Foreign players study Finnish - "Make sure you understand the basics"

Jalkapallon Pelaajayhdistys (Football Players' Association) and Edusalo organize Finnish language course for foreign players playing in Finland.

Kevin Jansen in playing in FC Honka.

Finnish language studies for foreigners playing in Finland have now been organized for the first time. The goal is to make everyday life easier for the players in their own environment, although English is often the coaching language.

In the first course there are total eight players. One of them is FC Honka´s Kevin Jansen, who is now playing his second season in Honka.

- I always say: when you’re visiting another country for a longer time, make sure you understand the basics of that language. I just extended my contract for two years. That makes it four years in Finland minimum. Maybe it’s good to understand the people a little bit. And besides that I have a Finnish girlfriend now, and it would be nice to talk Finnish with her too, Jansen says.

Dutch player feels that Finnish language is quite difficult to learn.

- Yes, it is hard. The language is nothing like anything else I know, but I like the way we study the language in an official way. 

- The pronunciation is the most difficult, and the changes of the KPT letters. It is really hard to remember every change you have to make, but we learn that a lot.

Jansen agrees that it is important to know the basics of language as a foreign player.

- It just makes life in Finland a bit more easy. Even tough everybody speaks English, not every sign or paper is in English. And in the field communication is important. Good to know when to go left or right.

- We learned some grammer, the months, days of the week, the weather and some more basic things, and we even try how to make sentences. Although that last thing isn’t going that well every time.

Jansen says that having players in the same situation as fellow students makes it easier in some way.

- We all started from 0 and trying to understand and learn Finnish. We also try to help each other in class. So this situation helps all of us.

 

Are you interested in studying the Finnish language?
Contact: aku.tervaniemi@jpy.fi

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