The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

I found The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by accident and I'm loving it already. I also love the videos that have been made so artistically. 

For example, I'm often guilty of jouska. Click on the link to read the description and let me know if you've done a similar thing. I definitely do that A LOT ha ha ha ha ha ha...

Here's one video. When I was watching it, I felt like pumping my fist to the air and shouting, "YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! This is the kind of thing I love so much!" 

Ahem...okay, let me just calm down and let you see what I mean.  

Do You Get Tired?

I don't mean tired physically, but mentally and by mentally, I mean the kind of fatigue related to the online world. Sometimes with all the many things going on in this online world, such as Facebook, twitter, blogging, Yahoo Messenger, emails, and whatever else you're using to "be connected" to the world, I find myself wanting to shut everything down every now and then and just be in this present moment, be DISCONNECTED to everything else and everyone else except those in the present moment. This is one reason I LOVE going to the cabin in Kelujärvi 'coz there's no electricity there, so we can really disconnect.

I don't know if it's because I'm basically introverted or what, but that's how I've been feeling lately. Sometimes I'm confused whether or not I should comment on something, you know? Especially if the person's on my friends' list. Let's say that you see someone on your friends' list having a birthday today. You don't really know that person, so do you say happy birthday or not? Is it OK if you just say it "because it's the right thing to do", not because you actually care about that person's birthday because without the reminder in your social calendar, you won't even know/remember it? 

I know that it's fine even if I don't comment, but sometimes once you've read something and you don't comment on it, you feel like you've dropped by into someone's personal space without even saying "hi" (though the person doesn't necessarily even know that I've dropped by into his/her personal space). Is it just me or do you sometimes feel that way, too? Boy, that sentence sounded like being a stalker, actually ha ha...Or am I just thinking too much?

It feels sometimes as though the "rules of engagement" is really vague in this online world and that it's really tough to learn to limit yourself. I wonder how youngsters these days manage to handle both real world and online world, because many of them have been born surrounded with the internet and gadgets that help you connect to the world 24/7. Some articles have stated that one of the problems for kids nowadays is the lack of ability to focus. I'm getting to understand why. It's so easy to get distracted when reading an ebook using my PC for example when suddenly I can see an email notification coming up or an FB notification popping in my screen. Then I get tempted to stop reading to check the email/FB/whatever else is going on.

It's easier to focus reading a real book without being in front of the computer, but while reading Finnish books, it's much easier to use online dictionaries to find tough words so that I can read the book(s) faster. Anyhow, I should go back to reading ebooks now he he...before my holiday is over!!! Now let me just go get some hot tea first 'coz it's only 8'C outside!


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A Challenging Project

I've just started a challenging project. Actually, I didn't come up on it on my own ha ha...OK, here's the story. About a week ago a customer asked me if I could translate a book to English (from Finnish, obviously). I told him I wouldn't know if I could do it or not, but I'd give it a try.

FYI, the said customer had once asked me where I came from, what I did prior to moving to Finland, etc. So he knows that I was a book translator in Indo and that I majored in English literature. That was probably one reason why he asked me that question.

Anyway, he then said that he had written a book in Finnish - thus he wanted to know if I could translate it to English. We didn't have time to talk more that day 'coz I had other customers to serve, so we left it at that. The next time I came to work, though, I found a book in an envelope in my locker (the customer had probably given it to my coworker and told her it was for me). He wrote his name, addy, and phone number on the envelope. I was GLAD to know it wasn't a book of poetry!!!! :-D

I didn't have time to read it because of the wedding party I had to go to last week, so I only started this project this week. It IS challenging 'coz I have never translated any book into English - plus the original language is Finnish. But it's gonna be an interesting project for me. It's been years since I last translated a book (5 years ago), so we shall see how it goes. One thing is for sure...I'll use the dictionaries A LOT - including the online English dictionaries ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...Another sure thing to happen is that it's gonna be A SLOW project. :-D

P.S. One thing I love about life in a small village is that even though there aren't many "activities" and "places to go" here (no university, just a handful of foreigners) , life feels considerably simpler here and I get to meet familiar faces a lot (esp. through work). And it's nice to be able to banter with customers whose faces I remember, even though I don't necessarily know their names.

REALLY thankful for this job that allows me to meet and interact with many people...

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New Year's Resolution

Yep...it's the time of the year again to make resolution(s) he he he...I've found one for me at least. It's to speak Finnish to R2 at least one day of the week. I don't think I can manage speaking Finnish to him every day since it's really tiring and it takes a long time to convey my thoughts to him in Finnish, but I can feel my Finnish gradually becoming worse and worse now that I've been out of the course for half a year.

I'm also going to go back to reading some Finnish text every day (no matter how short it is, I will do it and I have to look up the words in the dictionary instead of just "getting the gist"). Now that I've been doing the training and I'm creating a new blog, it gets harder and harder to share time to do other stuff.

So...have you thought about your New Year's Resolution yet?

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Finnish for Foreigners: My Recommendation

I just remembered that maybe someone who visits my blog wants to know which Finnish books I've used to learn Finnish on my own. Here are some books I recommend for you:

1. Finnish: An Essential Grammar (Fred Karlsson)

2. Teach Yourself Finnish (Terttu Leney)

These are the exercises books we use in our course. These are VERY VERY good for beginners. Unfortunately I only found them in a Finnish website, but no worries, right?

3. Kieli Käyttöön (Alkeisoppikirja)

4. Kieli Käyttöön (Jatko-oppikirja)

This is the dictionary I've used: WSOY Suomi-Englanti-Suomi. I bought it along with the CD-Rom, so I can leave the big dictionary in my classroom and use the CD-Rom at home he he he...VERY practical!!!

And if you want to learn Finnish via emails, you can go to this site: Uusi kielemme. You can order 5 or 10 lessons at once and pay via Paypal.

Okie dokie, that's all for now, but before I go, here's one quotation for you:

I have seen men in real life who so long deceived others that at last their true nature could not reveal itself . . . . He who cannot reveal himself cannot love, and he who cannot love is the most unhappy man of all.
Søren Kierkegaard

Full Time Course and Moving

No, no, no, I'm not planning on moving anywhere, but yesterday we helped Arttu's second brother moving his stuff from the truck to his girlfriend's apartment. We arrived there at around 7 pm and it was -9'C. He said it was freezing HE HE HE HE HE HE...We stayed there a while after we were done with it. Well, it wasn't really done yet. He still has to go back to Pori twice: one time to get the rest of his stuff and the second time to clean up the apartment before he can finally settle down here.

It was pretty funny when he offered us tea or coffee, since the apartment was pretty new to him, so he had a bit of a hard time trying to find everything HA HA HA HA HA...His girlfriend's apartment is very lovely. It's actually like a small housing complex, so there aren't any second or third floors, so there are just plenty of apartments near one another. Her apartment has two bedrooms and it's clear that it's a girl's apartment from the moment I entered the hall HA HA HA HA HA...Even though single guys here can also decorate the apartment well and neatly, there's just this distinct female aura that I can't explain. I'm sure you know what I mean, though HE HE HE...

I LOVE the paintings she put on the living room wall. The big painting is a painting of autumn leafless trees on a long stretch of a road. The colours are mostly white and brown and black. Splendid!!! I also love her sofa and her antique cabinet and living room lamp. No, don't worry, I'm not envious about it. I just thought that it was a nice place to live he he he he...

Another funny thing I found out was that Arttu's nephew (his eldest brother's youngest son) actually wanted to move here, as well. When Arttu's second brother said, "But you have to go to school!", he replied, "I can move to the school in Sodankylä." HA HA HA HA HA HA...Apparently he really likes living here much better than in Pori! ;-D

OK, now let's talk about my full-time course. At first I thought that the first course would be at around 8 am, right? WRONG!!! I got a letter from the firm that organized the course and they said that it would start at 10 am the first day.

Not long after that, my Brit friend MC called me and said, "We have a HUGE problem!" Turned out that she had called our full-time course teacher and she couldn't speak fluent English, though she understood English. Well, at least MC has warned our teacher that the majority of the students will not be able to speak proper Finnish at all, so she needs to brush up her English. MC also said that we'd talk about the rest of the days of the course, whether we'd start at 9 am or 10 am.

Last night Arttu also mentioned this problem to his brother and we were joking about it. I told them that I'd better bring my thick dictionary to the classroom and whenever the teacher said something I didn't understand, I would have to ask her to stop and then I would have to look up the words in a dictionary. That would be "fun" HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...Ahem!!!

I know that it IS good if we're forced to speak in Finnish and to listen to Finnish all the time, but the problem is...if we don't even master the basics yet, how are we supposed to do it, right? It'd be more ideal to listen to Finnish during the whole class if we know some Finnish already and we're already in the intermediate level. Oh well...it's gonna be VERY interesting. That's for sure. I'd better brush up my Finnish, as well, 'coz I haven't studied it well for a while. Oops...there goes my New Year's Resolution HA HA HA HA...Not to worry, though, once the full-time course starts, I'll be studying Finnish more diligently than ever HA HA HA HA HA...

Okie dokie...now it's time to blog-hop!!! ;-D

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Operation Speak Up

Karen wrote Silence is Golden in her blog. I told her that in my life, I have to learn the other way around, especially here in Finland. I'm always afraid of trying to practise my Finnish. So the creative Karen has made me a button to launch Operation Speak Up.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for this button, buddy!!! ;-D

This operation is for everyone who's shy, who's afraid of making mistakes when practising a new language, who's afraid of speaking up their thoughts in general. This operation is to challenge anyone to move outside their comfort zone and to take risks by speaking up their minds.

I have promised Karen that I'd try to speak to my mother-in-law yesterday before I launched this operation. Turned out that I didn't have to do anything much as she was the one who initiated the conversation. Arttu was taking a nap after lunch, and since I wasn't sleepy, I got back to the living room where my mother-in-law was cooking. I thought even if we couldn't talk, I'd be able to help out if she wanted to. However, she was almost done already, so she didn't ask for my help. While waiting for the food to be cooked in the oven, she then tried to talk to me.

First of all, she said this slowly: "How old...(then she spoke some words in Finnish)?" I thought she wanted to know the age difference of my parents, so I held up four fingers. She realized I didn't get it hi hi hi...so she took a Post-It note and wrote down her own age on it. Then I realized that she wanted to ask my parents' age. So I told her and she said, "Ahhh...nuori, nuori." (nuori = young)

Then she started asking about other stuff, as well. It was a pretty funny conversation 'coz sometimes she repeated her question several times just to make sure I understood. My problem was that sometimes I understood her question, but it took me a long time to find the words in Finnish and to create a sentence using the words, so she thought I didn't understand, so she repeated the question. Next time I should find out the words for: "Let me think." He he he he he...

Then at one point we had a hard time understanding each other, so she went to her room, took out her pocket English dictionary, and tried to find words to help her explain to me what she wanted to know. I TRULY appreciated her effort in trying to converse with me. I've gotta tell you that I was sweating during the first 5-10 minutes 'coz I knew I was all alone (Arttu couldn't help me) and I had no dictionary with me. But it turned out to be better than expected. Why? Because she was so determined in talking to me with her very limited English, it encouraged me to talk to her with my very limited Finnish. Plus we got to laugh in between when we had a hard time trying to say something in those languages he he he he he...

At another point, we had another difficult time in understanding each other. Gladly by then Arttu had woken up, so he helped me a little. He refused to help me a lot, dang him! Yeah, I know it's good for me to practise, but sometimes I hope he'd help me more by giving his mother a more detailed answer (I can only give simple answers) he he he...

I've gotta tell you that with very limited knowledge, one has gotta be a good guesser, too ha ha ha...One time she asked me about my parents' jobs. I didn't know the Finnish word for "retired", so I told her that my Dad stopped working last year. She then tried to look up the word in her pocket dictionary and showed it to me, and I said YES!!! It felt GOOD to be able to understand each other he he he...

I also told her that my brother was going to get married this December. Then she said, "Oh, but you're here, so you can't go to his wedding, right?" I said that he'd send me pictures of his wedding via email he he he...Then she asked about taxes system in Indonesia (at this point Arttu was our translator 'coz it was too hard for me to explain) and about Christmas celebration he he he...

Anyway, when we got back home, Arttu joked, "I should leave you alone in my parents' place for a few weeks." GRRRRRRR he he he he...

But all in all, I felt SO HAPPY 'coz yesterday I spoke the most Finnish ever since I moved here! I'm gonna try to practise my Finnish with them again next time I see them. It seems that they're eager to ask questions about my country and family he he he...

WHOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPEEEE!!!

I feel like jumping up and down the place (and I stopped sweating after those 10-15 minutes had passed) HA HA HA HA HA...

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Good news is that next Saturday's our first wedding anniversary. It doesn't feel that way 'coz we've only been together in real life for about 7 months now. The other day I asked Arttu when we'd spend a night at the cabin again, and yesterday he told his mother that we MAY go there next weekend. YIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!!! I LOVE going to the cabin 'coz there's no computer or TV to bother us. Just the radio, us, and nature!!! ;-D Plenty of quality time. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

P.S. Next time I'll remember my pocket Finnish dictionary so that I can talk more with my mother-in-law HE HE HE HE HE HE HE...