Hello everyone, and welcome to 'English Tips for Finns.' In this video I'm going
to make 10 observations about Finns and their English skills. I think the
overall theme of the video is this that the English level of Finn's is amazingly
high. I'm totally impressed with the way Finns handle English. I think if you
could somehow measure how different English is from another language and how
people within a country that speak that language speak English, Finns would be
way up here -- you can't see my hand, but it's way up here -- and the next country
would be way down here. I really do believe that. These are just
observations I've made from 20 years of living and teaching in Finland. They're
not really facts, so you're gonna disagree with them or agree with them or
whatever. Please leave all comments in the comment section below, and please
like, share and subscribe...and let's get started.
Observation number one: Finns speak English freakishly well. Every year, the company English First does a study
where they compare the English levels of most of the countries in the world, and
Finland finishes near the top every single year. It's not a very
scientific study, but in this case I think it is pretty accurate. Finland is
one of the better English-speaking countries. This year, for example, Finland
finished seventh which is actually low for Finland. The first five were in the
same language family as English -- the Germanic language family -- and they were
the Nordic countries (MY NOTE: Holland was number one) -- the sixth was Singapore which is a former British
colony. Finland is in the Uralic language family so it's not even close to the
other languages. It just gives you an indication of how well that Finns speak
and how impressive it is that they can.
Observation number two: When Finns speak English, the pronunciation is very clear.
I can always understand Finns no matter what level they are at. I think the
reason is is because in Finnish there isn't much intonation and that
makes the English sort of more monotone. It's not so sexy,
but it's very clear and understandable, and I think that is the most important thing.
Observation number three: The English reading levels of Finns is impressive.
I've seen elementary school textbooks, I've seen high school textbooks and I'm
totally impressed with how high level those textbooks are and how much the
education system challenges Finns. Even in university -- these very
complicated textbooks -- students are able to handle very well and that's just
because you have an awesome education system and because it's a very literate
society, in general.
Observation number four: The oral comprehension levels of Finns is at a
high level. This is something that is just so impressive to me. Even people who
have sort of low level English skills can understand quite a lot. You have
pop culture and you have lack of dubbing to thank for that, I think.
Observation number five: The grammar levels are also good considering the
huge differences between Finnish and English. There are huge differences
between Finnish and English -- and, actually, there's a lot of similarities which kind
of surprises me (how similar they can be). gain I think you have your
excellent education system to thank for that. The main areas of difficulty with
grammar are word order, prepositions and articles, in general.
Observation number six: Finns small talk better than they think. I did a whole
video on Finns and small talk. It is true: Finns always say they can't small
talk...but they small talk all the time and I small talk all the time with my
students. Of course it depends on the person and there's different levels and,
I guess overall, it could be a little bit better but it's much better than people think.
Observation number seven: Teaching Finns is easy. I have to say I have a really
cool job I guess it's not always easy but it's cool...and it's...
Finns always say it must be very difficult to teach Finns but actually
the exact opposite is true. The classes always go well, the
conversation always flows, there's not awkward silences. Finns, in general, are
learners so they really want to improve their English and they work hard...so it's a great job.
Observation number eight: Finns are great at using curse
words. I first visited Finland in December of 1998,
and I went to a bar with a friend of mine and I ended up getting into a
conversation with a drunk guy who was sort of low to intermediate level.
What I noticed the most was how amazing he was at using curse words. iIt's a very
difficult skill but he was able to do it amazingly, and since then Finns have not
let me down. This is something that Finn's just have and probably it comes
from pop culture and watching movies and television shows and whatever...but it's
an impressive skill.
Observation number 9: English gives Finns a license to act more social. I could
be totally wrong about this and I would love to hear your comments, but I think
there is some truth to it. When you're part of the society you're expected to
act in a certain way of course, it's just the way it goes. I think English just
gives you a little bit of a temporary escape, because you're expected to sort
of act more like the English way. Again, I would love to hear comments
because this could be totally off the mark. I'm not sure.
Observation number ten: Finns dis the old style of language teaching, but it
totally suited the times. I hear this all the time from students who are about
45 and older...how when they learned they didn't speak enough and all that. I
think at that time you really didn't need to speak. The world wasn't so global
in that way. Now it's changing because the world is smaller, it's
becoming more global, and verbal communication is more and more important.
Before you just had to read a lot and understand it in English, but now it's a
lot about speaking as well. Have some sympathy for those poor teachers who you
know had their outdated teaching methods because they weren't so outdated back
then, probably.
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