# I feel like a child



## Bosta

Terve kaikille, minä olen englantilainen ja opettelen suomea. Voisiko joku auttaa minua kääntäämään tämän lauseen?

_I don't like being in a country if I don't understand a word. I feel like a child._

?? Minä en pidä olla maassa jos en ymmärrä sanaakaan ...... (sen jälkeen mä en tiedä mitä sanoa!)

Kiitos.


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## fennofiili

I would translate “I feel like a child” as “Tunnen itseni lapseksi”. Another alternative is “Tunnen olevani lapsi” (but that would normally not be used on spoken language).

The part “I don’t like being in a country” could be translated “En pidä maassa olemisesta” (we cannot use an infinitive like “olla” in context like this; instead, a name action, “oleminen”, needs to be used). But this would sound like _käännöskieli_ (text used in translations) rather than fluent Finnish. More idiomatically, I would say: “En halua olla sellaisessa maassa, jossa en ymmärrä sanaakaan” (even though not liking and not wanting to are different things, their meanings are close enough here, I would say).


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## Bosta

Brilliant. Perfect answer. Thank you so much.

Btw could you start it by saying something like mä en pidä siitä, että/kun .....


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## fennofiili

Bosta said:


> Btw could you start it by saying something like mä en pidä siitä, että/kun .....



Yes, that would be normal spoken language, but I’m not sure how you would continue after that. But using the colloquial verb _tykätä_, we could say: “Mä en tykkää olla sellasessa maassa, missä mä en ymmärrä sanaakaan.” This would be structurally more similar to the English sentence.


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## Bosta

Thanks again. Believe it or not I was originally going to say 'mä en tykkää olla'! Should have trusted my instincts. Anyway, appreciate your help.


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