The Finnish language has a fearsome reputation.
With its 15 grammatical cases, 200+ verb endings, and the seemingly never-ending ways to inflect a noun, the language is notoriously difficult to learn — especially for people who attempt to learn it as adults.
Vanessa Cueva Pastor, a Peruvian who moved to Finland in 2019, has some advice for her fellow language-learners.
"If you want to learn Finnish, don't be afraid. It's normal to have some fear but you need to try all the time because if you don't speak, you won't learn," she tells Yle News.
Cueva Pastor takes a comedic look at her experiences with the Finnish language via her Instagram channel.
"The Finnish language is very funny, because there are a lot of amusing expressions and words in Finnish," she tells Yle News. "I want to make people laugh about those cultural shocks, and also about the process of learning Finnish."
Cueva Pastor's journey towards speaking Finnish had an inauspicious start. She recalls how she cried after her first Finnish language lesson as she thought she had no hope of ever passing the exam at the end of the course.
"But then I remember that my partner and my friends told me, Vanessa, don't be like that. Take it easy. I know the Finnish language is difficult, but you will get there. You just need to take it pikkuhiljaa [step by step], and then you will learn," she says.
She did eventually pass that exam, but notes that her language acquisition really took off when she undertook a work practice placement at a hospital in Helsinki where she used Finnish every day with patients and colleagues, and was forced out of her comfort zone.
"I had a lot of fear about speaking Finnish because of the grammar and because I thought I needed to speak very well, and not make mistakes," says Cueva Pastor "But then I realised it doesn't really matter. The main thing that you need to do is just to speak, and that's when the fear starts to go away," she says.
Overcoming that fear has helped her use Finnish more often and more confidently in everyday life, she says, but it has also provided a launchpad for her social media career.
Many of her videos will strike a chord with anyone who has faced that same Finnish language-induced fear — such as mastering the 'ä', 'ö' and 'y' sounds.
But instead of being a source of confusion for Cueva Pastor, as they once were, these struggles are now a source of comedy.
"People sometimes comment to say they think my videos are very funny, and thank me for making them laugh. Honestly I feel very happy when I read those comments, and that gives me more confidence to make these videos," she says.
Building networks and buying milk
Kamilla Sultanova, a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) consultant originally from Uzbekistan, also cites the importance of taking a lighter look at language learning.
"Learning a language is much more fun when you can laugh at it," Sultanova says, adding that understanding the Finnish sense of humour was a huge benefit during her own Finnish language journey.
"They [Finns] laugh at things which are hard for us on a daily basis, but we can find refuge in that, and know that we're not alone in suffering through funny cross-cultural clashes or the weather, or the darkness."
Sultanova moved to Finland just over 10 years ago, but her own forays into the Finnish language started a few years later, as she got by initially with English and a growing command of Swedish.
However, as a keen networker, she felt that a lack of Finnish was limiting her career development. There were more practical reasons too.
"I realised I need to focus on it [learning Finnish] because even with knowing some Swedish, and having things written in two languages in Finnish shops, I still kept picking up the wrong items or brought home piimä [a Finnish sour milk drink] instead of milk, so it really did make sense to learn," Sultanova explains.
She adds that, similar to Cueva Pastor's experiences, her language acquisition benefitted from getting out of her comfort zone.
"With my line of work, I couldn't speak about immigration and diversity without really knowing what's written in the media about it, so I pushed myself to listen to podcasts, to read magazines, and I have the Helsingin Sanomat app on my phone, so I feel now I have it in my pulse," she says.
Her command of the Finnish language has developed to such an extent that on 9 April this year — which is Mikael Agricola or Finnish Language Day — she launched a podcast, in Finnish, called 'Suomi +' which she hopes will provide a platform for foreign voices speaking Finnish.
"We want to start a new discussion about Finland by internationals themselves, to highlight the different kinds of Finnish being spoken, to share stories of inclusivity, belonging and perspectives on Finland, and how it feels to live here as professionals," Sultanova tells Yle News.
A very Finnish problem
The discussion around foreigners and their Finnish language skills is a very topical and timely one, as Finland is facing a labour shortage.
A study by business-backed think tank Etla found that Finland needs to triple its net migration every year over the next decade to plug the growing dependency ratio gap, a measure of a society's working age population compared to the number of dependents, such as children and the elderly.
Despite this, some Finnish employers tend to be reluctant to recruit foreign workers — often citing insufficient language skills.
Finland therefore faces a paradoxical problem: There is a commonly held perception among Finns that Finnish is far too difficult for foreigners to learn, and yet Finnish employers set a high bar for language skills.
Research Director Ville Pitkänen of E2 Research notes that the results of his studies have shown language is repeatedly mentioned as the main reason why immigrants find it difficult to adapt to Finnish society and working life.
"When we ask people what kind of barriers they have in adjusting to life in Finland, the language barrier often comes up first. While they also mention the difficulties of finding a job or difficulties in finding friends or perhaps finding the relevant networks, it always comes back to the language and these issues are in many ways intertwined," Pitkänen says.
Failing to help people integrate into society, he adds, can have negative long-term effects.
"The people who don't adjust here, who don't integrate, they end up moving away. So it's a lost opportunity and that is perhaps the biggest long-term issue and the most important one," Pitkänen says.
He advises Finnish employers to lower their expectations of a candidate's Finnish language skills at the interview stage — and instead see language acquisition as part of a longer-term process.
"We tend to think about these language issues too much in black and white, so either you are fluent or you don't speak at all," Pitkänen says. "This is something we should think through, or think about again, where one doesn't have to know the language perfectly when they come to the job interview, even if there is some Finnish language requirement."
Sultanova agrees that, while learning some level of Finnish is important for anyone wishing to live in the country, Finnish society has a part to play too.
"Language is just a small part of what makes you belong. We need to create inclusive workplaces, to make jobs accessible to internationals," she says.
"That is the work on inclusion that every Finnish company and organisation should do."
The All Points North podcast asks how to overcome linguistic hurdles when speaking Finnish as a foreigner. Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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