Our Journey to Finland — Part 5
Before Finland became our home, Finnish first became a language I had to learn.
In 2023, I barely knew anything about the Finnish language.
I didn’t know how Finnish grammar worked.
I didn’t know why some words seemed impossibly long.
And I definitely didn’t know that one day I would be using Finnish at work, at the grocery store, at our daughter’s daycare, and even during casual conversations with our neighbors.
At first, Finnish was simply another requirement connected to an opportunity.
If I wanted to continue pursuing the possibility of working in Finland, I had to start learning the language.
So I did.
I opened those first lessons.
I printed my reviewers.
I memorized vocabulary.
I practiced speaking to myself.
I took oral assessments.
And sometimes, when those assessments happened during my working hours in Dubai, my car became my little Finnish classroom. 😅
A year later, I was living in a small town in Finland, where suddenly the words I had been memorizing through a computer screen were all around me.
And that’s when I realized something:
Passing a Finnish-language assessment and actually living in Finnish are two very different things. 😂
This is the beginning of my Finnish-language journey – from studying online while living and working in Dubai to slowly finding the confidence to actually use the language in Finland.
Image Source: Online lessons with Silkkitie
How We Actually Got to Finland: Our Recruitment and Residence Permit Journey
Why Learning Finnish Became Important
Living in Dubai for almost ten years had made me very comfortable using English.
I worked with people from many different countries – Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nepalese, Thais, Arabs, and many others.
English was usually the language that allowed us to communicate with one another at work.
So even though I lived in an Arabic-speaking country for almost a decade, I never really learned how to speak Arabic beyond a few words and expressions.
Then Finland came along.
And suddenly, learning the local language was something I could no longer simply put aside.
Finland has two national languages – Finnish and Swedish.
For us, however, we were moving to Kuhmo, where Finnish would naturally become the language we encountered most in everyday life.
More importantly, my initial work in Finland was in healthcare as a hoiva-avustaja, or care assistant.
Most of the elderly people we cared for communicated in Finnish.
The healthcare environment also required us to understand Finnish in many different situations – conversations with patients, communication with colleagues, documentation, reports, instructions, and other everyday tasks at work.
Not every colleague was comfortable speaking English either, which was completely understandable.
After all, we were the ones who had moved to Finland.
Outside work, Finnish also started appearing everywhere.
At the grocery store.
At restaurants.
At our daughter’s daycare.
In letters and notices.
During appointments.
And in conversations with our neighbors.
Of course, there are many people in Finland who can speak English, and not every job requires the same level of Finnish.
But for the life and work we were beginning in Kuhmo, Finnish became extremely important for us.
It wasn’t simply something I needed for recruitment anymore.
It became a language I needed to actually live my everyday life here.
Learning a New Language Felt Like Becoming a Child Again
Honestly, learning Finnish made me feel like a baby trying to speak for the first time.
😂
I grew up in the Philippines speaking Tagalog.
My mother is from the south and speaks Tagalog as well.
My father is from the northern Philippines and speaks Ilocano.
But even though I heard Ilocano growing up, I never really learned how to speak it.
I already thought Ilocano was difficult.
Then Finnish entered my life.
😅
During my years in the UAE, I worked with people from many different nationalities, but I never seriously studied any of their languages either.
I learned a few words here and there, but that was about it.
So Finnish was really the first completely new language that I seriously committed myself to learning as an adult.
And it was a huge challenge.
Suddenly, I was learning how to introduce myself again.
How to ask simple questions.
How to tell someone what I wanted.
How to understand a question.
How to form a sentence before the other person had already moved on to the next topic. 😂
Sometimes it genuinely felt like starting from zero.
How My Finnish Journey Started in Dubai
My Finland recruitment journey officially started in July 2023, when I attended an online orientation through Silkkitie.
I shared more about that process in:
Our Silkkitie Recruitment Experience: How Our Finland Journey Began
Shortly after deciding to continue with the recruitment process, I received access to the online Finnish-language course.
At that point, I still had doubts.
Nothing about our future was certain yet.
We didn’t know whether Finland would eventually become our home.
Part of me probably wondered:
What if I study all of this and we don’t even end up going to Finland?
😅
But at the same time, I was excited.
That’s always been something about me – I enjoy learning new things.
Long before Finnish came into my life, I enjoyed teaching myself different skills simply because I wanted to try them.
Crocheting.
Playing the piano.
Baking.
Little hobbies that made everyday life more interesting and colorful.
So at the beginning, I tried to look at Finnish in the same way.
Something new to learn.
Something new to challenge myself with.
Of course, I soon discovered that learning Finnish would require a little more commitment than following a crochet pattern.
😂
Looking Back at My First Finnish Notes
I still have some of my old Finnish notes, vocabulary lists, tables, reviewers, and study materials from 2023.
Looking at them today brings back so many memories.
Back then, those pages contained words I was desperately trying to remember.
Today, many of those same words are things I hear or use in my everyday life.
Everything started with the basics.
Greetings.
Numbers.
Questions.
Simple vocabulary.
Basic sentences.
One word at a time.
I also printed many of my study materials because I personally found it easier to study from paper than from a screen.
I have many more of these old reviewers, but instead of putting everything into this article, I’ll share some of them throughout the Finnish-language mini-series that follows.
Studying Finnish While Working Full-Time
At the time, I was still working full-time in Dubai.
Fortunately, my job involved spending a lot of time in an office, so whenever work was quiet, I sometimes had a chance to review vocabulary or look through my Finnish notes.
Whenever I really want to learn something, I try to make time for it.
At home, though, studying wasn’t always easy.
Our daughter was still very young – just over one year old at the time.
Once I came home from work, I wasn’t simply a Finnish-language student.
I was also a wife and a mother.
So I learned to use whatever little pockets of free time I could find.
Sometimes I studied during breaks.
Sometimes I listened to Finnish while driving.
Sometimes I practiced words inside my car.
And sometimes…
my car became the quietest Finnish classroom I could find.
😂
Moodle, Discord and Our Online Finnish Course
In our 2023 recruitment pathway, our online Finnish-language training was arranged through Silkkitie and provided to us without a course fee.
The course itself was handled by NLRC.
Our learning materials were available through Moodle, while Discord was used for communication, announcements, group activities, and assessment schedules.
I actually found the setup very convenient.
I was living in Dubai, but I could study Finnish completely online.
We could access our lessons, communicate with the teachers, and arrange assessments without needing to physically attend a classroom.
But simply reading the materials wasn’t enough.
We also had to speak Finnish.
And that’s where things became much more interesting.
😅
Image Source: Moodle by NLRC / Silkkitie
Those Finnish Oral Assessments
The oral assessments were probably one of the most nerve-racking parts of the course for me.
You could memorize vocabulary.
Review your notes.
Practice the same sentences several times.
Feel completely prepared.
And then the teacher would ask one question you weren’t expecting…
and suddenly:
Finnish language has left the brain.
😂
Many of the assessments were designed like real-life conversations.
Sometimes the teacher would pretend to be a customer while I played the role of someone working in a restaurant.
Other times the situation might take place in:
- a grocery store
- a flower shop
- a library
- a restaurant
- or simply during an ordinary conversation.
Sometimes the assessment was between the teacher and one student.
Other times, two students would speak with each other while the teacher listened and observed.
The goal wasn’t only to test what we had memorized.
It also gave us opportunities to practice what an actual Finnish conversation might feel like.
And believe me…
when someone is waiting for your answer, speaking feels very different from quietly reading vocabulary from a notebook.
😅
When My Car Became My Examination Room
Because assessment schedules were arranged according to the course timetable, they sometimes landed right in the middle of my working hours.
I couldn’t always choose the perfect time.
So when an assessment happened while I was at work, I had to find somewhere quiet.
My solution?
The car.
😂
During a break, I would leave the office, go to my car, close the doors, connect to the online assessment, and take my Finnish test from there.
It wasn’t glamorous.
But it worked.
Inside the car, it was peaceful.
Nobody was listening.
Nobody was interrupting me.
And I could concentrate.
Image Source: NLRC/ Silkkitie
My car became useful for more than assessments too.
Sometimes I sat there and memorized vocabulary.
Sometimes I practiced Finnish sentences aloud.
Sometimes I spoke to myself.
And I’m pretty sure my car heard more bad Finnish grammar than most people ever will.
😂
I should probably thank it:
Thank you for quietly listening to all my mistakes without ever correcting me.
Passing the Assessments and Moving Forward
Passing the assessments was important because completing each stage allowed us to continue moving forward with the language training and recruitment process.
If I remember correctly, there were somewhere around 25 to 30 units, with assessments connected to the different parts of the course.
Thankfully, I was able to pass my assessments on time.
That helped keep my own recruitment process moving forward without major delays.
But that doesn’t mean I was relaxed about them.
Far from it.
Every time I had an assessment, I became nervous.
My palms would sweat.
I’d review everything again.
I’d pray.
And then I would wait to find out whether I had passed.
Whenever I did, I felt incredibly relieved and grateful.
At that time, passing one Finnish assessment didn’t feel like simply completing another school exercise.
To me, every assessment meant:
One more step forward.
One more step toward a possibility.
One more step toward something that could completely change our family’s future.
And eventually, it did.
Then We Actually Arrived in Finland…
So yes.
I studied.
I memorized.
I practiced basic Finnish in everyday situations whenever I could.
I talked to myself in Finnish.
During online lessons, I tried to speak Finnish with my teachers even when I knew my grammar or pronunciation might be wrong.
I thought I had learned quite a lot.
Then we arrived in Finland.
And…
language shock.
😂
I don’t think culture shock was the only thing waiting for me here.
I knew a lot of vocabulary.
I had memorized plenty of Finnish words.
I could form basic sentences.
But suddenly I was standing in front of actual Finnish people who were speaking naturally.
And I remember thinking:
Wait.
What language is this?!
😂
Our Finland Residence Permit Journey: How We Applied as a Family
Classroom Finnish and Real-Life Finnish Were Different
The Finnish I had studied online gave me an incredibly important foundation.
Without it, I wouldn’t even have known where to begin.
But once I arrived, I realized that knowing vocabulary and understanding structured lessons was only the starting point.
Real conversations moved faster.
People used everyday expressions.
Words sounded different when spoken naturally.
And of course, I started hearing much more puhekieli, or spoken Finnish, instead of only the more structured Finnish I had become familiar with through my lessons.
Sometimes I understood the important words in what someone said.
The problem came when it was my turn to answer.
😅
Someone would ask me something.
I understood the question.
I knew what I wanted to say.
The answer was perfectly clear…
inside my head.
But getting that answer from my brain into a grammatically correct Finnish sentence?
That was another story.
Sometimes I simply froze.
“I Understand You… I Just Don’t Know How to Answer”
This became one of my biggest struggles after arriving.
Often, I understood enough Finnish to know what someone was asking me.
But expressing myself was much harder.
I had thoughts.
I had opinions.
I had explanations.
In English or Tagalog, I could explain them easily.
But suddenly, in Finnish, I felt like I had been given only ten words to express an entire paragraph.
😂
And I was shy.
I worried about:
Wrong grammar.
Wrong pronunciation.
Using the wrong word.
Sounding silly.
Sometimes I wondered:
Should I just stop talking rather than say it incorrectly?
But eventually I realized that if I waited until my Finnish was perfect before speaking…
I might never speak at all.
The Online Course Was Only the Beginning
Even though real-life Finnish felt very different, I will always be grateful that I had that foundation before arriving.
Those online lessons gave me somewhere to start.
The vocabulary.
The sentence structures.
The confidence to at least try.
The basic understanding of how the language works.
Without those lessons, arriving in Finland would have been much more overwhelming.
The course didn’t magically make me fluent.
It was never supposed to.
What it gave me was something much more important:
a starting point.
And once I arrived in Finland, the real learning continued.
Continuing Finnish Classes After Arriving in Finland
Our Finnish studies didn’t suddenly stop once the recruitment process was over.
After arriving, I continued learning Finnish while at the same time trying to adjust to a completely new country, workplace, and everyday life.
But now I had something I didn’t have while studying in Dubai:
Finnish was everywhere.
I wasn’t only learning Finnish during a scheduled lesson anymore.
The entire day became a language lesson.
Work.
Daycare.
The supermarket.
Appointments.
Neighbors.
Coworkers.
Signs.
Letters.
Television.
Everything gave me another opportunity to learn.
Learning Finnish Through Everyday Life
I eventually realized that one of the best things I could do was very simple:
Use it.
Speak Finnish.
Listen to Finnish.
Read Finnish.
Write Finnish.
Every day.
Practice.
And then practice again.
At work, I challenged myself to write a little more in Finnish instead of always keeping my sentences extremely short.
At our daughter’s daycare, I listened carefully when the carers explained how her day had gone.
At the grocery store, I tried to understand product names, signs, and the little conversations happening around me.
With my colleagues, I tried to speak more Finnish and ask whenever I didn’t understand something.
Thankfully, many of them were patient with me.
If I didn’t understand, they would often explain something again, more slowly or using simpler words.
And then there were our neighbors.
Sometimes even an ordinary conversation about…
the weather.
😂
And if you’ve lived in Finland, you already know that the weather can provide plenty of conversation material.
Snow.
Rain.
Cold.
Sun.
More snow.
😂
Those simple everyday conversations helped me more than I realized.
Because suddenly Finnish wasn’t something I was memorizing for an assessment.
It was something I was using to connect with another person.
I Had to Stop Being Afraid of Making Mistakes
This became one of the biggest lessons of my language journey.
At first, I worried so much about speaking incorrectly.
But eventually, I realized something.
If I say a sentence with imperfect grammar but the other person understands what I mean…
communication still happened.
If I pronounce something imperfectly but they understand me…
communication still happened.
If I use the wrong ending and someone gently corrects me…
then I just learned something new.
I stopped expecting myself to sound like someone who had spoken Finnish their entire life.
How could I?
I had only recently started learning it.
A language doesn’t become natural overnight.
So slowly, my goal changed.
Instead of:
“I need to speak perfect Finnish.”
I started thinking:
“I need to keep speaking Finnish.”
There is a big difference between the two.
Speak. Practice. Repeat.
If I had to summarize one thing that has helped me, it would probably be:
Speak. Practice. Repeat.
You can memorize hundreds of words.
You can study grammar tables.
You can complete exercises.
You can read textbooks.
All of those things help.
But at some point, you have to open your mouth and actually try.
Even when you’re nervous.
Even when you’re not completely sure.
Even when the sentence comes out looking nothing like the sentence you had carefully prepared inside your head.
😂
Every conversation gives you something.
A new word.
A correction.
An expression.
A pronunciation.
Or simply a little more confidence than you had yesterday.
Learning Finnish Didn’t End With Recruitment
One thing became very clear after we moved here:
Finnish wasn’t a course I could simply finish.
There wasn’t going to be one final assessment where somebody would say:
Congratulations. You now know Finnish.
😂
Language learning doesn’t work that way.
There will always be another word I don’t know.
Another expression I haven’t heard.
Another grammar rule that makes me ask:
Why, Finnish? Why?!
😂
And that’s okay.
I don’t see learning Finnish as something with a clear finish line anymore.
I see it as an ongoing journey.
Where Am I Now With My Finnish?
Today, I still wouldn’t say:
I have mastered Finnish.
Far from it.
I’m still learning.
Still improving.
Still making grammar mistakes.
Still occasionally wondering what someone just said to me.
😅
But when I compare myself today with the person sitting in Dubai in 2023, looking at her first Finnish vocabulary list…
I can see how far I’ve come.
Today, Finnish isn’t only something written in my reviewer.
It’s part of my everyday life.
I can communicate.
I can understand much more than before.
I can ask questions.
I can explain myself better.
I can work on improving my vocabulary and professional Finnish.
And perhaps most importantly…
I’m no longer as afraid to try.
A Language I Never Thought I Would Learn
If someone had told the younger version of me:
“One day, you’re going to learn Finnish.”
I probably would have answered:
Finnish? Why?!
😂
Finland wasn’t part of our original plan.
Finnish definitely wasn’t part of it either.
Yet somehow, this language that I had barely heard of became connected to one of the biggest changes in our family’s life.
Learning it hasn’t been easy.
It has challenged my patience.
My confidence.
My memory.
Sometimes even my tongue.
😂
But I don’t regret learning it.
In fact, the more I learn, the more I want to continue.
Because now Finnish isn’t simply the language I needed in order to come here.
It’s becoming one of the languages through which I am building a life here.
Hopefully, a good future for our family too.
❤️
Video Source: Silkkitie
Learning Finnish: One Word at a Time
This Is Only the Beginning of My Finnish Story
There is so much more I want to share about learning Finnish that putting everything into one article would probably turn this into a book.
😂
So this post will serve as the beginning of another little series within Our Journey to Finland.
In the next articles, I’ll go deeper into the different parts of my language journey – what worked, what didn’t, what confused me, what made me laugh, and what eventually helped me improve.
Some of the upcoming stories will include:
How I Started Learning Finnish While Working in Dubai
My Finnish Language Journey – Part 5A
I’ll share more about those first lessons, my study routine, reviewers, online classes, and how I tried to fit Finnish into an already busy life.
Why Learning Finnish Was So Difficult for Me
Part 5B
Because believe me…
there were plenty of moments when I stared at a sentence and wondered what I had gotten myself into.
😂
Finnish Grammar That Confused Me
Part 5C
This one may need several cups of coffee.
😂
Finnish Words I Couldn’t Pronounce
Part 5D
We’ll talk about those sounds and words that made my tongue question all of my life choices.
How I Practiced Finnish While Working Full-Time
Part 5E
Including more stories from my unofficial Finnish classroom…
also known as my car.
😂
What Actually Helped Me Improve My Finnish
Part 5F
Not a textbook guide.
Not a promise that these methods will work for everybody.
Simply the things that genuinely helped me.
And I already know three words that will appear in that article:
Speak. Practice. Repeat.
Catch Up on Our Journey to Finland
This is Part 5 of our Journey to Finland series.
If you’re new to our story, you can start from the beginning:
Part 1 – Moving to Finland: Why It Wasn’t Part of Our Original Plan
Read Part 1
Part 2 – How We Actually Got to Finland: Our Recruitment and Residence Permit Journey
Read Part 2
Part 3 – Our Silkkitie Recruitment Experience: How Our Finland Journey Began
Read Part 3
Part 4 – Our Finland Residence Permit Journey: How We Applied as a Family
Read Part 4
And now, Part 5 begins another important chapter:
learning the language that would eventually become part of our everyday life in Finland. ❤️
Final Thoughts
Looking back now, it’s almost funny to remember how Finnish first entered my life.
It started as a requirement.
Something I needed to study if I wanted to continue pursuing the possibility of working in Finland.
I didn’t know whether I would ever actually use it here.
I didn’t know whether our residence permits would be approved.
I didn’t know whether the recruitment process would lead anywhere.
I was simply sitting in Dubai, looking at unfamiliar words and trying my best to remember them.
Then slowly…
those words became sentences.
The sentences became conversations.
The online lessons became real-life encounters.
And the country I had been studying for from thousands of kilometers away eventually became our home.
My Finnish is still far from perfect.
I’m still learning.
Still making mistakes.
Still finding new words.
Still occasionally wondering what someone just said.
😂
But that’s okay.
Because when I look back at where I started, I realize that progress isn’t always something you notice while it’s happening.
Sometimes you only recognize it when you look behind you.
The woman who once sat inside her car in Dubai practicing Finnish sentences for an online assessment could never have known that a few years later she would be living in Finland and using that same language in her everyday life.
So no, I haven’t reached the end of my Finnish-language journey.
I don’t think I ever will.
And maybe that’s the beauty of learning a language.
There is always something more to discover.
Speak. Practice. Repeat.
One word at a time. 🇫🇮❤️
“A different language is a different vision of life.”
- Federico Fellini
“Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.”
- Proverbs 1:5, NIV
Learning something difficult can make us feel small again.
There were many moments when Finnish made me feel exactly that way – like I was starting from the beginning and trying to find the right words for things I already knew how to say perfectly well in another language.
But starting from the beginning doesn’t mean we aren’t moving forward.
Every new word learned, every mistake corrected, every conversation attempted, and every moment when we choose to try again becomes part of our progress.
I still have a long way to go with Finnish.
But I’m grateful that I started.
Because sometimes one small decision to learn something new can eventually become part of a much bigger journey. ❤️
A Note About Our Language Training
The course structure, assessments, recruitment arrangements, and language training described in this article are based on my personal experience in 2023 and afterward.
Recruitment programs and language-training arrangements can change over time, so my experience should not be treated as a description of Silkkitie’s or NLRC’s current programs or requirements.
Sources
- Finlex – Constitution of Finland, Section 17: Finland’s national languages are Finnish and Swedish.
