So in a way I really like living in Finland: I have a lot more freedom than I've heard people my age typically have in the UK/US/Australia, as in I can go pretty much wherever I want, whenever I want as long as I get home by curfew.
This is made lots easier by the fact that we have really awesome public transport here -- buses, trains, trams and the Metro, which all work with the same travel card and go within the boundaries of my 'tricity area' (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa). I also like the fact that I take the bus to school -- it gives me time to think and occasionally do forgotten homework, and since I live so far away from my school, no one takes the same bus. It's awesome. Oh, and because of that I got my first cell phone in 3rd grade ;) which is basically as soon as we moved back here.
Another reason I like living in Finland is the school system -- yeah, the one that Newsweek ranked #1 in the world. It works really well, I think. Actual school starts the year you turn seven (there's a year of compulsory preschool first), and for the first year or two you have really short days and subjects like reading and writing, and that's it. You get to learn at your own pace, and because of the small class sizes the teachers are able to help more kids. Then, as you get older, school gets progressively harder (and you start getting actual grades on a scale of 4-10, 4 being fail and 10 being awesome. I love this grading system, by the way). After nine years of school we call 'basic school' (which is split into lower basic (years 1-6) and upper basic (7-9) and is kinda like middle school), you get high school (we call it lukio). If you want to get into a lukio you have to apply with your GPA, and some schools, like the IB-school I'm applying for, also have entrance exams. This means that all ninth graders, including yours truly, are under incredible stress in April and May as we give everything we've got to the last exams of basic schooling, and all jittery in June as we wait for our results.
Then when you actually get into lukio, you get to pick which courses you take (some are obligatory though) and so you get to focus on stuff that interests you.
The other awesome thing about schooling in Finland is that apart from the lukio matriculation exam, there is no standardised testing (SATs, GCSEs etc.). But enough about school now.
The third thing I really like about Finland is our awesome public library system (or at least the one in our tricity area). It has loads and loads and loads of books, and a huge percentage of them are in my beloved English, which means I don't have to read in Finnish. w00t w00t. The other awesome thing about it is the online reserving thing. Oh, and the part where I'm gonna work there this summer.
Something I really love about Finland is all the traditions we have. Like coming up now, in about a month, is May Day (Vappu in Finnish) where everyone gathers in parks and stuff to have picnics (and most often get drunk). It's a time where, in my family, all of my parents' friends from uni get together -- and I mean all. But it's awesome.
Some other traditions I love are Christmas Mass, cooking the Christmas ham overnight so you wake up to the smell on Christmas Eve morning, Independence Day Candles (from 6PM to 8PM we burn two candles at each window. It symbolises our Civil War when people friendly to one side or the other, can't remember which, would burn candles like that to show that the soldiers could hide there) and The Declaration of Christmas Peace (at noon on Christmas Eve, some guy (not quite sure who) reads a declaration of Christmas Peace on live TV, and then an orchestra plays the Honour March of the Commander of the Armed Forces and a male choir sing the national anthem).
Another tradition I love about Finland is slightly random: woollen socks. Home-made woollen socks are such a permanent fixture of Finnish winter that I've begun to associate woollen socks with Finland.
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I suppose I should tell you about the negative parts too... well, for one, I really hate the snow (at least I do in April when we've had it for six months straight. It's okay up till December) and the cold and the fact that in winter when you leave for school at 7:30AM it's pitch dark out, though that's balanced by midsummer, a single night in June when the sun doesn't set at all -- another thing I love.
I also really don't like the Finnish language, although on the other hand I love it. Which is confusing. But the point is I love (/am crazy proud of) the fact that we have our own language which sounds wacky to foreigners and is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn, but I don't really like reading/writing in it. The other thing I love about Finnish is that we have 'book Finnish', the kind we write, and 'colloquial Finnish', the kind we talk.
Colloquial is where just about everything gets shortened, for example minä (me) --> mä or tiedätkö sinä (do you know) --> tiiätsä. Another common phenomenon in colloquial Finnish is using the passive form of a verb instead of the first-person plural: me menemme (we're going) --> mennään. But the point I'm trying to make here is that IMO, book Finnish sounds stiff, stuffy and old-fashioned, which is why I prefer to read and write in English.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I love (and hate) living in Finland. Did you know you have a greater chance of winning the lottery than being born here?
(also, I apologize if this article is kinda all over the place. link asked me about life in Finland and it all just kinda poured out, and then I randomly decided to publish it in an article here.)
Another reason I like living in Finland is the school system -- yeah, the one that Newsweek ranked #1 in the world. It works really well, I think. Actual school starts the year you turn seven (there's a year of compulsory preschool first), and for the first year or two you have really short days and subjects like reading and writing, and that's it. You get to learn at your own pace, and because of the small class sizes the teachers are able to help more kids. Then, as you get older, school gets progressively harder (and you start getting actual grades on a scale of 4-10, 4 being fail and 10 being awesome. I love this grading system, by the way). After nine years of school we call 'basic school' (which is split into lower basic (years 1-6) and upper basic (7-9) and is kinda like middle school), you get high school (we call it lukio). If you want to get into a lukio you have to apply with your GPA, and some schools, like the IB-school I'm applying for, also have entrance exams. This means that all ninth graders, including yours truly, are under incredible stress in April and May as we give everything we've got to the last exams of basic schooling, and all jittery in June as we wait for our results.
Then when you actually get into lukio, you get to pick which courses you take (some are obligatory though) and so you get to focus on stuff that interests you.
The other awesome thing about schooling in Finland is that apart from the lukio matriculation exam, there is no standardised testing (SATs, GCSEs etc.). But enough about school now.
The third thing I really like about Finland is our awesome public library system (or at least the one in our tricity area). It has loads and loads and loads of books, and a huge percentage of them are in my beloved English, which means I don't have to read in Finnish. w00t w00t. The other awesome thing about it is the online reserving thing. Oh, and the part where I'm gonna work there this summer.
Something I really love about Finland is all the traditions we have. Like coming up now, in about a month, is May Day (Vappu in Finnish) where everyone gathers in parks and stuff to have picnics (and most often get drunk). It's a time where, in my family, all of my parents' friends from uni get together -- and I mean all. But it's awesome.
Some other traditions I love are Christmas Mass, cooking the Christmas ham overnight so you wake up to the smell on Christmas Eve morning, Independence Day Candles (from 6PM to 8PM we burn two candles at each window. It symbolises our Civil War when people friendly to one side or the other, can't remember which, would burn candles like that to show that the soldiers could hide there) and The Declaration of Christmas Peace (at noon on Christmas Eve, some guy (not quite sure who) reads a declaration of Christmas Peace on live TV, and then an orchestra plays the Honour March of the Commander of the Armed Forces and a male choir sing the national anthem).
Another tradition I love about Finland is slightly random: woollen socks. Home-made woollen socks are such a permanent fixture of Finnish winter that I've begun to associate woollen socks with Finland.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
I suppose I should tell you about the negative parts too... well, for one, I really hate the snow (at least I do in April when we've had it for six months straight. It's okay up till December) and the cold and the fact that in winter when you leave for school at 7:30AM it's pitch dark out, though that's balanced by midsummer, a single night in June when the sun doesn't set at all -- another thing I love.
I also really don't like the Finnish language, although on the other hand I love it. Which is confusing. But the point is I love (/am crazy proud of) the fact that we have our own language which sounds wacky to foreigners and is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn, but I don't really like reading/writing in it. The other thing I love about Finnish is that we have 'book Finnish', the kind we write, and 'colloquial Finnish', the kind we talk.
Colloquial is where just about everything gets shortened, for example minä (me) --> mä or tiedätkö sinä (do you know) --> tiiätsä. Another common phenomenon in colloquial Finnish is using the passive form of a verb instead of the first-person plural: me menemme (we're going) --> mennään. But the point I'm trying to make here is that IMO, book Finnish sounds stiff, stuffy and old-fashioned, which is why I prefer to read and write in English.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I love (and hate) living in Finland. Did you know you have a greater chance of winning the lottery than being born here?
(also, I apologize if this article is kinda all over the place. link asked me about life in Finland and it all just kinda poured out, and then I randomly decided to publish it in an article here.)