One of the core functions of Finlandia Foundation Seattle Chapter from its inception has been to offer classes in the Finnish language. Over the years, hundreds of individuals have passed through levels of instruction from beginning to advanced. According to 40 Years of History, published by FFSC in 2008, a conversational Finnish class with 25 eager students began in 1969 in Seattle under the tutelage of Jenny Pelto. Three years later, Pentti Uuspää started a Finnish literature class, and the next year Leo Utter initiated a Finnish literature study group. While all these learning opportunities were in Seattle, subsequent classes were also taught in Tacoma, Everett and Kent. Long-time FFSC member Aini Messmer recalls with fondness the Everett class taught by Kalle Keränen and credits that with a renewed interest in her Finnish heritage.
Following in this long and honorable tradition, another semester of language classes began on January 10 at the Finnish Lutheran Church – long-time venue for students and teachers to meet. Chris Morris, current beginning and intermediate class teacher, is joined in February by Paula Berg, who is to lead the advanced group. The recruitment of these two excellent teachers and the general supervision of language classes has been the task of Jenni Salmi in recent years, and she has been tireless in her devotion to this work. A first-rate teacher herself, Jenni well understands what a difference high quality instruction can make to students motivated to learn what is generally accounted a difficult language.
My own appreciation for Finnish has been increased recently by a book my friend and fellow Finnophile Gary Lundell gave my wife and me for Christmas. Gary had previously piqued my interest in Diego Marani’s New Finnish Grammar, referred to him, in turn, by the creator of local productions of Sampo and the Magic Mill and Troublemaker’s Daughter, Nick DiMartino. Judging from the title of Marani’s book, I assumed it to be yet another effort to make Finnish accessible to foreigners. I was surprised when Gary told me that it was actually a novel by an Italian linguist about an injured amnesiac who has no recollection of who he is and whose only clue to his identity is the “Sampo Karjalainen” name stitched into the collar of his jacket. Assumed to be Finnish, he is sent to Finland to rediscover his language and himself.
In the broad sense, New Finnish Grammar is, then, about the relationship between language and identity. Clearly, though, Marani finds there is something particularly strong about the connection between Finnishness and Finnish – the sense of being Finnish and of speaking Finnish. Consider, for example, this explanation of Finnish by the protagonist’s teacher, one Pastor Koskela:
The forms of a language inevitably have repercussions upon the speaker, it is they that mould his face, his land, his habits, where he lives, what he eats. The foreigner learning Finnish distorts his own bodily features; he moves away from his original self, may indeed no longer recognize it. This does not happen studying other languages, because other languages are merely temporary scaffolding for meaning. Not so for Finnish: Finnish was not invented. The sounds of our language were around us, in nature, in the woods, in the pull of the sea, in the call of the wild, in the sound of the falling snow. All we did was to bring them together and bend them to our needs. When God created men, he did not bother to send any men up here. So we had to do what we could to struggle free of defenseless matter on our own. In order to gain life, we had to suffer. First came trees, lakes, rocks, wind. Becoming human all on your own was no joke. Finnish is a solid language, slightly rounded at the sides, narrow slits for eyes, like the houses in Helsinki, the faces of our people… If you were once Finnish, at some point or other you will find all this within you, because all this is not stored in your memory, it cannot be mislaid. It is in your blood, your guts. We are what remains of something extremely ancient, something which is bigger than ourselves and is not of this world. (Dedalus, 2012, 53-54)
Those of us with non-native skills in Finnish will identify with “Sampo” in his quest to learn (or relearn) Finnish. We will understand what Koskela mean, when he tells his pupil that Finnish is “a logarithmic grammar: the more you chase after it, the more it escapes you down endless corridors of numbers, all alike yet subtly different, like the fugues of Bach.” (Ibid., p. 70) Yet, what sustains “Sampo” can sustain all of us who seek some mastery of Finnish: his teacher’s belief that he is capable of learning (or relearning) this wondrous language.
So, I thank Jenni and Chris and Paula and all their FFSC language class predecessors (I counted at least 50 teachers but I know that number is low). And, let us expand the circle of gratitude to include Taija Hämälainen and all the CIMO-sponsored lecturers from Finland who have taught Finnish at University of Washington over the years. The dedicated teachers at Suomikoulu also deserve fulsome appreciation for keeping Finnish alive among children and youth. Finally, a salute to you parents who in your own homes are resisting the considerable pressures of English monolingualism to give your children the gift of your mother tongue. There is probably no other place in this country where there are so many opportunities to retain, learn or re-learn Finnish.
I was taken aback last fall when my wife and I entered a shop on Korkeavuorenkatu in Helsinki and were immediately informed by the proprietress that she did not speak Finnish. I suppose one could see that as a good sign – the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of a city where all are likely to speak English or one of the other half dozen languages this shopkeeper had learned before she met and married a Finn and came to Finland to live a decade or so previously. But, at the same time, what a loss! For, when any of us knocks on the door of a foreign culture, the response from the other side is likely to be, “If you really want to get in, you will have to learn our language.” Diego Marani appears to be telling us in his beautiful book that this is especially true of Finnish. I see no reason to disagree.
Gary London
FFSC President