A Strange Man in a Strange Land

(We begin with a description of how to correctly pronounce the name of my assigned social worker and medical liaison, Tiina.)

Btw, since, in Finnish, the pronunciation of vowels never changes; all vowels are pronounced like the short vowel sounds in English; there are no silent letters; the primary stess in a word is on the first syllable (whereas in English it is on the second, which explains most of the mispronunciations of my name); because of all the foregoing, the pronunciation of Tiina’s name is close to the following: TII-na. The capital letters are the stress on “Tii,” which rhymes with the English “Tea,” because a double vowel only lengthens the sound. One “i” would be like the “i” in “single” or “little;” the sound is longer in “tea.”

The second/final syllable has the “a” sounding like the “a” in the English word “target,” or the “u” in “up.” So it is no surprise that English is difficult for people, born into another tongue, to learn, since it is very random and demands so much plain memory work. An American professor who got a position at the University of Helsinki and learned Finnish, contrasted the two languages like this: “English is a language with few rules but a thousand exceptions. The Finnish language has a thousand rules and very few exceptions.” I think he puts it well. He wrote a book about the experience of moving with his family to Finland, learning the language and adapting to the culture (while pointing out the cultural differences between Finland and the USA). That book is where the quotation is from. I read the book in my high school library during grade 10 and have remembered it ever since (although the wording may not be exactly as written, its content and meaning are accurate). It’s too bad that I don’t remember the author’s name and that I can only take a stab at his book’s title, which I recall as being something like “The Lion And The Rose” (a reference to Finland’s coat of arms, I believe). It would be a pleasure to reread since I’ve been here for over 20yrs and have yet to blend into the culture. I think the reason for not melting in is that I don’t want to, although I can move around in it and not offend the natives.