Purpose of this blog

If you would like to learn Estonian, you're in the right place.
This blog will feature short lessons about the language and will try to make everything as simple and pleasurable as possible. But first, let's learn a bit about the language.

Estonian is spoken by about 1.1 million people worldwide, around 950,000 of whom live in Estonia itself.
It is a member of the Finno-Ugric language family, being closely related to Finnish and more distantly so to Hungarian. It's not an Indo-European language such as French or Spanish, and as a result the vast majority of words in Estonian will look thoroughly unfamiliar to someone whose mother tongue is English.
Estonian is certainly not considered to be an easy language to learn for English-speakers. However, don't be put off! With a little practice, you should soon find yourself able to get by in most everyday situations.

There is a joke that an “Estonian has no sex and no future,” referring to the fact that there are no genders and no future tense in the Estonian language. But in fact, it is beautiful to listen to, intriguingly different, and terrifically satisfying to use once you get going. There is even a story that an Estonian phrase (sõida tasa üle silla – meaning “go slowly over the bridge,” perhaps more a traffic sign than romantic utterance) came second only to Italian in a sort of language beauty contest.
Many students of the language are studying precisely because of the interest and challenge the language holds, and make quick progress once they have grasped the basics, particularly of pronunciation.
Throughout Estonia, you will find people willing and able to speak with you in a variety of languages, with English, Finnish or Russian being most commonly spoken, and many people also managing French, German or Swedish alongside their native tongue.
In a country where most people speak at least two languages with ease, learning Estonian may not be strictly necessary, but it certainly can help you understand the country at a deeper level.

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