Meet Fiel Sahir: a classical guitarist who speaks multiple languages. He’ll show you how much overlap there actually is between learning a language and playing an instrument!

It’s been quiet over here… a little too quiet sometimes. Silence can mean different things to different people: in Finland, silence is almost sacred. In Canada, we tend to say that silence is golden, but we run from its intimacy when it does grace us. Online, it can mean anything, but mostly it’s interpreted as abandon. A silence blog or website is an abandoned and neglected one. If I can choose, I’d interpret the silence on these pages as…

I’m a firm believer that each and every one of us creates our own reality – including the things which hold us back. From the joy to the discomfort we experience abroad, and everything in between. We do so with our thoughts, and our amazingly sophisticated brains, with which we can imagine absolutely anything. Then our bodies follow suit and behave as if what we have imagined is real. As the saying goes: …

Our actions & subsequent results are a product of consistency. The extent to which we’re able to take consistent action towards something, is directly correlated to whether we’ll reach that goal or not. Seems obvious enough, but this can be tricky. This is why I often cite Henry Ford’s quote, especially in the context of language learning: “Whether you think you can or can’t, either way you’re right”

Yes and no. Inner strength isn’t something we can really practice directly – at least in my opinion, real strength isn’t. Instead, strength is a quality that shines through as a result of making space for it… in other ways.

Strength is not on the outside. No one can be strong for you. (Though they can inspire you to be strong yourself.) And it’s not something some people are born with but others aren’t. Each and every single one of us has strength within us. Strength is an anchor within ourselves.

I used to think strength was about being smarter, more confident, more capable… being more of someone that I sometimes wasn’t. That, to me, was strong. And around the same time, I felt anxious, indecisive and restless…

In this video, you’ll learn: the 8 Finnish pronouns, their spoken forms, which ones are sometimes left out altogether & a few tips for how to remember them.

I’m happy to announce that Lindsay Dow, from lindsaydoeslanguages.com, and I have collaborated to bring you a super concise post on Finnish cases and their basic usage! The post is an introduction, but it covers all of the 12 Finnish cases you actually need to know, so it has punch!

I have yet to meet a single person who hasn’t felt frustration when it comes to learning… anything, but this is especially relevant for those learning languages with big reputations… like Finnish.

So today I made you a little video to help move you forward when you get stuck in a big puddle of frustration. Because ultimately, if you don’t learn to recognize and deal with frustration… you’ll stay there. So here ya go!