The best part about living in Los Angeles is...
Without a doubt, the diversity of cultures, nationalities, and languages, and the opportunities that rise from such cultural richness. It feels as though the whole world is represented here.
Recommend a place to visit where Finnish is the native language, and tell us why you like it.
The only place in the world where Finnish is spoken as the native language is Finland. So if you want to fully immerse yourself in Finnish, you'll have to travel to Finland! The capital of Helsinki is a wonderful city to start your Finnish experience with: it's an international city, but its distinctive culture, nature, architecture, culinary scene, and relaxed atmosphere make it a profoundly Finnish place. But be warned; Finns speak excellent English and switching to it comes naturally to them, so you will have to tell them that you would prefer to get the full Finnish language treatment!
What Finnish film or musical artist do you recommend students watch or listen to?
I would recommend the movies by the Finnish auteur/ filmmaker, Aki Kaurismäki. His films are quirky and minimalistic, funny and humane, and quintessentially Finnish. His latest film, 'The Other Side of Hope' (2016), not only takes place in Helsinki, but also is painfully and beautifully current because of its subject matter.
What most surprises your students about Finnish?
Finnish is unique in that it bears very little resemblance to its Indo-European neighbor-languages, and therefore it may come as a surprise to the students that it really does take an extra amount of dedication to dive into the language. In essence, the student will have to adapt a new way of thinking about language because of its grammar structures: Finnish has no grammatical gender and has only gender-neutral pronouns (one word for she/he), and the seemingly endless inflection of nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals may take some time to get used to. Finnish is certainly not an easy language, but that is what also makes it all the more rewarding; you'll be in a special club of around 5 million people who can converse in Finnish, and the Finns will love you doubly more for embracing their idiosyncratic language.
What one thing would you like your students to know about you?
I'm a native Finn, but I have a long history of learning languages myself, from English to Japanese, and from Swedish to German, so I know the intricacies and tricks of getting into the mindset of learning a challenging language.