Finnish: A Complete Course for Beginners

unless you know a good bit and know how to pronounce finnish, or have a finnish mom like i do, pick another language, this one is devilishly difficult (14 cases!)

This is a great starter product for those who want to learn the basics but who also want to expand on their chosen language. The only flaw with the book are the CD's, they go pretty fast but that's no problem. The information in the book is very helpful as they pretty much break it down for you. All in All i would learn another language with this product.

Both Whitney and Leney have written books in the Teach YourselfSeries called _Teach Yourself Finnish_. ............ The edition other reviewers here have reviewed is the one by Terttu Leney; and that's the one I also recommend. It's more recent, and also geared more towards a beginning audience. Whitney's can be useful, but he introduces grammatical minutae far in advance of their use to the learner and gives an extensive vocabulary for each chapter even when most of it is irrelevant to what is being learned in the chapter. Leney, on the other hand, introduces vocabulary and grammar as it's used, and offers a wealth of information about contemporary Finnish culture for people planning to visit.

Even as a German reader I found this book very helpful and easy to follow. I used this book as extra support during my time in Finland when I was studying Finnish. I think it gives you very useful words, unlike other books I have worked with, and explains the grammar in an easy to understand manner. But beware: Finnish is an extremely difficult language so don't be dicouraged if you are not succeeding as qickly as you would wish to. Just take your time. Finnish is worth it!

Terttu Leney's "Finnish: a complete course for beginners" is a good resource for the beginning student or for the traveler who is planning a trip to Finland and wants to know a little bit about the Finnish language and Finnish customs before they get there.Finnish is a difficult language with complicated grammar and special rules of syntax. At times the reader might get a little confused by Leney's presentation of some of these rules. But a patient and persistent reader can either muddle through the grammar or pass it by and instead focus upon learning Finnish expressions.The book's strength is its organization into logical sections (greetings, travel, phone conversations, eating out, the weather etc.) Both a traveler or a student can use the dialogues and vocabulary to gain insight into everyday phrases and events. Likewise the book is packed full of information about Finnish customs and culture. These explanations are integrated into dialogues and vocabularies suited to both student and traveler.I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning the Finnish language in its practical day to day form, or to the sophisticated traveler who likes to learn about the country and its culture and customs before their trip.