Terve kaikki; ）I went to school in Finland and then worked in customer service in the area. Most of my classmates from school, as well as the staff at my workplace were Finnish, and 100% of our customers were Finnish, so I lived my daily life using the Finnish language on a daily basis.

Even after returning to Japan, I continue to enjoy interacting with Finnish people living in the Kanto region. There are actually not too many Finnish people living in Japan itself, so most of the people in the community are my longtime friends, and we have known each other for many years.

As for career in Finnish, I work irregularly as a translator and interpreter, mainly for TV-related projects. Aside from online lessons, I used to teach Finnish at Sankei Gakuen and a photography school in Tokyo. I have been teaching Finnish for 8 years now.

Finland’s lush forests and lakes, the Northern Lights, saunas, Christmas holidays, and designs that are loved around the world are all wonderful, but what I found the most wonderful were the people of Finland themselves.

About My Lessons
Q. I am a complete beginner, but can Is till take you lessons?

Yes, of course you can. I have experience teaching Finnish to a diverse range of people, from those who have never heard of Finnish before, to those who have studied on their own, studied abroad, or studied it at language school, and so on. So please rest at ease when taking my lessons. The most important thing in learning a language is to enjoy it and to stick to it.

Q. What textbooks do I need to prepare for your lessons?

You don’t need to prepare a textbook. I know that Finnish vocabulary and grammar are unfamiliar to most of you, so the first thing you should do is to learn to listen carefully and practice your pronunciation. I will introduce new vocabulary, verbs, grammar, and so on in each lesson, so you should be able to gradually increase the number of useful words and phrases that you know. Even in this way, with the help of textbooks “suomea suomeksi”, “Suomen kielen alkeisoppikirja”, “Finnish for foreigners”,  and practice book “Suomen kielen sanastoharjoituksia”, you will be able to learn words, grammar, singular and plural case of each noun, and understand the changes in the singular and plural case of each noun, the basic changes in verbs, the three past tenses Imperatiivi imperative, Konditionaali conditional, Passiivi passive (present tense - three past tenses - imperative - conditional), all partisiippi participles, infinitiivi infinitives, and so on.

Q. I am worried that I will not be able to keep up with your lessons, because I am not yet at the level where I am able to listen to and use the Finnish language.

Most of my students who have taken a lesson with me are from the generation that are used to reading textbooks and translating them into Japanese. As a result, quite a few of my students seem surprised or anxious at first.However, most of them start out not knowing a word of Finnish, and after two years, they are able to listen to and understand the expressions as well as the grammar they studied, and respond to it in Finnish. For instance, would you think, “I am not at the level to play guitar yet, so I will memorize chords for the first three years, and then I will start listening to music and playing!” when you first start learning to play the guitar?

So don’t worry. Let’s first try your hand at it.

What I’ve been into lately:

Watching Ghibli movies on Netflix in English and Finnish versions, and deciding which phrases in each language are the most beautiful, based on my subjective opinion.

I’ve also been into kalevauva.fi as well because it’s both interesting and addicting! There is a website called “vauva.fi”, which is like a Finnish version of Yahoo! Questions, and they are a two-person band that collect such comments on the site and turn them into lyrics for their songs! You can check them out on YouTube if you’d like! You might find a city you recognize!? liputtomasti selityksiä, tuijottava koira,vantaa are all interesting, so please try them out!

Elastinen and Sanni have been my recent favorites!

 (A picture I took in Helsinki)