As agreed, I went to visit my landlady, who is also a Finnish language teacher. We sat at a table at her house and drank coffee together.
She asked me,
"Have you ever heard about how difficult it is to learn Finnish?"
And I said,
"Yes. But I don't believe it yet. People easily say that something is difficult, while maybe it is not so in reality."
Hearing this, a little sparkle appeared in her eyes. Then she wrote something down on the first page of my notebook.
"Jos ainä tiedät, että et osaa, et osaa, jos sinä et tiedä, että et osaa sinä voit yrittää ja huomate, että osaat. (If you always know that you can't do, you just can't do. If you don't know that you can't do, you might try and discover that you can do.)"
"Have you ever heard about how difficult it is to learn Finnish?"
And I said,
"Yes. But I don't believe it yet. People easily say that something is difficult, while maybe it is not so in reality."
Hearing this, a little sparkle appeared in her eyes. Then she wrote something down on the first page of my notebook.
"Jos ainä tiedät, että et osaa, et osaa, jos sinä et tiedä, että et osaa sinä voit yrittää ja huomate, että osaat. (If you always know that you can't do, you just can't do. If you don't know that you can't do, you might try and discover that you can do.)"
With T's magically supporting words, our weekly meeting has started.
She wants to practice her English, and I'm eager to learn Finnish. We are living only five minute walk away from each other. It seems like we're meant to spend some time together and see how it goes.