Want to learn a little of
one of the most intriguing languages in the world? Follow this link to
Finnish language lessons on the internet. [Incidentally, the
reason the Swedish flag is featured on the homepage is that both Finnish and
Swedish are official languages in Finland. In some communities, the people
virtually all are of Swedish extraction, and Swedish is spoken almost
exclusively. In other places, it is common for both languages to be heard
frequently (e.g., Helsinki/Helsingfors, Vaasa/Vasa, other coastal cities).
Street signs and city names on maps, railroad stations, etc. are always
seen written in both languages.
Need help with a
particular word in Finnish that you need to translate? Or an English
word you wish to translate into Finnish? Try this online
Finnish-English Dictionary,
which is right up to date and very comprehensive.
If you don't mind
spending a few bucks, or Finnmarks, as the case may be, you came to the right
place! Here you can pick up sets of audio cassettes and workbooks prepared
by the U. S. Foreign Service
in both Basic and Advanced Conversational Finnish. These course materials are
not inexpensive. . . .but maybe you can convince your local community college
that they should have them available for self-instruction in Finnish? Won't
hurt to try!
University of California at BerkeleyDepartment of Altaic Languages and Culture
or here's another Cal Berkeley Finnish site.The University of Michigan Finnish Student Club
includes many useful links, plus puts you in contact with some Finnish Students going to college in the US.The University of Montana has prepared a nice page of Finnish links, as part of a Scandanavian Area Studies Series (SASS) that it appears they are doing in cooperation with BYU in Utah...at least some of the links run back to BYU.
Here is a page of Finnish Links prepared by Jonny on the UC Irvine server.
North of San Francisco, in the heart of the wine country, a group of Finnish-Americans have set up a retirement home for elderly persons of Finnish heritage. Wait 'till you see the pictures! You will wish you were already retired and could go to live there now! They have a gorgeous setting, nice pool, sauna, and a terrific schedule of activities.
Finnish communities in Florida This freenet server switched to WWW in January, 1997. This link has several useful links to cultural organizations, and includes not only people from Finland, but also Karelia and Estonia as well. There is a large Finnish community in the Palm Beach area where this server is located.
This is a great resource that was not easy to find, so you may not find links to it elsewhere. If you like it, be sure to set a bookmark! Project 34 is an attempt to provide for continuing education of American Finns to the third and fourth generations in the language and culture of Finland. With the help of the internet, they have a good chance of achieving their aims!
A couple of the Finnish Embassies have homepages, a few of their consulates have e:mail addresses, but they all can be reached by phone or fax. Here is an incomplete list, followed by a link to a page of links to embassies and consulates of all countries, where you can check on how to reach the consulate closest to you:
The homepages of the Finnish Embassy in Washington, D.C., with great pictures of the innovative Finnish architecture, inside and out. You can send them e:mail at finland@netcom.com
Other Finnish consular e:mail addresses are:
New York City (finconny@ix.netcom.com) or the public affairs officer (natri@ix.netcom.com)
Los Angeles (finland @laconsul.org)
Here's another consular homepage: Housed on Jazzie Systems according to the link that I captured it from, but this URL is not working right now...I have asked Jazzie to help sort it out]
And, of course, we could not omit the Virtual Embassy they have set up to cover all options.
Here is the promised link that will take you to a listing of all Finnish consular addresses throughout the United States.
Here are a few links to some great WWW sites in Finland, where you can find information about the Finnish culture, history, wars, geography, travel, and all sorts of neat stuff.
Here is Virtual Finland, one of the best of the Web.
This site was built by an American woman of Finnish parentage who lives in Chicago. She has some nifty explanations of some unique Finnish customs and the Finnish lifestyle.
Here is a complete list of all the music and art festivals held in Finland. You can choose to look at lists sorted by locations or by dates so you can plan your travel to Finland to coincide with some of these cultural events. There are Jazz festivals, Rock festivals, even a Tango Festival!
Here are some links to various colleges and technical schools in Finland. I have enjoyed checking out the homepages of many of the students. Many of them write at least part of their homepage in English, and if you know a little Finnish, and want to brush up on the language, you'll find the Finnish language pages very helpful in your attempt to learn Finnish better. I have commented on a couple of these links that are particularly helpful or interesting:
Vaasa University is located on Finland's Western coast on the Bothnian Bay, at about half-way between Turku and Oulu.
The University of Jyvaskyla is in the most centrally located city of Finland, right at the hub of the vast network of lakes and rivers that make travel by boat such a popular tourist attraction. You can take a cruise from Jyvaskyla to Lahti, and with a few short portages, nearly anywhere else in the country.
Lappeenranta Technical College is situated at the extreme southeastern border of Finland; Lappeenranta is the last major city the railroad passes through on the Finnish side of the Russian border. In years past, a few miles east of this city, the trains to Moscow would stop, armed guards would shutter up all the windows, and then stand guard in each car for the rest of the trip. The economy here has traditionally centered about processing lumber, with huge rafts of logs floated over the vast system of rivers, lakes, and canals from all over Finland. At one time they entered a huge canal here to be transported to Viipuri (Viborg) on the Gulf of Finland; but after WWII the Finns were forced to cede a large chunk of their eastern frontier to the Soviet Union, and canal traffic was cut off. Many of the students at The Tech have interesting homepages.
Here is a set of links to homepages of other colleges and universities in Finland:
Lapland University[This link has not worked so far, but it appears to be set correctly. I will ask the webmaster of the site I got this from to provide a better URL.]
Mik's Links, a collection of Northern European links by a Finnish Computer magazine.
And finally, here is a collection of homepages of people in the USA and Finland that are simply interesting links prepared by some very interesting people who either are of Finnish background or otherwise have an interest in Finland and things Finnish:
Students at the Tech in Lappeenranta
This economics professorat the University of Vaasa, Finland has a great collection of graphics for webpages.
The LDS Finnish Mission homepage has links to Mission Presidents, missionaries, and Finnish LDS church members on the web. The webmaster tries to keep up with reunions of former missionaries that coincide with general conferences of the Mormon Church held semi-annually in Salt Lake City. Former missionaries can be searched by dates served, cities they were assigned to, etc. (I have to thank my barber for putting me onto this link! And he's Dutch, not Finnish!)
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