One Year Ago/ Language Update

I got to thinking, and I realized that exactly ONE year ago THIS last weekend, I was called and told that my Rotary Club was selecting me to be their Long-Term Exchange student!

November 17th, 2012 I was called by the Youth Exchange Officer in my Rotary Club, and I was told that I was going on exchange. I even remember the EXACT phone call, and what we said.

Exactly a YEAR ago last weekend, I was accepted into the Rotary Youth Exchange Program!

Yaayyyyyyy!!!!!


Its crazy to think that im currently listening to a song that I wouldn't have understood last year, sitting in a bedroom that is MY bedroom, in a COMPLETLY different house...a COMPLETLY different country.

Its crazy to think that I am now speaking a language that I had NEVER heard one year ago; and im using it EVERYDAY. EVEYWHERE Finnish.


I LOVE Finnish. I LOVE Finland.

I cant even imagine myself last year, not knowing basically ANYTHING about the Finnish language, and Finland as a country. It literally IS mind blowing.

I used to speak pretty good French. I lived in France the Summer before my Exchange year, and I was GOOD at French. I studied French in school, and I loved listening to it...I got good grades in French. I could understand people when they spoke French...And now my Finnish is better than my French EVER was. (I actually cant even remember how to speak it anymore...)

I cant even think about going back home and NOT speaking Finnish. I cant think about going back to a place where almost no one speaks Finnish...where almost no one knows this language that I am now using every single day. Where so little people have ever even heard it spoken.

Now hold up, - my Finnish is NOT that good. In fact its amazing if I say anything grammatically correct! But I still use it EVERY single day, and speak it almost the ENTIRE day.

I stutter. I always have to repeat myself. And what I say really isn't grammatically correct.

But I TRY, and people can understand me. (for the most part.) :)

BUT this is where I am going to with this post, I guess. (A few of my friends at school have actually asked me to update my blog, so I guess that means that its been a little while since ive posted anything about whats been happening and such!) so I will use this post as a little miniature update until I can really sit down and add pictures and such.

1.) My language skills

FIRST comes first, FINNISH. There is a HUGE improvement since the last time I posted.

HUGE, HUGE, HUGE.

 Last time I talked about this, I was really frustrated with how bad my Finnish was, and how little I was able to speak. I posted about how little people would speak it with me, and how I REALLY wanted to speak Finnish...

Fast forward to now: HUUUUUUGGGEEEE improvement!

I started speaking 100% Finnish with my host family about 3 weeks ago; so since then I have only been speaking Finnish with my host family in all of our conversations and phone calls/text messages.

At school MORE and MORE people are speaking to me in Finnish, and it is literally AMAZING!!!!

It actually look a really, really long time for me to get people at school to speak to me in Finnish; because almost everyone speaks English- and Finnish is not a very common language, so they don't really expect me to understand or be able to speak. (The expectation for an Exchange Student to learn Finnish is pretty low.)  And that is kind of sad, I think. It was this reason why it was REALLY hard to start speaking Finnish at school!

But now, almost everyone at school speaks to me in Finnish- and its actually really cool!

I get a little embarrassed about it sometimes, because when I am talking with someone in the hallway, heads ALWAYS turn my way, and people sometimes LITERALLY stop and listen to me speak Finnish!!!

Who knew that speaking Finnish would be such a head turner?!

It makes me feel kind of embarrassed when people just stop to listen to me speak, or they turn their heads to see because they can hear me speaking! (My accent is so bad, and I stutter; so its VERY obvious when I speak Finnish!) But at the same time, it feels kind of...interesting to have people just stop and listen to me speak in the middle of the hallway. (I don't know a word to describe it, but its not bad!)

People always ask me why I want to learn Finnish SO badly, and they ask me why I don't just speak English during my ExchangeYear like some other exchange students who come to Finland. And my answer is confusing, but simple at the same time...

Of course I want to learn Finnish for A LOT of reasons. But the reason why I want to learn MORE Finnish than JUST being able to easily get by, is becuase  its different having a conversation with people in English than it is when I speak to them in Finnish. Its hard to explain...but I will try my best. (And it might sound cheesy!) :D

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.
If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart."

I feel like this quote is the BEST way to describe it...

Just the WAY people look at me is different when I speak Finnish. Their eyes light up, and they smile, and it turns into a REAL genuine conversation instead of just a way of communicating.

And I love it.


Almost everyone who I talk to at school speaks to me in Finnish, and I even know people who have only heard me speak English only a hand-full of times! (Even though my Finnish is so bad!)

My friends are actually great. REALLY great. They are so incredibly patient with me, and willing to help me with my Finnish. I can understand ALMOST everything that people say, but of course they have to still speak slowly and I have to say, "What?" a lot of the time...But they are so incredibly helpful because they STILL speak Finnish to me, and they listen to me when I try to talk to them in Finnish.

A lot of people dont expect me to learn Finnish, and so most of the time people dont really expect me to understand what they say; so when most people meet me they will almost ALWAYS speak in English.

And its REALLY incredible when im with my friends, and they actually step into the conversation and correct the person speaking English to me; and they tell them to speak to me in Finnish and tell them that I can understand.

You have NO idea just how good that feels!!!

When I think about it, they actually have to be pretty good friends if we both know that it would be MUCH easier and faster for everyone if we just spoke in English- because they already speak English! BUT instead they actually speak to me in Finnish, just because of how badly I want to learn.  

Friends is actually the downfall of my exchange, and its very embarassing for me to admit...but finding friends is THE single hardest thing for me, being an exchange student in Finland. (And its SO embarassing for me to tell people that.)

In Finland, it takes a very long time to make friends. You have to really know a person for a long time before you befriend them, and you cant really understand why its like that unless you have spent a good amount of time in Finland. (I cant really BEST explain Finnish culture unless you yourself have experienced it, and learned to understand it, but I try my best.)

But THIS is where I boast about my friends again. (And I know that quite a few of my Finnish friends read my blog, and so if I embarass you, im sorry!) :)

They always encourage me to keep trying to talk to people, and to not give up on trying to make friends and to not be ashamed of my horrible Finnish. (Which sounds really cheesey when I write it down haha.) :)

They tell me that in Finland it just takes time to make friends, and to not feel like people just dont want to talk to me or befriend me; because they do. They tell me just to walk up and talk to people, even if they look closed off- because inside, they really DO want you to talk to them. And coming from my Finnish friends, that means A LOT to me.

And I KNOW that this all sound very cheesy...but I feel as though I need to write about both the ups AND the downs of my exchange...and this is for sure of those downs that im hoping I get over in the next few weeks. :D