Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Finnish 101


Don't you hate it when you find out you've been pronouncing something wrong your whole life?
I've always heard of Tuonela. Who hasn't? And I know it's Finnish and means land of the dead. but everybody I know pronounces it wrong. It's like when every damn person in the world said Nir-VA-na, not Nir-vah-na.

So, on our way to Tuonela we get lost and have to stop at a gas station for directions. We ask how to get to Tuonela, and everybody just stares at us. "No place with that name around here," one guy says. We are leaving the damn gas station when someone asks if we're talking about Tuonela. Except he pronounced it Two-A-nell-a, emphasis on the A. Oh-kay. Don't we feel like a buncha dumb shits.


Required reading for dumb shits:
The Kalevala
Tuonela

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