Discussion: Finnish

I had a few fine opportunities to speak Finnish. On more than one occasion I said, "En voi puhua suomea", and was perfectly understood. At the sausage stand with Jim Arsenault, he was about to order in English and I cut him off and said "Kaksi makkaraa". And at the seafood stand with Jeff Saeger, I got to the front of the line, leaned back to read the menu sign over my head, and resoundingly read off the menu item that I wanted, which I had been told meant smoked salmon, but consisted of two very long tongue-twisting words. That got a hearty laugh out of the vendors, and they served me up a nice plate of fish and potatoes and vegetables.

One of the meanings of "sisu" is "grit". I had plenty of that. We all did. In our respiratory systems, mainly.

Well done! If I knew that much Finnish, I would consider myself fluent and go ahead and move to Finland--the land where ants make large maps, where it never gets dark in summertime, where the bare rock is gray underneath the pine trees, the nearest lake is never far away, and whose forests are full of mosquitoes. Pus I am pretty sure they don't cruelly separate orienteering teams at the border and throw them in wire cages. There is so much to like.