Finland One - Transcription
"Um, I was born in Porko (sp.?), Finland, ah, in 1973. I am the only child, and, um, I guess that's where I mainly lived all my life, up until when I was seventeen I came here for a year to be an exchange student. And then went back to home and finished high school and I guess went to college for a little bit and then, uh, came back here, and got married, and I'm staying here now. So, getting Americanized I guess. I would definitely pick the summer, uh, for your, um, visit. It's..it's cringy (sp.?) and it's, uh, wet. It's not humid at all. It rains a lot. Um, it's a totally different smell; I don't know how to describe it. Fresh air, I guess. Not mountains, but lotsa lakes, lotsa lakes. They say that there's hundred thousands of lakes in Finland. A few big cities but the population may be five million at this point. Um, my dad, uh, works in this, uh, shipyard, uh, called Vartsila. They, uh, build engines for these huge, uh, cruiser boats. So, and, uh, my mom works in a department store. Very I.I'd say ordinary life. You start taking English in school, um, I think it was third grade. And, uh, you take it pretty much year after year, you know get the more advanced level. And, uh, you add a second language, maybe a third, but, uh, I think English was always the strongest for me. And the teacher.teachers are pretty.pretty good, they expect a lot. But still you really won't learn the language up until the point that you actually start using it. So, you can know a lotta grammar but don't know how to speak.
Transcribed by Laura Sternberg