Results of the Needs Analysis Carried Out in Finland

A. Background Questions | B. Proficiency in Finnish | C. Studying | D. Questions about everyday situations | E. Social life and leisure | F. Important vocabulary

1. Can you think of any Finnish phrases that would be useful to know before coming to Finland? (multiple answers)

Other examples on useful phrases:

Grocery vocabulary

• general groceries
  • kauppa
  • kioski
  • ravintola
  • Alko
  • ale
• Ordering food / drinks
  • Saisinko…?
  • olut / siideri
  • hyvää ruokahalua
  • Juotko…?
  • kippis!

University vocabulary

• tentti
• yliopisto
• opiskelija / olen opiskelija /opiskelen

Signs

• huom!
• varokaa hengenvaara!
• apua!
• N / M

Weather

• kaunis / hyvä ilma
• ilma on kylmä

Leisure / other vocabulary

• bileet
• kaveri
• liikunta
• bussikortti
• hyvä
• hankala
• toivottavasti
• tota / niinku
• perkele

other expressions

• selvä!
• ei se mitään
• minulla on
• minä rakastan sinua
• sievä tyttö
• puhu pukille
• turpa kiinni
• teille vai meille?
• oma maa mansikka, muu maa mustikka

2. What is in your opinion the most difficult aspect of the Finnish language? (multiple answers, only 21 questionnaire)

3. Have there ever been situations in which your English was no help and it was necessary to know Finnish? What were these situations? (multiple answers, only 21questionnaires)

4. Other comments

• ”Minun lempipaikkani oli yliopistossa kielikeskus. Kiva paikka! Kaikki on, mitä tarvitaan ja hyvä miljöö! Oppimistori on tosi hyvin tehty!”
  My favourite place in Jyväskylä is the language centre. Such a nice place! There’s everything one needs and it’s a nice environment. Learning centre is made really well. (F21/Hungary)

• ”Vaaletavasti puheen suomen kieli on paljon nopeasti ja erilainen kuin kirjoitetaan kieli”
  Unfortunately the spoken Finnish is really different from the written Finnish. (M27/Iran)

• ”If you decided to stay in Finland for a long time, necessary to study language. Of course, you must communication, but also through the language you understand culture of country. Language reflections life in a country, peculiarity here. I think, if you know some Finnish language, you come in Finnish culture, communication and may be cultural shock, stress will be very reduce for you. Study of Finnish language takes many time. It’s difficult to study for me. I haven’t ability for languages. But I’m not sorry that I began to study Finnish. It’s interesting for me now.” (F21/Russia)

• “Schön hier”
  It’s nice here. (M24/Germany)

• “Man muss sich vorher eigentlich nichts aneignen, da in Finnland die meisten English verstehen und reden. Wenn man dann in Finnland ist, kann man alltägliche oder nützliche Dinge lernen. Dies ist aber nicht unbedingt notwendig. Lebensmittel sind aber zum Beispiel rect nützlich”
  You don’t really have to know that much before, because in Finland the most of the people understand and speak English. When you are in Finland you can learn some common and practical things. But this is not necessary. But e.g. names of food are really good to know. (M25/Germany)

• "Finnish is not so useful because in this country and it’s a big advantage everybody or quite everybody speak English." (M20/France)

• “Eigentlich sind keine Vorkenntnisse notwendig, da man zunächst sehr gut mit English über die Runder kommt.”
  Actually it’s not necessary to have any beforehand information because you can manage with English quite good. (M24/Germany)

• “Finland has very beautiful nature. University makes all possible to satisfy our needs. I like Finland.” (M21/Ukraine)

• “The University of Jyväskylä is a really great institution. Most of the teachers are very friendly and helpful and the students learn things they really might need in their job and for themselves. It is a really great experience to be here compared to our home institution.” (F21/Austria)

• “In Finland is possible don’t know Finnish, because almost all people speak English.” (M22/Ukraine)

• "Ich glaube, dass der Finishkurs ganz gut streikwert ist."
  I think that Finnish course (M25/Germany)

• “Please, you have to put [--] at the window, because I wake up every day at 8:30 and I like to sleep until 15:00 during weekend.” (M22/Spain)

• “Of course every people arrived to Finland need to study numerals and at least several words related to the studies.” (M20/Ukraine)

• “Ehkä pitäisi kertoa tuleville opiskelijoille, että suomalaiset eivät välttämättä puhu ulkomaalaisten kanssa, vaikka istutaan monilla samalla kurssilla. En olisi koskaan uskonut tätä, kun olin vaihto-opiskelija ja opiskelin enemmän kansainvälisten opiskelijoiden kanssa, mutta nyt kyllä kävi minulle näin. Jossain vaiheessa jopa luulin, että minussa olisi vika. Vika on vain, että olen vieras ja suomalaiset ovat ujompia heidän kanssa”
  Maybe it would good to tell to the new students that Finns don’t necessary speak to the foreigners, even though you were in the same class. I would not have believed this while I was an exchange student because I was spending more time with other foreign students, but now I have faced the fact. At some point I even thought that there was something wrong with me. But it was all about the fact that I’m a stranger and Finns are shyer with them. (F23/Austria)

• ”Es ist scwer zu sagen was wictig wäre zu lernen. Es ist keine Schwierigkeit ein paar Fragen oder Wendungen zu lernen, doch wenn man eine Frage stellt wird man die Antwort nicht verstehen ( :) Ich spreche aus Erfahrung)”
  It’s difficult to say what would be important to know. It’s not a problem to study a couple of phrases and questions, but when you ask you won’t understand the answer ( :) I speak from experience) (F20/Austria)

• “Another thing one should be aware of before coming is the darkness in Finland. I did not know it was going to be already dark at four p.m. and this together with the shyness of Finns can be really depressive for a foreigner. However, I have also found very nice people and I have to recognize that I have not made the most of my time here, and I still do not know the reason. But I have my part of fault which I can not skip. All in all, Finns are also very reliable people as well as honest, what’s not very common either in other places.” (F20/Spain)

• “Many Finns speak English so it’s not really easy to learn the Finnish language since all the Finnish students usually speak with us in English.” (M21/France)

• “En osa enemmän mitään kirjoittaa, koska en ole huomannut enemmän. Usein suomalaiset osaavat myös muita kieliä.”
  I can’t write anything more, because I haven’t noticed anything else. The Finnish people usually can speak also other languages. (F21/Estonia)

• ”Thanks for your excellent help! Especially after 9/11.” (M46/USA)

• “I would like to thank everybody from university for the big help you gave us. Thanks for all!” (M21/France)

• “But it is not very important, almost everybody in Finland (in Jyväskylä) speaks English, so to the first evening it is no language problem.” (F21/Russia)