Join instructor Tiina Watts on a Finnish cultural and linguistic journey! Our Finnish Virtual Adult Class offers a real-time interactive small group setting for adults 18 and older looking to strengthen their language skills. Asynchronous activities for villagers to complete at home will be provided to extend learning.
Intended for Beginner (A1-A2) and early intermediate language learners. Because this class begins in the fall, true beginners starting in January might choose to do a little pre-study on their own. Staff to villager ratio of 1:8, on average. Sessions meet once per week on Wednesdays from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Central over Zoom. We will be using the Suomen mestari 1 (uudistettu—revised edition) textbook. Order a hard copy from Amazon or an electronic version from Finn Lectura.
The emphasis of this class is on communication and increasing language proficiency through a variety of speaking, listening, reading, writing and grammar activities and lessons, interspersed with songs, games, videos and stories. The Suomen mestari books are a great resource with their dialogs, vocabulary lists, grammar explanations, topical discussions, as well as a wide variety of exercises. Tervetuloa oppimaan Suomea Tiinan kanssa!
Tiina Watts has been teaching Finnish at Salolampi Adult Weeks and Family Fun Weekends since 2003. Her seven children and her husband, Ed, have all attended many Salolampi programs and two of them have been summer counselors. Salolampi is a magical place for the whole Watts family.
Tiina’s Finnish mother, Lea Antsola Mahoney, taught her children Finnish songs and culture, but unfortunately not how to speak her mother tongue. Tiina had the chance to learn it later as a teenager living in Helsinki for three years with her family and then as a church missionary for a year and a half in the ’80s. Tiina also spent a summer in Finland working at the Alvar Aalto museum and the Jyväskylä library. She loves the Finnish language and especially its grammar —with her main goal being to help others love and speak the language, too.
Tiina’s other passion is Finnish music; she plays guitar and piano and loves singing. Her language lessons are full of singing, movement, games, interaction, speaking, listening, writing activities, grammar and lots of variety. Learning a language should be fun!
Tiina recently completed master's degree in Second Language Teaching from Brigham Young University (BYU)at the age of 60 and works as a Finnish instructor and Scandinavian Languages Coordinator at BYU. She is continually working to improve the language curriculum and programming at Salolampi through her research and experience, while also incorporating suggestions and ideas from former adult week participants. In addition to making sure adult weeks always have great instructors, Tiina is committed to bringing the best cultural presenters, crafters and musicians in the state, and the country, to Salolampi.Tulekatsomaan ja oppimaan!
