Learning Finnish
(Amagi Inn[Yukiko's room].)
Yukiko has asked Viljam to teach her Finnish, because the language started to interest her. Besides, it might actually make it easier for Viljam to not translate back and forth the next time she talks to his family.
"Hmm.., how about introductions," Yukiko hummed to Viljam.
"What kind of introduction," Viljam asked.
"Maybe just telling my name," Yukiko suggested.
"Mi-nun ni-me-ni on Viljam Nousku. Like that," Viljam said slowly, emphasizing each syllable that wasn't his name.
"Mi-nun ni-me-ni on Yukiko Amagi," Yukiko repeated each syllable to the best of her ability.
"For a first timer you did pretty well," Viljam complimented.
"Thank you," Yukiko smiled. "How do I greet someone. I mean like, how do I say, Good day," Yukiko then asked.
"Hyvää päivää," Viljam said
Now Yukiko looked confused a little. "Umm... How do I spell it," Yukiko asked, slightly ashamed of herself.
"Hmm... if you're talking about how to spell ä, then I'm not sure how to explain it," Viljam muttered. Then the light bulb went off in his head. "You have studied English right?" Viljam asked, earning a nod. "Well ä is roughly spelled like a in the english word 'hat'. As for y, try it like me, yy," Viljam explained, giving an example on Finnish spelling of y.
Yukiko nodded and tried to spell the words. "Hyy-vä päeivä," Yukiko said with difficulty.
"Pretty good, but you need to make the y short, and you need to make ä long at the end of päivää," Viljam explained.
"Sorry," Yukiko apologized.
"Don't be, actually I'm surprised you got those two down so well the first time," Viljam assured Yukiko. "Still, if you want a short greeting, you could always just say moi," Viljam then explained.
"Oh, I see," Yukiko said in wonder. "Nousku-kun, this might go to a different topic, but what are the personal pronouns in Finnish," Yukiko then asked.
"Why sudden interest," Viljam asked with a head tilt.
"Well it's just, Finnish third personal pronoun is used for both boys and girls, so I just wondered if there were other differences," Yukiko explained.
Viljam smiled at the reason. "I'm not sure if there's anything as drastically different to you as that, but let's see," Viljam said, before he prepared to list Finnish personal pronouns. "Starting from... singular ones minä, sinä, hän. Which are I, you and... she/he," Viljam said after finding the proper way to describe the third one.
Yukiko giggled at the first two. "The first two rhyme, and you said all three like a nursery rhyme," Yukiko said with a giggle.
"Well... that's how they were taught at school and it just stuck with me," Viljam explained in embarrassment. "Is it weird?".
"Oh no," Yukiko quickly said, "I just find it funny, please continue."
"Alright, the plural ones to the previously mentioned in the same order are: me, te, he," Viljam explained earning another giggle from Yukiko.
"Please go on," Yukiko said in mirth. If she hadn't notice Viljam taking a short break at each pronoun, she would've thought he said "metehe".
"Next we go for the non-personal pronouns: tämä, tuo, se. Which mean, this, that and it," Viljam then explained. "The plural ones are: nämä, nuo, ne," Viljam finished the Finnish pronouns, which sound like a nursery rhyme the way he says them.
"Finnish is a cute language," Yukiko said, earning a weird look from Viljam.
"...Never thought someone would call Finnish cute," Viljam said in disbelief.
"Is that a bad thing," Yukiko asked, hoping she didn't offend her guest-brother.
"No, just never expected it," Viljam said simply.
"Well, now I said it. Anyway, continuing on the pronouns, how do you say that something is yours," Yukiko then asked.
"If you mean a whole sentence, then it's, tuo on minun. But if you want a single word, then you simply say minun, which means mine," Viljam explained.
Yukiko nodded in understanding. "What was the word for 'this' again," Yukiko asked, after trying to remember.
"Tämä."
"Tämä on minun," Yukiko said, while pointing at her phone.
"Yeah, like that," Viljam said with a nod.
Yukiko felt a little pride at figuring one proper sentence, even if it is something very simple. "What do you use to say, yours," Yukiko then asked.
"Sinun," Viljam said. "As for third person, you say, hänen," Viljam decided to say, thinking Yukiko would ask it anyway.
"Oh, alright," Yukiko said, nodding in understanding. And then Yukiko suddenly giggled. "Hey, the joke you made on Hanamura-kun, how do you say it in Finnish," Yukiko asked, clearly trying to hold off her laughter.
"You mean, 'shut the faucet'," Viljam asked, earning a nod with a side of barely restrained laughter. Viljam took a deep breath before shouting in mock anger, "Hana kiinni!". And Yukiko started laughing, not needing a proper explanation. "Well... I could also say, 'sulje hana', but that means the same thing," Viljam explained, even though Yukiko probably can't hear him right now.
(Yasogami High. Early morning)
After hours of somewhat disorganized teaching yesterday, Yukiko felt confident about some basic sentences.
Now Viljam was watching as Yukiko agreed to hang out with Yu today. She said she would try one Finnish phrase and Viljam was curious about which one.
"Tapan sinut... kourun... jalukeen," Yukiko managed to say. That caused Viljam to look at her in alarm, while Yu merely raised an eyebrow at the foreign phrase.
"Yukiko, what did you say," Viljam quickly asked, hoping that what he heard was just a mistake.
The black haired girl turned her attention to Viljam with a confused look. "I said, I will meet you after school," Yukiko said, like it was obvious. That explanation earned a blink from the Finnish boy. Followed by laughing, which caused Yukiko to blush in mixture of anger and embarrassment, "Hey! My spelling isn't perfect, but it's not that funny!"
"You *kihhiih* said you were gonna *ehheheheheh* kill him after school," Viljam managed to say through his laughter.
"WHAT!?" Shrieked Yukiko in horror, while Yu's eyes widened. "But... Tapan is the word for 'I meet', isn't it," Yukiko asked in confusion and worry.
Viljam took deep breaths in order to speak properly. "Tapaan means, 'I meet'. Tapan means, 'I kill'," Viljam explained, emphasizing the small difference between the two words.
"Such a small difference, and the meaning is completely different," Yu commented idly, finding it a little odd that Finnish language has such small difference between two words that mean completely different things. Then again, the Japanese word hana means both flower and a nose. And in Finnish, hana is a word for faucet.
"True, but then again, Japan has many words that mean one thing in Japanese, but mean something else in Finnish," Viljam explained cheekily, earning a mild glare from Yukiko.
"Pää kiinni(Shut your head)," Yukiko grumbled in mild anger, earning a raised eyebrow from Yu, and a pitying look from Viljam.
"Pää on kiinni kehossa(The head is attached to the body)," Viljam said, before laughing at whatever joke he made.
"What," Yukiko asked in confusion.
"Kiinni can mean shut, but it's also used when telling that something is attached to something," Viljam said with a victorious grin, "Basically I said, Head is attached to my body."
It took a moment for Yukiko to decipher what Viljam meant, but when she did... "...I don't like you," Yukiko said with a glare. It was still funny to Viljam how Yukiko can't bring herself to use the word "hate".
"Lav ju tuu," Viljam said in purposefully bad english, unfortunately that earned the attention of every single student that were still in the room.
"D-did the exchange student just confess his love?" One male student asked.
"Wait! He said 'too', does that mean Amagi-san confessed first?" A female student was heard asking.
It was at that moment Viljam learned, that in Japan, you don't say phrases like that lightly. Unless, of course, you want the rumor mill running.