Finland makes Latin the King
Finnish latin primer. Image by venticello. Some rights reserved.
Of course, I like Latin. I loved looking out the window - through the stone, gothic lattice - while listening to my dry latin tutor's pleasant drone. (I still enjoy identifying a subjunctive in a phrase of law latin. It makes my students laugh that anyone living still knows such things.)
Very cool. Well, not the Elvis part.
From the BBC:
Like the boy at the party with cheese straws stuck up his nose, it has been caught doing something vaguely disturbing - indulging a penchant for Latin.
It is the only country in the world which broadcasts the news in Latin.
On its EU presidency website one can find descriptions of meetings in Latin. But love of the language of Rome goes deep.
I am in a hotel somewhere comfortably north of Helsinki. It is off-season, so the place is deserted. There are dark brown mock logs, lining one side of the room. Fake beams on the ceiling, chocolate-box pictures on the walls.
There is also a man in the corner of the room singing Elvis Presley's songs in Latin, like Can't Help Falling In Love - or Non adamare non possum.
Comments:
Comment from: Janis Martin [Visitor] 
We are Canadians whose daughter is a student at the University of Jyvaskyla in Saumi, so we were not suprised to hear that someone was singing Elvis Presley's songs in the hotel, but had no idea that the Saumis ever sing in Latin. Mind you, we don't know if our daughter could distinguish the language from Finnish, which seems to be quite complex! We also hear that the Finns are wild about latin dances, especially the tango, so perhaps if it had not been off season, couples would have been dancing the tango to the Elvis impersonator's renditions.
Kiitos, kiitos very much for the information. We aren't doing too well trying to learn Finnish, so maybe we had better try Latin prior to the next visit.
Kiitos, kiitos very much for the information. We aren't doing too well trying to learn Finnish, so maybe we had better try Latin prior to the next visit.
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03/12/07 @ 01:21
Comment from: theboyonthebicycle [Member]
Thanks for the note. I, too, find Finnish baffling. Musical it is not.
After we had exhausted every other topic of conversation on a long car trip, a friend once tried to convince me that Finnish, combined the best features of German and Latin. This meant, according to him, that Finnish was destined to be the language of the future.
We still laugh about his repeated conclusion - "It's the next Esperanto!"
I can't say he wasn't right.
After we had exhausted every other topic of conversation on a long car trip, a friend once tried to convince me that Finnish, combined the best features of German and Latin. This meant, according to him, that Finnish was destined to be the language of the future.
We still laugh about his repeated conclusion - "It's the next Esperanto!"
I can't say he wasn't right.
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03/12/07 @ 06:34
Comment from: Avalon [Visitor]
The correct Finnish spelling for Finland is Suomi.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Suomi is a Finnish word that most commonly refers to either:
Finland, a northern European country (written with capital initial letter: Suomi); or The Finnish language itself (written with lower-case initial letter in Finnish: suomi or suomen kieli)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Suomi is a Finnish word that most commonly refers to either:
Finland, a northern European country (written with capital initial letter: Suomi); or The Finnish language itself (written with lower-case initial letter in Finnish: suomi or suomen kieli)
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03/12/07 @ 08:09
Comment from: theboyonthebicycle [Member]
Does that mean that struggling to learn Finnish could be referred to as "suomi wrestling"?
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03/12/07 @ 08:29
Comment from: Michelle [Visitor]
I spent three months in Finland working as an au pair with the SWAP program about 16 years ago. I managed to learn about 100 words during that time, but there was no way I could string them together into sentences. I've heard the Finnish language described as similar to Mandarin Chinese, in the sense that it relies so heavily on intonation, but it always sounded to me slightly Japanese or Hawaiian...
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03/13/07 @ 16:32
Comment from: Flo Speakman [Visitor]
Learning finnish is entirely up to the people who surround you when you live there. I had some very dynamic friends in the 11 months I was an exchange student. After about 3 months, they essentially stopped speaking English to me and I was able to hobble through the language.
The syntax is very similar to Japanese in some ways. But once you learn it, you are able to understand the culture so much better!
The syntax is very similar to Japanese in some ways. But once you learn it, you are able to understand the culture so much better!
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03/16/07 @ 12:56
Comment from: king cano 78 [Visitor]
I just have a few words to speak. TO my Latin King’s of Puerto Rico and NYC; the real Kings!!!! There is a problem going on in our Isla, our streets, nuerto comunidad y nuestro otro pais ; our home (USA) who our brother and sisters are fighting for. We are being fragmented, dissolved, incorporated into a new mix of Latin’s; our heritage is being confused. Lat time I checked I wasn’t Hondurian or Mexican; fuck that!!! O.K. I may look a little white, but not like a fucking jibaro that just crossed the frontera!!! We are Boricua, Nuyo Rican, Chicago Ricans, we speak Spanglish Diablo!!! Now, we are being confused once again with Mexicans; who hate us, El Salvadorians who want to kill us and destroy what we've made a home. We need to reunite once again in the same terms; el Amor Del Rey... The 5 points that made us over 40 years ago and that represented us that exposed what we were. We are Boricuas!!! We are a part of this country as well as the Irish, Germans, Italians and Spaniards. We need to stand up and protect what we have (Puerto Rico, USA.) Soon we will be fighting MS13, Mexican Mafia... what the fuck!!! Now, now!!! Now is our time to do what's necessary to assist this fucked up government that reprents us here and our Isla for one reason - to protect what our brothers and sisters hustled for us in the prisons and streets for us. I could go on and on about this, but I won't. Mi gente!!! I mean my real KINGS; it's time for another war, it's time to make another stand; again!!!! This time it's not against our own people in the street for money, but it's time for us to represent what's ours!!! Those of you that are real, well ya’ll know what I mean and know who you are. Nesecitamos representar!!! Email me if you like. El Amor Del Rey. By the way ... this site is being monitored!!!
Please real kings!!!! To communicate look into http://www.torproject.org/ for future reference.
King.cano78@gamil.com
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12/20/07 @ 05:25 
