Moi!

My name is Mari Nikonen. I teach Finnish to adults in Helsinki, and have since 2008. My master's degree is from the University of Helsinki. I majored in the Finnish language with a focus on Finnish as a Second language. I've also started working towards my PhD at the University of Turku, but at the moment I'm taking a break from research to focus on my wonderful family and on building my small teaching business . I love languages, linguistics and writing. I'm especially interested in spoken Finnish and how to best learn it and teach it. I've had the privilege to write and publish Fonetiikkaa suomen kielen oppijoille (a book on Finnish phonetics and pronunciation) with Eija Aho and Aino Huhtaniemi, funded by the Kone foundation. 

 In my day to day life as a teacher, I get asked so many questions that I don't really get to answer, and I'm sure that there are many questions that simply don't get asked.  I've created this blog to  make it easier to ask questions and to make it easier for me to answer them. I've decided to write this blog in English, but you can write to me in French, Spanish, Swedish, Estonian and of course, in Finnish.

Photo by L. Karlin Creative