish every time we can, and sometimes people who hear us try to hold back laughter...which IS really embarrassing, but that's okay because we KNOW we sound silly! (And especially with our accents, we KNOW we sound really ridiculous and strange to Finns haha.) :)

 

But that's what makes it so much more fun to speak Finnish!

 

Also as a little side note:

 

This weekend, I also decided to start updating my blog a lot more. I think that using a blog is MUCH easier than posting short little updates on facebook and hundreds of pictures that don't really go along with anything...When I make a blog post, things are much more explained and organized, and people who read it are actually interested in what I am posting instead of just random facebook posts that don't really apply to anything and pictures which are randomly posted without an explanation that no one really wants to see...PLUS, I have realized this past weekend when I didn't have any internet, that I am MUCH, MUCH happier on my exchange WITHOUT facebook.  

 

This past weekend, that awkward phase of exchange went COMPLETELY away, and I was actually having the time of my life! SURE, there were lots of distractions from it, but I think part of that was that I had no way to use internet...it was absolutely great! (And to anyone on facebook, please don't take it personally! I still have email...but I really do think that bloging is a much better choice when it comes to updating about my exchange.) :)

 

SO, until then, be prepared for more posts! :D