Coping with vowels

To those unfamiliar with the language, Estonian seems nearly impossible to learn and even harder to teach. Sara Toth talked to one teacher who is trying to help foreigners learn probably the toughest of the Baltic languages.

Kristiina Vasarik, 23, has been teaching Estonian to foreigners at Tallinn's Multilingua language school for three years. While there are many training programs for teachers who teach Estonian to Russians and funds to help Russians learn Estonian to obtain citizenship, the concept of teaching this language to foreigners is still developing.

Estonian belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of languages. The original people of this non-Indo-European language group lived somewhere behind the Ural mountains. Today, there are several small Finno-Ugric nations settled in Northern Europe, in the Volga and Ural region, and in Siberia. Hungarian is also Finno-Ugric. Several tiny ethnic groups living in the St. Petersburg region speak a Finno-Ugric dialect, including Karelian, Vepsan, Ingerian, the practically extinct Livonian, and Sami (or Lapp language). Most of Vasarik's students are diplomatic officials and business people. Some are more enthusiastic than others, she says, because Estonian is usually not necessary for their everyday work. But she also has students who really want to learn the language because of a spouse, friend or other personal reasons.

Vasarik is currently finishing a German major and English minor at Tallinn's Pedagogical University. She has lived in Switzerland, where she was an actress with an English-language theater. She speaks Estonian, German, English, Finnish and Russian.

What is the most difficult thing about teaching Estonian as a foreign language?

That it's different. It has a different structure. I always start out with the example that in English you can say: 'Me Tarzan, you Jane.' But it doesn't work that way in Estonian. In Estonian you need the grammar first then the vocabulary. Usually in other languages it's the other way around.

The teaching materials are also very problematic in Estonian. Most of the materials are old and old-fashioned. Most of the things published now are meant for Russians because most of it is published within the European Union support system for integration. The instructions are all in Russian and these materials rely on the specific Russian social experience.

So, would you like to write a better book?

Yes, but it takes time to think it all through and I need more experience. You can't compose a book for foreigners without teaching foreigners for a long time. When I think back to when I started teaching, I have a totally different picture of it now. There is a lot more cultural explaining to do than just grammar and vocabulary. Also, culture among the learners is different and I have to adjust to their culture as well. There is a big difference between Italians and Danes, for example.

Why don't you teach Russians if there is a bigger demand from Russians, better books and funding?

First of all I don't know enough details about Russian grammar and culture to be qualified to teach Estonian to Russians. I am also not trained to teach it to Russians. And I like to teach in a conversational and casual way.

I can do this with foreigners, but with Russians you have to teach for a test, so you have that pressure of a test not just learning the language to speak it.

How essential is Estonian to Estonian culture?

Very essential. You need to know at least the functions of the language and some main points. For example, some foreigners say that Estonians are not so polite. But it is not in our language to always open a conversation with "Hello, how are you?" unless we really want to know how the person is.

Some of these English patterns just sound ridiculous in our language. We are not impolite, we are just straightforward, and our language shows this.

Even though Estonian is a small language, is it really more difficult to learn than any other language?

No, it's not any more difficult. It has its logic and you just need to put a little effort to it like with any other language, and then you will speak it. Like most language teachers say, 120 academic hours is the number of hours that should be used to instruct.

Then after that you are able to discuss the most important matters — you can shop, go to a restaurant, read the newspapers and get information. But it all depends on the motivation.

Would knowledge of any other language help in learning Estonian?

I have noticed that when people who speak or at least have studied German, it's easier to take some examples from the German language, but maybe it's just my opinion. We still have many words in common with Germans. And it was the Germans who helped bring the written Estonian language. Also, if you have learned some Finnish it should help. The system is the same with the cases. And knowledge of Finnish helps to understand and recognize some words. But then again, if you think in Finnish you may get confused when trying to speak Estonian.

Is there a big demand among foreigners in Tallinn to learn Estonian?

I also teach English. I used to have a lot more English students than Estonian students. But now it's the opposite and I have more Estonian students. The interest in learning Estonian is increasing. But foreigners don't really need to speak Estonian here. You can get by with English very well and most foreigners know this. But people have different reasons for learning Estonian: for their girlfriends, or friends. Many people just get acquainted with the language because their purpose is to respect Estonians and the Estonian language. But some need it for everyday life so they keep learning.

What do you think of Estonia's requirement of knowledge of Estonian for obtaining citizenship?

Every country has this. It's the same everywhere. Maybe it's such an issue because Estonian is such a different language and relatively few people in the world speak it.