A student asks:
“My goal is to speak Finnish in my everyday life, but I’m having a very hard time understanding any of the everyday conversations that go on around me. Everyone is speaking so fast! And puhekieli! I get completely overwhelmed and my brain seems to just shut down. What should I do?”
My answer:
First of all, I want to say that you have exactly the right approach. As your goal is to have everyday conversations in Finnish, and to understand the everyday conversations that are going on around you, it’s a good idea to listen to as many everyday conversations as you can. So you’re definitely off to a great start, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the moment! But it can absolutely be overwhelming, and it’s very understandable that your brain might just go “I can’t understand anything, so obviously this isn’t meant for me, so I shouldn’t even try to listen”.
How do we get past this?
If you’re a beginner or at A1 (very basic language skills): Just listen, as if you were listening to music. What is the rhythm of this language like? What about the melody?
It’s useful to listen even when you can’t understand anything at all, because just listening, especially in a safe environment where you don’t need to understand, helps you get used to how the language sounds. This gives your brain the signal that this is something that we’re doing now – we don’t understand it yet, but it is, indeed, for us, even if it doesn’t feel like it yet.
If you’re at A2 (not yet intermediate, but already know quite a bit): focus on spotting familiar words. Are there longer bits that you can understand? Are there words that are repeated and stand out? Try listening to the same, short clip several times. Usually, when we listen again and again, we start understanding more and more of what we hear.
If you’re at B1 (intermediate): Can you get the gist of what you’re hearing? Are there key words or longer parts that you’re still missing? Can you write them down and ask someone? Can you guess what new words mean from context?
At this stage, it’s very typical to be able to understand a lot sometimes and to feel like you understand nothing at all at other times. It can really help to know that this is a completely normal part of this stage of language learning.
If you’re at B2 and up: Is there a specific theme, like politics, that’s always throwing you off when you’re listening and needs more attention and targeted learning? Are there words that are still unfamiliar, or bits that you’re missing? Are you able to write them down and look them up or ask someone? With my materials (on Instagram, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn), you’re always very welcome to ask about these in the comments (this goes for any level, of course).
At level B2 and up, an AI powered app like Lingvis that uses automatic speech recognition can come in very handy. I’m writing this in early 2026, and at the moment, we’re still at a stage where these types of apps make so many mistakes with Finnish everyday conversations that you need to be able to spot the mistakes to be able to really benefit from them in self-study contexts. This is why I’m not yet recommending them at lower levels, but I’m hopeful that this will change in the near future.
Here are a few suggestions of things to listen to:
- A podcast episode from Yle (https://yle.fi/a/74-20138547) where the host and guests are talking about their favorite foods. This one comes with exercises made by me and our lovely team of teachers to help you listen to this at any level. Here are more similar materials: https://yle.fi/oppiminen/opisuomea
- Niinku: an absolutely awesome collection of authentic conversations about many different topics. https://niinku.wordpress.com/
- FinkingCap, also on YouTube and Spotify has a lot of authentic conversations about different everyday topics.
- Seuraa suomeksi on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/seuraasuomeksi/
- Listen to me talk about early education in Finland on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/shorts/BBuEqfoTVkY
We’re all different as language learners, and I would absolutely love to hear from you in the comments. Have you tried this approach or other approaches? Has it worked for you? What has worked for you for learning to listen to everyday Finnish?