For our last meeting we decided to go to the Gala for the 100th birthday of Finland.

They prepared a speech and a big buffet for us. We had some wine and some Finger Food.
If looked very nice and it was very interesting.

While eating we talked a bit about the time here in Finland and about out plans to see each other again. I hope we will see each other again.

And for the last time we learned some new Vocabulary.

English- Spanish- Chineese- German

• Birthday- Cumpleaños- 生日 (shengri)-  Geburtstag
• Cake- Tarta- 蛋糕 (dangao)- Kuchen
• Wine- Vino- 葡萄酒 (putaojiu)- Wein
• Reindeer- Reno- 驯鹿 (xunlu)- Rentiere
• Farewell- Despedida- 告别 (gaobie)-  Abschied
• Present- Regalo- 礼物 (liwu)- Geschenk
• City hall – Ayuntamiento- 市政厅 (sizen ting)- Rathaus
• Theater- Teatro- 剧院 (juyuan)- Theater
• Banquet hall- Sala de banquetes- 宴会厅 (yanhui ting)- Festsaal
• Independence – Independencia- 独立(duli)- Unabhängigkeit
• Party – Fiesta- 派对 (paidui)- Feier
• Elegant – Elegante- 再见(zaijian)- Elegant

For me Each One Teach One was a great Experience. With every meeting our relationship got better and in the end we got good friends.
I would like to see you guys again also in Munich to celebrate the real Oktoberfest together. That would be great. I wish you all the best and a safe trip back home.

Will miss you guys. Thanks for the great time and Thanks for the presents Loy.

This time we talked about the weather. As we all know, the weather in Portugal is different than in Finland. It’s warmer and does not rain so often. So we compared the weather while learning the new vocabulary.

What is the weather like? – Como está o tempo?
It`s hot. – Está quente.
It`s cool. – Está fresco.
It`s sunny. – Está sol.

It`s cold. – Está frio.
It`s raining. – Está a chover.
It`s snowing. – Está a nevar.
The weather is bad. – O tempo está mau.

We also looked at weather forecasts in Portuguese to make it easier for me to pronounce.
I still have problems with it, but with every lesson I’m getting better.

This time we decided to learn the days of the week, the months and the seasons, so we met in Café Europa for a drink.

I had the idea of making cards with the names of the days, months and seasons both in Hungarian and in Finnish, so that we can pair them and see how they look in both languages.

We started with the days:

Monday:  hétfő –  maantai
Tuesday: kedd – tiistai
Wednesday: szerda – keskiviikko
Thursday: csütörtök – torstai
Friday: péntek – perjantai
Saturday: szombat – lauantai
Sunday: vasárnap – sunnantai

We also talked about the meaning of the words used, if there’s any, or the origins in some cases. In Hungarian the word ‘hétfő’ literally means the beginning of the week, while ‘vasárnap’ comes from ‘vásárnap’, which means market day, since the big markets are held on this day in Hungary. As for the Finnish days, ‘maantai’ means day of the moon, ‘keskiviikko’ is the middle of the week, and ‘lauantai’ comes from a Swedish word meaning taking a bath.

Then we paired the seasons:

Winter: tél – talvi
Spring: tavasz – kevät
Summer: nyár – kesä
Autumn: ősz – syksy

After that we collected the months, in case of which we discussed that the Hungarian ones are quite similar to the English, while the Finnish ones are absolutely different. The names in Finnish always refer to the activities or the nature of the given month, such as ‘lokakuu’, which means watery snow or mud, describing October perfectly. Also in ‘joulukuu’, which is December, ‘joulu’ means Christmas, thus it’s time for celebration.

In the end, we organized the months according to which season do they belong to.

After this meeting, we agreed on the fact that even if our languages are said to be in the same language family, they seem to have very few things in common, since these are basic words in our everyday lives and they are totally different.

Today we had a little christmas party. We met in my apartment. I wanted to invite Gabriela and Getuar to my home, because I wanted show to Gabriela what kind of homes finnish people have. We thinked about differences between our homes. We listened Christmas songs and we had chocolate, gingerbreads, mince pies and mulled wine (glögi). Gabriela liked glögi a lot, which is kind of red juice and taste is from spices. I had a small accident with cooking – half of the glögi burned bottom of the kettle when I boiled it! Funny memories, haha! We made maté also and we shared it together. I’m not sure does Getuar liked maté? 😀

It was very nice evening with you. You both are awesome people. Hope I see you soon again! <3

We talked about the music. How different it is in other side of the world. Gabriela told that in Latin America they listening for example gumbia and reggaeton music. She showed to me and Getuar some Argentinean rock music, Soda Stereo band.

I think Latin Americas music has more rythmic than Finnish music. In Finland, songs have strong melody and some people likes to listen also finnish rap-music or heavy rock. Music in Latin America has more good feelings and it brings sun and warm to my mind.

I think it was funny that Gabriela knew finnish The Rasmus band before she came in Finland. She said that she listened The Rasmus when she was a teenager! Of course we know The Rasmus too in Finland. I and Getuar know few artists from Latin America. We like J Balvin and Don Omar. Gabriela knows these too, but she likes to listen music from Natalia Lafourcades.

J Balvin

Our eight meeting was in Tampere University of Applied Sciences. Sometimes we choose our topics before the meeting, but then we start to talk for other things and laughing together. Then topic is forgotten sometimes. But I think that’s one of the points, spending time together and knowing each other better? We have always very fun in our meetings!

At this meeting we learned only familymembers and relationships words in spanish and finnish.

FINNISH                           SPANISH                          ENGLISH

Mies                                    Hombre                              Man

Nainen                               Mujer                                   Woman

Poika                                  Chico                                   Boy

Tyttö                                   Chica                                    Girl

Isä                                       Padre/Papá                        Father/dad

Äiti                                      Madre/Mamá                     Mother

Veli                                     Hermano                             Brother

Sisko/Sisar                      Hermana                             Sister

Isoäiti                                 Abuela                                Grandmother

Isoisä                                  Abuelo                                Grandfater

Poikaystävä                      Novio                                  Boyfriend

Tyttöystävä                       Novia                                  Girlfriend

Ystävä                                  Amigo/Amiga                   Friend

Serkku                                  Primos                              Cousins

Täti                                         Tía                                       Aunt

Setä                                        Tío                                      Uncle

Vauva                                     Bebé                                  Baby

Vanhemmat                        Padres                               Parents

We had meeting in a library. Gabriela have an finnish language exam in next week so I and Getuar tried to teach finnish to her. Gabriela have learned much already. We learned colors in spanish and finnish. I was little bit surprised that I can still remember basic colors in spanish! Also we learned other adjectives, how to describe something.

Here you can see a few:

FINNISH                           SPANISH                          ENGLISH

Punainen                          Rojo                                   Red

Sininen                               Azul                                   Blue

Vihreä                                 Verde                                 Green

Keltainen                           Amarillo                           Yellow

Oranssi                               Naranja                             Orange

Ruskea                                Marrón                              Brown

Violetti                                Violeta                               Purple

Valkoinen                           Blanco                              White

Harmaa                               Gris                                    Grey

Musta                                   Negro                                Black

FINNISH                           SPANISH                          ENGLISH

Uusi                                    Nuevo                                        New

Vanha                                 Viejo                                           Old

Nuori                                  Joven                                         Young

Iso                                       Grande                                        Big

Pieni                                   Pequeño                                    Small

Pitkä                                    Alto                                              Tall

Lyhyt                                  Corto/Pequeño                        Short

Kallis                                  Caro                                              Expensive

Halpa                                  Barato                                         Cheap

Kuuma                               Caliente                                      Hot

Kylmä                                 Frío                                               Cold

Kaunis                                Linda/Hermosa/Bonita        Beautiful

Komea                                Lindo/Hermoso/Bonito       Handsome

Onnellinen                         Feliz                                            Happy

Surullinen                          Triste                                          Sad

Hyvä                                      Bueno/Bien                            Good

It is not even December yet, but the atmosphere in Tampere feels a lot like christmas time. Especially in Tallihipa, where a little chrismtas market has opened and the cozy Tallihipa kahvila invites for a cozy kahvi.

Pauliina and I met at the kahvila for combining our last language session with a very tipical finnish dish: The christmas porridge. We translated the german christmas song Oh Tannenbaum and yes, we also sang it together! Then we looked at the finnish version of the song called Oi kuusipuu. I love that name. And I also like, that in German and Finnish the song is about the pinetree itself – in contrast to the English language, where the song is called “Oh Christmas Tree”. It was so lovely to see how the finnish language has some different meenings and words in basically the same song.

Pauliina also showed me another christmas song, she really likes. It is called Sylvian joululaulu and it is very beautiful. Pauliina sag it to me and we translated it and the meanings and words are very beautiful, and also very sad. I had the feeling, that christmas songs of different countries can tell a lot about the people and their values and christmas culture. I did the same with the german song Leise rieselt der Schnee. Singing these songs and hearing a finnish christmas song definately put me in a christmas mood now.

Also I got to know a very deliciuos (and filling!) dish called Riisipuuro. Finns eat this christmas rice porridge on the morning of the holy night, the 24th of December. It is cooked rice with milk, cinnamon and sugar and raisins. When you eat it in the morning, it fills you up for the day so you can be hungry again for the christmas dinner in the evening. Well I do really get the point – It is 1530 now and I am still very full. But it was so incredibly delicious!

I am so happy and grateful for all the moments I can share with Pauliina, learning so much about the little things in Tampere, in her life and about the language. Officially, this was our last meeting. But when we hugged it was out of question that we will meet a couple times more before I will leave back to Switzerland – To enjoy more christmas markets, Glögi, Tampere time, Pauliina time and yhdessä-aika.

Kiitos paljon Pauliina, ja nähdään!

The past weeks were really busy weeks concerning schoolwork, so it’s not always easy to plan a meeting… But we figured we could use a break, and decided to organize a movie night in TOAS City! And let’s be honest, it’s not like the Finnish weather allows us to do a lot of outside activities…

Continue reading Movie night! →

Hi guys, the last Saturday we had another meeting. We had thought about to go to the sauna but it was closed so, like a lot of other times, we had to change the plans haha.
Finally we decided to watch a movie at City Toas. So first, we went to the supermarket (K Market) to buy some snacks to eat… We bought chips and popcorns and we were looking and talking about some foodstuffs that we love or about products that we have or don’t have in our countries… For example, I talked about Marabou’s brand, because I love it (chocolate, cookies…) and unfortunately, we don´t have in Spain.

Then, we went to the common’s room at City Toas, and we started to think about what movie we could watch… Angel had a login in a famous website to watch movies… so we were looking some lists which appeared and, although at the beginning we didn´t know which one to choose … finally Marta told us, we can watch The Truman show! Marta, Angel and Cris love that film, and the Belgian guys and I hadn’t watched it, so we thought it was a great idea to watch it.

The film goes on two hours approximately and, although is interesting, I prefer other kind of movies like action or romantic movies haha. In addition, we had to be really quiet for the entire movie because there was a problem with the volume…
The Truman show is about an study of the society (really similar to “Big Brother”) which tries to know about the human behavior in different contexts. It was funny because sometimes we made comments like “Imagine we are in a study now”…, “what would you do if you discover that all people are looking at you?” “Would you like to watch the videos that City Toas’ cameras are recording…?”

Personally, I know it would be really rare… but this is not the first time that I think about that can be possible! Haha. So, although it isn’t my favorite film…, I recommend to everybody to watch it, because it makes you think a lot and also because is really funny.
Finally, and as in the most part of the meetings, we were translating some words that we had learned… I love when we do this, because I really like to compare the similar and different words from our countries.
So I want to share with you the list and some pictures… and I hope you enjoy.
Thank you.
Aranzazu