Has Glossika Improved My Finnish Grammar?
*This blog is reader-supported. I may earn a commission for purchases made through links in this post. Read full Affiliate Disclaimer here.
Contents
Can you learn grammar without “studying it”?
Knowing the rules doesn’t solve the problem
How does Glossika work?
My results so far
What I like about Glossika
I’ve been learning Finnish for almost 3 years now. I can understand it quite well.
I manage fine during family dinners with my wife’s side of the family (who are all Finnish). I can follow what people are talking about. I can also follow quite well when watching TV or listening to podcasts.
But there’s one part that has been holding me back.
My speaking.
It isn’t that I find it hard to pronounce the words. Or even that I don’t know enough words. I have quite a good vocabulary. Just from reading so much.
I just feel that it takes too long for me to form sentences. I often feel like I don’t know what form of the words to use (i.e. which case to use, and what the correct endings are).
This post is not a review of Glossika per se (use my affiliate link and get $5 off your first purchase on any Glossika subscription). It’s about my reasonings behind why I decided to try using it, my experience with it, and what results I have gotten so far.
If you’re learning Finnish (or another grammar-intense language), then chances are you have had the same, or at least similar, struggles that I have.
Can you learn grammar without “studying it”?
If you’re familiar with Finnish, then you know there are 15 cases. This gives a lot of different possibilities to choose from when making sentences.
The words also switch out and remove letters depending on what forms they take (consonant gradation). Plus, it can be so annoying trying to figure out what endings to use! (partitiivi anyone??)
What I wanted to learn was:
How do you know when to use a certain case? Not just the rule, but instinctively. In a way where you don’t even have to think about it
When I started learning Finnish I decided to skip studying grammar altogether (read more about why in my post: How I learned Finnish (Without Studying Grammar) - Part 1). For a few reasons:
I find it boring and I just can’t bring myself to do it.
I don’t believe it’s the most effective way to learn Finnish.
It’s one thing to know the rules, but another thing to have it flow out of us naturally.
A native speaker can produce correct sentences. But if you ask them about a certain grammar rule, they probably can’t give you an answer. Even my Finnish wife can’t always do that, and she has taught over 900 Finnish lessons.
This is because native speakers have an intuitive feeling for Finnish. They just know and feel what is right and what isn’t.
This type of intuitive sense (what I like to call “Lingtuition”) of the language was what I also wanted to have.
But.
I felt like I just wasn’t making enough progress with my speaking. It was too slow.
I got to a place where I was considering picking up a grammar book. I just wasn’t seeing the results I wanted when it came to be able to produce Finnish naturally.
As I flipped through a grammar book, I just knew in my heart that it wasn’t the way for me to go.
I had to figure something else out.
Knowing the rules doesn’t solve the problem
I was thinking:
“Even if I would know all the grammatical rules, it still doesn’t make it come out fluently in a conversation.”
When you’re talking with people you don’t have time to think about these things. By the time you’ve managed to make a correct sentence through your grammar knowledge - the conversation has already moved on to the next thing.
The other thing is that spoken Finnish is way different from written Finnish. There are hardly any resources to learn spoken Finnish. So you’re left with very few choices.
One option is to get more listening input. That’s always a good idea.
But I felt like I needed to zone in more on things. To become more aware. It’s tough to notice things when listening to natives when they are speaking fast. Details easily fly past us.
So I went back to a resource I had used in the past.
Glossika.
I had used Glossika years before when I wanted to develop my ease and flow of speaking Cantonese. I used it every single day for about 5 months.
It drastically improved my ability to deliver natural sounding Cantonese. I was able to speak a lot faster with less effort. It was a way to really jump-start my speaking and take it to a higher level.
I knew Glossika also had colloquial Finnish (i.e. “puhekieli”, not “kirjakieli”). So about 1.5 months ago I thought: “Why not give it a try? Maybe it can help solve my Finnish peaking issues.”
In other words:
To help me produce colloquial Finnish with correct grammar, without studying grammar.
How does Glossika work?
For those of you who haven’t used Glossika, it’s a website (and now also an app!) where you learn mass sentences. These sentences have been carefully chosen because of their structure and vocabulary.
The sentences are then repeated based on an SRS (Spaced Repetition System) system similar to apps like Anki.
The idea is that just by the sheer amount of volume of differenct sentences you will improve your spoken fluency. To improve your ability to speak the language without thinking.
How it works is simple:
You hear a sentence in your “native” language (I used English).
You hear the same sentence in your target language (Finnish, in my case).
You repeat the sentence out loud.
That’s it.
Glossika has other functions as well, but this is the core of what it is. I only did this and ignored the rest. Because I had a certain goal in mind and I didn’t want to be distracted by other things.
Every day you:
Get a bunch of new sentences that you practice
Review old sentences through their SRS algorithm.
The idea is that over the course of weeks and months these sentences and patterns start to become second nature to you.
My results so far
I’m right now about 1.5 months in. I have done a bit over 1,000 sentences out of the 3,800 that are available in Finnish (some languages have even more).
Has it helped my grammar and speaking?
So far, I’m actually quite surprised by my improvement
I have noticed that my sentences are coming out more instinctively. They are starting to become more correct. Without me always understanding why. It’s just a sense and feeling that only happens with enough repetition. Hearing it the right way enough times (something I talk about in my guide Intuitive Language Secrets, that you can download for free).
For example:
The other day I went shopping for a gift for my wife. I exchanged a few phrases with the saleswoman in the store. Spontaneously I was just forming correct grammatical sentences at the drop of a hat. Without even having to think about it. This was such an upgrade. Because in the past I often had to think first before I could respond. Even then, I didn’t always know how to respond correctly.
Glossika has helped me clean up some of my grammar issues.
And the best part - I didn’t even have to open up a grammar book.
Piece by piece, sentence by sentence, the language starts to make more and more sense. It becomes more natural, just by being exposed to a large volume of sentences.
It’s not just about correct grammar, but about sounding natural too.
Sometimes, I was able to say a sentence grammatically correct. But it was not how a native speaker would say it.
Let’s take the sentence “I don’t do the same thing every day” as an example.
I would have said it with the same word order as in English:
“Mä en tee samaa asiaa joka päivä”
This fine and all. Completely correct. However, it’s not how a native would say it.
A native would say it like this:
“Mä en tee joka päivä samaa asiaa” (I don’t do every day the same thing)
It’s just a small change of word order. But it makes all the difference. All of a sudden, you start sounding like a true Finn. This is just one example that I learned through Glossika.
What I like about Glossika
The simplicity - I just open up my laptop or phone, hit play, start listening and repeating the sentences. It makes it very easy to do.
Not adding more study time - Since you can do it while doing other things (which I recommend) such as: washing the dishes, cleaning, etc. you don’t need to set aside additional learning time in your schedule.
Improve grammar intuitively - by hearing the grammar in action (i.e. complete sentences) the language starts to make more and more sense. Just through repetition and internalizing the patterns.
You learn REAL Finnish - spoken by a Finnish native speaker.
You practice speaking, without needing to speak to someone - Glossika lets us practice chunking. Taking fragments of the language that you can practice by yourself. So that when you do speak with people, your language more naturally rolls off the tongue. Since you have already practiced them on your own. This is great for those of you who are more introverted.
So far, I’m very pleased with the results I’ve gotten.
I saw it in my Cantonese and now I’m starting to see it in my Finnish.
This makes me very excited since I feel it’s the solution to my struggles.
If you have similar goals of wanting to improve speaking, and you’re not a fan of studying grammar, then Glossika might just be what you’re looking for. If the simplicity is something that is appealing to you. In other words, you don’t mind repetitiveness of just listening and repeat, then I recommend you give Glossika a try.
It’s not flashy, but it works.
Try Glossika:
If you’d like to support Lingtuitive, make sure to complete your purchase through the Glossika website (not the phone app). You can sign up and use whatever platform you want, but if you pay using the website I make a small commission. Thanks!
(Future Christian Here):
Read the blog post I Finished ALL (3,800) Finnish Glossika Sentences - Was it Worth it? [Review] if you want to find out what my results were after finishing the Finnish Glossika course.
It will also give you an even better idea of who it’s for and who it isn’t for.
