Finnishpod101 is a Finnish language course packaged as a podcast. With hundreds of episodes (aka lessons) and five difficulty levels, Finnishpod101 is one of the largest and most complete Finnish language courses available. In this article we’ll take a closer look at the site and how it works.
How Finnishpod101’s podcast lessons work
Podcast episodes on Finnishpod101 are sorted into seasons. Podcast seasons are divided across the five difficulty levels and feature lessons which are grouped together by topic. Each season has two podcast hosts. These hosts act as your personal Finnish tutors. They teach you new vocabulary and help break down pronunciation and grammar.
In each lesson you listen to a conversation between two native Finnish speakers. Usually these conversations happen in the context of a situation you’re likely to encounter in everyday life (like running into someone at the grocery store for instance).
All of the grammar and vocabulary you learn will be from these dialogues. This is great because it means all of the Finnish you learn will be conversational. You don’t have to waste time memorizing word lists that you’ll never use.
After listening to a lesson you can use several review tools to help you practice what you’ve learned. There’s a slow playback and record feature, which allows you to listen to words and phrases at a slower speed and record yourself trying to imitate the native speaker. If you want to practice your reading skills, there’s also lesson transcripts available in both English and Finnish.
To practice vocabulary you can add new words from the lesson directly to a flashcard deck. Each flashcard contains a Finnish word, it’s English translation, and an audio recording of its pronunciation.
If you’re feeling extra scholarly you can even take quizzes to check how well you remember the lesson material.
Additional resources for learning Finnish on Finnishpod101
As in depth and useful as the podcast episodes on Finnishpod101 are, they are not the only resources on the site. Finnishpod101 also offers a collection of bonus resources such as video lessons, a Finnish to English dictionary, interactive vocabulary lists, a guide to Finnish pronunciation, a Finnish learning blog, and much more!
Conclusion
Finnishpod101 is an effective comprehensive course for learning Finnish as a foreign language. There are hundreds of lessons on the site. Whether you’re new to the language or you're an advanced student you’ll find something to help you meet your learning goals. Finnishpod101 offers a free lifetime account which allows you to listen to some of the podcast episodes and use many of the site’s additional learner tools
If you’re learning Finnish it’s definitely worth checking out!
