daily life: May 2011 Archives
Approximately 5-25 times per day, I'm in a situation where I have to say the following, "Moi! Do you speak English?" And I'll get one of the following responses:
- 80% - "Yes, of course." - And they speak perfect English.
- 15% - "Only a little." - And they speak perfect English.
- 4.9% - "Only little." - And they speak decent English, we might have a tiny bit of trouble understanding each other or they might not know a word like "deductible", but overall we can communicate.
- 0.1% - "No." - And we invent an improvised sign language, or they go find someone who can speak English who can help me.
Today was one of those rare days where someone answered "no". I was taking a taxi to a client meeting, and I had to stop by our office first to pick up my colleague. With lots of gesturing, I managed to communicate that we were making two stops, and I was happy I pronounced the street name of our office well enough that I didn't have to write it for him. But I could tell that that two stop thing was confusing him a little bit, so I wanted to explain that we were stopping to pick up another passenger.
I know some basic words, and for a moment I thought I might be able to say, "I need to pick up my friend." But I didn't know how to say "pick up". And I forgot the "my". It came out:
"Tarvitsen ystävää."
Which means, "I need a friend."
Sigh... Finnish 3,389,462, Halee 0.
I haven't formally started taking Finnish classes again, but I have been brushing up on my vocabulary. I know lots of words for food and sports and colors and animals and numbers and dog commands, but you really need more words than that if you want to talk to anyone over the age of 2. (Who is not a dog.) This weekend Sinttu was teaching me the words for body parts, and even though I had never learned those, it was funny how many I recognized as pieces of other words, and therefore sorta already knew. Hooray for learning by osmosis!
- käsi = hand - I accidentally already knew this from "käsivoide". Hand lotion!
- käsivarsi = arm - I didn't already know this one, but I will never ever forget it because "käsi" as you know is "hand", and "varsi" is stem / stick / handle. Hand handle!
- jalka = leg - I accidentally already knew this from "jalkapallo". Football! (Legball?)
- jalkaterä = foot - I didn't already know this one, and it's another funny little compound word that will be hard to forget. We know "jalka" is leg, but I did not know "terä", which is "blade". Your foot is a "leg blade"!? (These people ice skate too much if they're naming their own body parts after skating equipment.)
- varvas/varpaat = toe/toes - Let's ignore for a moment the fact that the word stem changes so completely when you make it plural. Let's also ignore that when I was struggling to remember the word for "leg", I came up with "varpaatvarsi", which is "toe handle". Which is wrong.
- polvi = knee - I didn't know this word. But my secret trick for remembering it deals with a brand of beer called Olvi. Remember when I puked on my knee? Well, "polvi" in my mind is a contraction of "puke" and "Olvi", or "p'olvi".
- korva = ear - I accidentally already knew this from "korvapuustit". Cinnamon buns, which are apparently cinnamon ears!
- hullet = lips - Whatever. There is nothing that interesting about this. What's interesting is the word for "lipstick", which is "hullipuna". Lip red!
- rinnat = breasts - Also not that interesting on its own, but "bra" is "rintaliivit". Breast vest!
