Beginner's Finnish (Hippocrene Beginner's)

by Agi Risko

This beginner's guide gives you the basics to start speaking Finnish today. Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of Finns and by ethnic Finns in other countries. It is also the official minority language in some parts of Sweden and Norway. Ideal for students, tourists, and business people, this introductory guide teaches basic conversation through dialogues on everyday topics, such as eating out, sightseeing, and shopping. Grammar is explained in accessible steps, with exercises throughout to reinforce language skills.

Genres: Finnish Literature

298 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

Reviews

[Christian Crowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for intermediate learners, and I'll return to it when I've gotten farther in my studies the appendices at the back are particularly helpful: templates for declining 32 noun classes and a bunch of verb classes

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the length and level of the dialogue. Towards the end I got bored. I am not sure how much I learned from the book, but it was good practice for reading and listening comprehension.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Agi Risko's BEGINNER'S FINNISH is one of the lesser-known contemporary textbooks for Finnish. The author presents some of the basic features of the language in twelve chapters, with the dialogues following a group of American students on summer holiday in Finland. I disagree greatly with the method Risko uses to present these dialogues, Finnish on one side and a facing-page translation into English. A complete translation of all the Finnish will act only as a crutch for the student. The book is typeset in Hippocrene's typical space-inefficient style and nearly 300 pages are needed for a work of fairly meagre content. Grammatical concepts are presented in the dry style of reference grammars instead of the vivid presentation necessary for teach-yourself books.

I suppose this could be useful if you just want a taste of Finnish. However, anyone looking to start towards proficiency in the language would best acquire a combination of other books. Probably the best basic textbook for autodidacts is Terttu Leney's TEACH YOURSELF FINNISH. Leena Silfverberg's SUOMEN KIELEN ALKEISOPPIKIRJA and SUOMEN KIELEN JATKO-OPPIKIRJA (both published by Finn Lectura) contain further exercises that one needs to work through before leaving the beginner level. Finally, the DVD course SUPISUOMEA is an essential source of audio with fast dialogues.

[Hannah Talban]

OK

[Moud Barthez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, it was very helpful in my studying progress.
i highly recommended it