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Let's train tomorrow (huomenna) some more!

Hyvää yötä ja kauniita unia! (Good night and beautiful dreams!)

Its so hard to learn a language without hearing it though.Unless you knew the langauges phonetics it's nigh on impossible.

If this is for any language I am going to mention my love of French, it is just that - lovely! I don't know what it is but it feels sooo good to do well in French and when the teacher asks you something in French and you can answer it with a half decent answer it makes me feel a lot better than I would getting something correct in another class.

This year I picked up Spanish as well and despite a kind of shaky start I'm really starting to like it.

The last couple of years they seem to be letting anybody drop French/German or whichever language they've studied for 2-4 years at the end of S2 (so they don't even need to do Standard Grades in a language). This makes me feel mad! There are people who genuinely can't grasp languages or find it incredibly difficult to so it's understandable why they don't take it but SIXTY S2s from last year at my school never took French/German this year and I find it seriously wrong. When I tell people I take AH French they look at me like I'm some sort of mentallist.

Ignore them Jezi, it sounds like a cliche but it's true that when you leave school most people wish they had got more qualifications. Who'll be laughing later when you have options that don't even exist to them? You know it makes sense! If people are picking on you because you study 'too hard' just smile and think 'yeah, who'll be laughing in a few years time though!'

No I'm not really picked on for studying hard (people are probably jealous of those who don't get nagged at for failing NABs etc!) it's just the look of amazement on peoples faces. Maybe it's not so bad at some schools but last year 20 people took higher french between 5th and 6th year... yes TWENTY! That was out of like 250 odd in my year (by the end of the year possibly nearer 200 though) and goodness knows how many in 6th, 150 maybe. That's excluding the AH people from last year though. But it just amazes me with all the travelling people do nowadays they don't want to know that bit more. IMO it's very ignorant to just expect people to know English.

Hyvää yötä Mari!

Yes, Jezi as technology improves the world does get smaller and journeys that used to take months can now take hours! I wish we had had more language choices available when I was at school.

At our school you can do French and German right the way through (wish I'd been able to do German too Stupid S2 teacher. They have to recommend that you pick up the 2nd language but she never put it on anybody's reports and then complained when nobody from our class did ) and then Spanish in S6.

Before you used to be able to do lots of languages apparently including Italian and Russian.

Wow, you've done some serious progress here after I went to bed! I love french too, Jezi, but only love to listen to and speak it, not learning it. I'm crap at it, but I pronounce it really well. It's just that I don't understand what I'm saying half the time

Molly, a and ä are different vowels, a is pronounced exactly like the a's in the name Latoya, ä pronounces like the letter a in the word black. The consonants are pronounced easily, not as sharply as in english. For example the letters k, p and t are kind of spit out in english, in finnish they're pronounced more softly.

Enjoy your meal = Hyvää ruokahalua

Would you like to dance? = Haluaisitko tanssia?

Leave me alone = Jätä minut rauhaan

A glass of redwine, please = Saisinko lasin punaviiniä?

And one that everyone will need at some point:

I had sex with that guy last night = Harrastin seksiä tuon tyypin kanssa viime yönä

Hauskaa päivänjatkoa = Have a nice day

Minulla on nälkä = I'm hungry

Tarvitsen vessapaperia = I need some toiletpaper

Here's one for Molly:

Ole kiltti ja nypi sipulit pois ruoastani tai oksennan näppäimistöni päälle = Please pick the onions out of my food or I'll puke all over my keyboard

You told me that meant "Where is the nearest youth hostel, please?"

I am bilingual and have bizarre conversations with my parents with them speaking Gujarati and me answering in English. But when I was in India for 6 months not a soul spoke English and I ended up a fluent speaker. The same happened when I went travelling around France years ago. I do love French, but just hate the French. I speak some Spanish and German - I think being bilingual makes it easier for you to learn other klanguages, unfortunately my Finnish is limited to just one thing

Hyvää iltaa, maukas kala!
Good evening, tasty fish!

So now you understand why all the people gave you such weird looks?

Well that won't get you very far. Gives you clean dishes, though

I use those.

Where are you from? = Mistä olet kotoisin?
I'm from... Finland = Olen kotoisin... Suomesta
...England = ...Englannista
That's interesting! = Sehän on mielenkiintoista!

It maddens me that the British are so lazy about learning languages. In Northern Ireland, it's now becoming uncommon for schools to offer German (my favourite language) as the pupils think it's too hard, and teachers for it are thin on the ground. Sometimes I feel guilty for teaching in Primary school, and not using my German degree. Though I *am* teaching French to the kids at my school, at least!!

Jezi - I'm surprised at the lack of interest in your school, given that Scottish schools have been teaching one or two languages at Primary level for years. BTW - I did Spanish O level in one year, and I loved it.