Ohno-not-the-nebraskan - A Documentary Blog

EKRE, the conservative party in Estonian politics, changed their name from "Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond" to "EKRE - Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond" because ... *checks notes* .... people complained that they wanted to vote for "EKRE" but the ballots had no such choice.

I have! I think your tag summoned her, bc I woke up this morning and she had sent me a message!

Introductory Post

Hello everyone! My name is Timo, I'm an American that lives in Nebraska, and this blog will be dedicated to documenting all the steps I'm going to take as I attempt to move from Nebraska to Estonia.

What you'll see the most on this blog are my estonian language notes, little posts in Estonian as I try to practice it, tidbits about Estonian culture/history, and honestly anything related to Estonia that I find interesting.

I hope to make friends along the way with this blog! Hope you'll come along for the ride!!

Nothing more humbling than thinking your pronunciation in your target language is good, just to schwa a vowel so hard the person you're talking to thinks it's a different language.

Is it a universal language learning experience to know exactly what you're supposed to say in a situation, down to like the spelling, and still feeling self-conscious to the point you check your notes, and then google just to make sure you didn't write it down wrong. And then still feel nervous to say anything at all.

You know, the last time I attempted to learn Estonian, there were next to no resources. All I had in 2014 was Curly Strings and that sweet Estonian girl teaching grammar on YouTube. Looking back in now is whiplash bc now we got keeleklikk, Estonian tutors on pretty much every site I've checked, free courses from the university of tartu, etc.

I feel spoiled tbh.

Yeah this basically.

Here’s how to tell if a language is easy to learn

None of them are easy

They’re all stupid and terrible and will kick you in the nuts

That being said

Languages similar to ones you already speak

Languages you have a lot of motivation to learn

Languages that have a lot of resources and media to watch and/or listen to and/or read

So, if you’re reading this with relative ease (aka you speak English fluently) probably French or Spanish

Do whatever you want though idk

Don’t just choose a language based on how easy it is

Unless that’s what it takes to keep you motivated idk

Go learn Frisian or something

a friend of mine told me to share this story so here goes

So while I was at work the other day, and I was closing with this old woman, who's a jerk to everyone and their dog, but thinks she's the sweetest little angel. Including me. She's bigoted and sarcastic and just awful to be around - refused to call me and other trans ppl at work our names until she got reported for it, just so you know what we're dealing with here.

We were closing the other night, and I got to do dishes. I was listening to my music, which this day happened to be Käärijä (love that man sm). And this lady walks in and she sighs real loud, and I look back to see what's up, and she's looking at me with this nasty look on her face.

"What are you listening to?"

"Uh. Rap?"

"Ugh, that's not even music. That's just noise, how can you even tell what he's saying?"

"He's speaking Finnish."

"Well you should listen to music in English. We are in America. Listen to American music."

Now I already don't like this woman. Idk how she's not gotten fired yet. SO I decide im not doing this with her. I don't speak very much Estonian at all. But I switch to it.

"Mida?"

"What?"

"Mida sa ütlesid?"

"Speak ENGLISH!"

"Ahhhh. Ei, ei. Vabandust, ma ei räägi inglise keelt."

And she gets pissed about this, but I stand my ground and don't switch back to English, which makes her even more mad. Eventually she leaves me alone, tho. And I get to listen to Käärijä in peace.

In Estonia we have 6 seasons, and most of them are winter