The Foreign Service Institute has developed a series of language-learning courses for use by the state department and other government agencies. These courses have been developed, tested by use, and improved over a period of many years. Working with the Departments of Defense, Education, other government agencies, and various universities, the FSI has created the largest body of complete courses for languages of the world available anywhere.

 The first level of this courses is sufficient for a working knowledge of the grammar and pronunciation, and will serve the needs of travelers and business people. All of these courses present the subject language in a way that allows students to master the material quickly and thoroughly, while moving at their own pace through lessons and reviews. This basic course in Finnish, emphasizies the spoken language with pronunciation drills and a large glossary.