Comments on: A Brief Visit to Estonia http://theslate.net/2006/04/15/a-brief-visit-to-estonia/ Everyday Peculiarities Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:02:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3 By: Mladen http://theslate.net/2006/04/15/a-brief-visit-to-estonia/#comment-40 Mladen Sun, 28 May 2006 06:43:00 +0000 http://theslate.net/2006/04/15/a-brief-visit-to-estonia/#comment-40 Hello random virolainen, First of all thanks for the comment. I guess I owe an explanation about the weird introduction of English language in Estonian higher education. This issue was brought up to be by several Estonians. True, I've never checked the facts to find out whether it's true or not, but since these people are friends, I believed them. Otherwise I also appreciate your remarks regarding the similarities and differences between Estonian and Finnish. I believe that Finnish might be the easiest language for Estonians to learn, but I'm still surprised that at least the Estonians I know are learning it just as I am: almost from scratch. And we all have the same difficulties in getting it. But we are getting there: hitaasti, mutta varmasti. Regards, Mladen Hello random virolainen,

First of all thanks for the comment. I guess I owe an explanation about the weird introduction of English language in Estonian higher education. This issue was brought up to be by several Estonians. True, I’ve never checked the facts to find out whether it’s true or not, but since these people are friends, I believed them.

Otherwise I also appreciate your remarks regarding the similarities and differences between Estonian and Finnish. I believe that Finnish might be the easiest language for Estonians to learn, but I’m still surprised that at least the Estonians I know are learning it just as I am: almost from scratch. And we all have the same difficulties in getting it. But we are getting there: hitaasti, mutta varmasti.

Regards,

Mladen

]]> By: random virolainen http://theslate.net/2006/04/15/a-brief-visit-to-estonia/#comment-39 random virolainen Wed, 03 May 2006 20:44:00 +0000 http://theslate.net/2006/04/15/a-brief-visit-to-estonia/#comment-39 Nice travelogue, happy you liked Tallinn. However I'd like to make some remarks - at first, the englishification of estonian higher education is rather strange idea. Never heard about it before. Secondly NB! comes from latin and stands for Nota Bene! (attention!). And thirdly - about languages - grammatical structures are really close but interesting thing about vocabulary is that finns use more archaic words than estonians. So in everyday life finns use language which is sometimes partly understandable for estonians because of our passive vocabulary. Nevertheless there are almost 1000 same initial stems in estonian and in finnish and also many recent loanwords. Similarities between (east or west or south) slavic languages are probably greater than in case of these two baltic-finnic languages. but still easiest language to learn for estonians is finnish and probably vice versa also. Nice travelogue, happy you liked Tallinn. However I’d like to make some remarks - at first, the englishification of estonian higher education is rather strange idea. Never heard about it before. Secondly NB! comes from latin and stands for Nota Bene! (attention!). And thirdly - about languages - grammatical structures are really close but interesting thing about vocabulary is that finns use more archaic words than estonians. So in everyday life finns use language which is sometimes partly understandable for estonians because of our passive vocabulary. Nevertheless there are almost 1000 same initial stems in estonian and in finnish and also many recent loanwords. Similarities between (east or west or south) slavic languages are probably greater than in case of these two baltic-finnic languages. but still easiest language to learn for estonians is finnish and probably vice versa also.

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