learning a language

I make no secret of the fact that I really wish I knew how to speak Finnish. Or at least, read it/ understand it (with all due respect there are presently no Finnish people who don't speak English who I want to talk to). I would really like to be in a position to do research on Finnish culture and related things with a deep knowledge of the place and its history. OK, so obviously, really wanting to do it is not going to get me far (more than not wanting to do it at all would, of course). 

I am well aware that this is a kind of pipe dream, but it entertains me and I can't really see how it does any harm. I suppose the only way it does harm is that I could be using my time to do great good, and instead I'm frittering my time away on a silly hobby that is highly unlikely to ever reap anything like a reward. Because, at 58, I'm already disadvantaged in (time-) terms of language learning and it's a very difficult language to learn. 

I did have a book on how to learn Finnish when I was a child, so it's been a longstanding interest, or at least, I was interested in it almost half a century ago and have become interested in it again. I only retain one memory from that book: the information that some (?) Finns might legitimately pronounce an 'n' as an 'm' when it comes before a 'p' (or maybe a 'b' as well?), the example given being 'menen pois': 'Minä menen pois' means 'I will go away'. The main thing I did with that book, which was a uniform language-learner's edition in a series I have currently forgotten the name of, was apply a coloured transfer of a line drawing of Rupert's friend Pong-Ping to the front of it. Meaningless. 

(Pong-Ping far left, looking more insane than I've ever seen him.) 

Anyway with any luck my enthusiasm for this idea will slink away (these passions have typically often subsided once the route to attaining them becomes clear, but I must say that is oddly less the case as I get older than it used to be). In the meantime I find Finnish on duolingo becoming more difficult as I re-do the exercises I breezed through a few months ago - my spelling's getting worse. 

I'm also well aware that Duolingo is not really teaching you a language, but it's keeping one's hand in, isn't it.