Skip to main content

Finnish (Higher) Education


We’ve had classes for two weeks now and I still can’t say I know my schedule. I probably never will because it changes completely every day and will continue to change throughout the semester. This constant change has been an adjustment for all of my classmates in the program but none of us is quite sure why it works that way.

In one of my classes that hasn’t started yet we will be looking at the Finnish education system and visiting schools in the area but I feel I am getting a taste for it already through the classes I have had already. It felt like a good time to give a brief introduction into what we’ve been told so far. After all, the Finnish education system is why I’m here.

Our classes this semester are all laying the foundation for research, which is one of the biggest difference between teachers in the US and teachers in Finland. All teachers here are required to have a master’s degree (except kindergarten teachers) and all teachers are trained extensively on how to do and evaluate research. The idea is that their practices should be backed by research and that even while teaching, they are constantly doing their own research to make their teaching more effective. The fact that all teachers have a master’s degree is not surprising. The Finnish students coming for their bachelor’s at the University of Turku are automatically accepted into master’s programs as well. In fact, master’s students are still considered undergraduates.

But the surprising thing is I can feel the difference in teaching even as a student in higher education. The perfect example is my favorite class so far: Finnish.

All international master’s students are required to take at least one semester of intensive Finnish. The students in several programs are lumped together into two batches so we get to meet and interact with people outside of the LLEES program. I was told by two friends that Finnish would be one of the best courses I took and they were absolutely right.

First there’s just the excitement of knowing that I will finally be able to say more than “Hei” (hello) and “kiitos” (thank you) when interacting with a Finn. We learned numbers the other day and now I feel a great deal of satisfaction in being able to pick them out in everyday conversation (store clerks still tend to automatically use English with me when telling me my bill). If my nascent Finnish skills already have given so much happiness than imagine how good it will feel when I can have a basic conversation.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/AuNs1v_jtfs/hqdefault.jpg
The numbers get long very fast.
The most impressive part about Finnish, though, is the teacher. From day one she demonstrated her strong knowledge of how adults learn languages and every activity we do feels purposeful and deliberate. One of my classmates said that, even though he hadn’t studied the numbers at all before class, after an hour and a half of playing games, repeating numbers, listening exercises and videos, he felt he had a strong grasp of them already. In short, our teacher does good teaching--even at the college level when most professors in the US resort to lecturing. As a teacher, it is very gratifying to see a professor plan activities that masterfully allow us to speak, listen and write all at the same time.

Nädään!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Working Identities

The halls of a TC building where I must be a doctoral student It’s been a while since my last post. To be honest, I haven’t done much besides school work, to the point that the I no longer know what to tell people when they ask me what my hobbies are. Which also means I feel a constant looming pressure of knowing I live in a big city with a reputation for never sleeping yet I spend my weekends holed up in my room or in the library (and the occasional coffee shop). This is not to say that I spend all of my time doing doctoral work. I have found two outlets in the form of jobs that have enriched this semester in ways that I didn’t expect. One is at a preschool, the other is working at the Graduate Writing Center consulting students working on academic writing projects. After not working for two years, I had forgotten what it feels like to be part of something that allows for change that you can actually see. Teaching is always rewarding as you watch children grow and marvel...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Waltz

At a Finnish wedding, the tradition is for the newlyweds to dance to a wedding waltz during their reception. It doesn’t matter what kind of wedding it is, the waltz is an essential part of the program. I hate the waltz. Compared to the Latin dances that I have been learning, the waltz is too stately and prudish to be of much fun. So I have jokingly told my boyfriend that at our wedding we will not be dancing the waltz. In part this is to gauge his response to my presumption that we are getting married (a bit sneaky, I know). In part it is also to make sure he knows that I am most definitely not Finnish (though I tell him that I am 50% Finnish, 50% Indian and 40% American). When I last told him there would be no waltz at our wedding, my boyfriend didn’t flinch at this challenge, to his immense credit. He just laughed. At which point I realized I didn’t even know how to waltz, which only made him laugh even more. Somehow, after this exchange, he decided to put on some wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spot of Tea

I didn’t like tea for most of my life. Mami, my aunt, very strongly discouraged us from drinking tea, telling us “gitte reh jaoge (you will remain short)” any time we voiced a desire to have some. This was said so many times that we regarded it as a cold, hard fact. Unfortunately for Mami, seeing her only once every two years meant that we grew older rather quickly between visits and she didn’t have many opportunities to continue telling us this piece of wisdom before our heights were pretty much set in stone and could no longer be threatened by a cup of hot chai. For Western children, they outgrew Santa Clause. We outgrew Mami’s alarmism. My parents drinking their afternoon cup. But Mami’s efforts did not go in vain. Having never drank tea habitually as children, we didn’t feel any affinity to it as young adults. I was accustomed to seeing my parents’ elaborate morning ritual of going for a walk, making tea, and drinking tea while reading the paper. Every aspect of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more