Learning Finnish in towns and villages where there aren't many expats can be difficult. There's no demand for courses, so it's not financially viable to run them. This can leave some expats travelling a long way or paying a lot of momey for Finnish tuition. However, a new, never before tried experimental course run by Oulu's Summer University aims to take to Finnish courses way beyond the big cities.

'If people living in Sweden or anywhere in the world want to learn Finnish then they can through this course!' enthuses course teacher Anne Palokangas, who has been tutoring Finnish to foreigners in Oulu for more than twenty years. 'It's a new thing and we'll have to see how it goes but hopefully it will mean that foreigners that live outside the big towns - where it's often hard to find Finnish courses - will be able to have a Finnish course.'

Currently, Palokangas teaches both a Basic and Advanced Finnish course two evenings a week at Oulu Summer University. Funded by the government, unlike most Finnish courses it is completely free for participants and the online course will be as well.

'English' will be the 'supporting language' on the course but Palokangas, who is modest about her own English abilities, tries to avoid using it whenever possible. Students who stray into English are generally met with a mock-confused 'Mitä?!'

Running from 28th October to 12th December (with a voluntary 'contact meeting' on 27th October), the online course will use cutting edge technology Optima and also the online communication system SKYPE to facilitate an interactive course every Tuesday between 7pm at 8.30pm.

'Unfortunately,' says Palokangas, who is only just getting used to the technology herself, 'the course only has spaces for ten students. Otherwise I'll have so much poppin up on the screen it'll be impossible!'

Students are asked to enrol with the Summer University by 16th October. The course is aimed at people who have already done a Basic Finnish Course and will focus on chapter 13 to 18 of the textbook Hyvin menee! which is available from the bigger book shops in Finland.