SeAMK TALK: Living and studying in Finland
[Andres]
Hello and welcome to this new episode of this podcast. Today we have very special guests, three international guests and at this time we’re going to interview you guys and we’re looking forward to hear from you, what do you have to tell us. Today we are right now in the Studia, this really cool event where you can see a lot of different universities, you can get to learn about the different opportunities for you to study and we would like to hear from you.
But first of all, let me introduce myself, my name is Andres Mendez and very happy, very excited to meet you guys and to host this podcast today. Let’s please do a round of introductions, let’s start here.
[Emilio]
I’m Emilio from Mexico.
[Alexander]
I’m Alexander from Bulgaria, co-founder of the best Rage Room in Vaasa. Smash Room Vaasa, welcome.
[Alric]
And I’m Alric and I’m from Philippines.
[Andres]
Okay, this is really nice, so we have Mexico representing Bulgaria and the Philippines. Well, myself, I’m from Mexico as well, so very happy to see one of my compadres here and guys, we have some questions for you today and I would like to get started first. Maybe you can tell me a little bit of how long have you been in Finland and if you feel comfortable you can tell us the reason why you’re here.
[Emilio]
I’ve been in Finland for almost four years, in December will be four years and I’m in Finland because of job.
[Alexander]
I randomly came to Finland due to my dad, basically I was enjoying my life in Bulgaria and my dad just one day said, okay guys, this place is looking pretty good, you should come here. I was really protesting but at the end of the day I was just a 14 year old without any power and I came here. But you know, I’m pretty glad that I’m here, it’s nice.
[Alric]
I didn’t have a reason to come here. Okay, I have one, I want to study here, so I wanted to study here and I found a school, international school and it’s the only option I have, so that’s why I’m here in Finland. I’ve been here for three years now.
[Andres]
Okay, nice, thank you, thank you for sharing with us today and well, personally I have been in Finland for about eight years and I’m here in Finland because my wife is a Finn and that’s basically the main reason but also we have found, well being in Finland in the past eight years, we have found home, we found friends, we have work and we also found a new purpose to be here and we’re very happy and it’s very nice to see you. But since we are in this studio event, I have some questions related to universities and you guys are looking forward to what to study or where to study next.
So my question to you is, what do you consider when applying to a university? You know, what are the things that are, let’s say, important to you?
[Emilio]
I mean, number one for me is mostly the courses of course and slightly smaller would be like the city because I’m kind of tired of living in a smaller city, so I want to live in a little bigger city, more social and yeah.
[Alexander]
Personally, the location started being a very big factor and if I think about the profession, I feel like it’s not really working out for me to choose what I want because usually I’m a decisive person but when it goes for professions, I feel like I turn pretty bipolar.
[Alric]
It’s very tricky to be like international student here, so probably the most thing that I would look for is something that is in English course and also like an environment that is very welcoming for international students. So, yeah, you know, English speakers and very welcoming people and that’s very important for us and the courses that you would like to study.
[Andres]
Yes, thank you and you actually mentioned very, very, very important things such as the location, you know, the type of university and the people and of course, in this podcast we want to highlight SeAMK, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences and although SeAMK is located in the city of Seinäjoki and Seinäjoki is actually a medium-sized city, we have close to 70,000 inhabitants, we consider ourselves quite active and the nature of our city is a bit more familiar oriented but a lot of our students have really found a home and a good place.
It’s peaceful and it’s beautiful there. But, okay, any other thing that you would like to add to the list of considerations? So, for example, you talk about education and place, what about the atmosphere within the university or, I don’t know, like activities for students or parties or is something related to student life?
[Alric]
Teacher’s quality.
[Andres]
Teacher’s quality, that’s great.
[Alexander]
I feel like, yeah, teachers are very important but I feel like the students are just as equally important, so I would say just in general social connections inside the university.
[Emilio]
Yeah, I agree with Alexander. I also think the social aspect is very important and it’s one of the things that I appreciate most about different schools.
[Alric]
Yeah, some activities of the school too that they usually like advocate, especially in mental health. That’s really good for a university to have if they have that kind of activities.
[Andres]
Yeah, and this is very amazing to hear from you guys. You know, at SeAMK we’ve been trying to upgrade a little bit our services to our international students specifically. We do have very good services for our domestic students, the Finnish students, but then we notice that international students have different needs because obviously they come from abroad, they’re getting to know the culture, they’re getting to know working life, they’re getting to know how people react and how people will operate on a daily basis.
And we have some good services on well-being and also some entertaining. For instance, soon we’re looking forward to throw this Christmas party for international students and, you know, we tell them a little bit about the Finnish customs in Christmas. So that’s also very, very nice.
So guys, you’ve been living in Finland already for a few years. So you have experienced winter, you have experienced Christmas, you have experienced the darkness, you have experienced the beautiful summers that we have to offer. Would you like to share with us a little bit about the challenges of living in Finland and maybe some of the good things that you have experienced, things that you have learned, perhaps things that are done so different than in your home country?
[Emilio]
I bike everywhere, so it’s quite hard to manage in the winter. But aside from that, I think Finland is very beautiful. And one thing I do think it is somewhat lacking is maybe integration of international people.
[Alexander]
I would say that for the longest time ever, I used to be the biggest winter hater. And I feel like something just snapped in me lately. And I feel like I’ve started enjoying winter so much that you can just see me smiling while I slide away in the streets of Vaasa, going to Smash Room, of course.
[Alric]
The food. It’s the food. I love rice and I love soft rice.
I need my rice. I need Filipino rice.
[Andres]
I understand. Being a Mexican, I need my beans and my tortillas. But what about the people?
For instance, I would like to talk a little bit about myself. Being a Mexican, we are very warm. I met this Mexican and immediately we almost hugged.
We will hug after the podcast. We just have this feeling when people are friendly and you get the vibe and it’s nice. And Finns are very complex in their own way how they express feelings.
They are beautiful people. It’s very nice to make friends with them. But at first, I don’t know if you get the same experience that the first time, sometimes you don’t get the vibe from them of being warm.
But once you get to know them, you actually get to see how nice they can be. Any thoughts on that?
[Emilio]
Yeah, I agree. I think at first, I felt like people were very reserved. But as I got to know them more, as you said, it felt more relaxed and more welcoming.
More accepting towards me and other people in general.
[Alexander]
Yeah, but it takes a lot of time to get close to someone’s heart in here. But I see that in parties, alcohol really pushes people to become friendly and even loyal. Some people are telling them, you know, if a hundred people come for you, just send them my way.
I will always be with you. And then surprisingly, the next day, they look the other way when they see you.
[Emilio]
That reminds me of my friend Mohamed. Shout out to Mohamed.
[Alric]
Yes, I think here too, they have this kind of a thing that if they started to be friends when they were young, they will continuously become friends after all. And then it’s hard to get into their friendship, you know. And they are quite individualistic here.
[Andres]
Yes, when I was a student, I remember that I got really excited. One time we had this class WhatsApp group and then, well, obviously there were Finns and they were speaking Finnish. But then when I was around, they would switch and it makes me feel very nice.
But then one time they sent me a message, Hey Andres, we’re going to get together for drinks, do you want to join us? And I was like, oh, I almost cried, you know, like they want me there. It was so cool to get a message from a Finn, you know, that they’re going to get together and they wanted me to join them.
But most importantly is that I realized a saying that the Finnish people say, that they have this kind of cold wall, you know, this ice wall. And once you break it, then you can make friends for life. And the thing is, you don’t really need to be in touch with people, you know, on a daily basis, on a weekly basis.
But when you need them, when you meet, you know, it’s special. You actually realize that they are there. And that is really cool.
What are the thoughts about being in this exhibition of universities?
[Emilio]
It’s quite fun to navigate the activities in here. Yeah, we carried like a body weight, like heavy bag and it was quite heavy. As you can see by the name.
[Andres]
It makes you feel special, right? Everybody wants you.
[Alexander]
Yeah, I felt like the alpha. There was a pull-up competition and it said that in order to get the max points, you need to get 16. And I managed to get 16 with a weight vest of 7 kilograms.
Yeah. And also I got a lot of freebies. I got two bags, candies, protection.
Bullet protection? No, child protection. Bullet protection.
And yeah, they also offered gambling, which was pretty nice.
[Alric]
Me? Oh, there’s a lot of universities here and they speak Finnish, so it’s hard to find. But then we saw you.
And then, yeah, you speak English. And then now we’re here in podcast. I love podcast.
[Andres]
How cool is that? How cool is that? Well, let me tell you.
Of course, being a representative of Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, of course our goal is to recruit students. That’s what this event is all about. We want to get students to get to know about our university, how great we are, how amazing we can be, and we want them to join us.
But at the end of the day, the most important thing is that every student is able to find the right place for them. So if it’s not at SeAMK, the idea is that they’ll find the right place where they will actually be professionally developed and do something that they love. That’s the most important thing of this event, I would say.
Anything else you guys would like to add?
[Alexander]
It’s so difficult choosing a path in life. How do you take the first step towards somewhere when it’s just the unknown in front?
[Andres]
It’s a very hard question. But to be honest with you, when I moved to Finland, I was 35 years old, and I did a bachelor’s degree at 35 years old. So honestly, I had a previous work experience back in Mexico, and when I moved here, I realized I was nobody in the society.
So the best way to start was by studying something, to have a document, a career that I built here in Finland. And even being at that advanced age, married and with children, I was still able to find something. And I’m very happy working in something that I love.
I work with international students at an international university, and I think there is not one recipe to find success. I think you just really need to find and try to do what you actually like to do. And maybe you guys are very young and you’re thinking, but I don’t know what I like to do.
Well, just do everything. There will be a few things that will pop out, and you will feel, oh yeah, this and this I actually can be very good at. And just keep doing that.
[Alric]
Yeah, so there’s a thing that when they always say, the old people say that if you do like universities, it will be better to do it, then there will be more open doors. And that’s one thing, but the thing is like, you have a lot of choices to do. For example, for me right now, I don’t know which one to choose.
Should I continue biochemistry or should I do psychology? And those are really different fields, which is hard to choose. Should I go to that way or that way?
It’s quite hard.
[Emilio]
The thing here is that I’ve looked online and I haven’t seen any psychology-related courses, unless it’s relating to, for example, social services. So it’s actually kind of limited, in my opinion, to the access to international students.
[Alric]
Yeah, that’s one thing about international students. Very limited field for them. Very limited courses for English speakers.
Because here, if you need to work, then you need the language to interact with these people. And that’s the thing. You can only do something that is actually not interacting with people here in Finland.
[Alexander]
Yeah, I can for sure agree with that statement. Because I feel like, although most people here speak English, I feel like there’s a different sort of connection when you speak another person’s language. And I don’t know, there seems to be kind of a distance if you try and talk with a client professionally, when you don’t speak their language.
[Andres]
Well, I want to thank you guys for being part of this podcast. What I love about this, actually, is how improvised we did it. You know, we just show up, we talk a little bit.
You saw the podcast machine and equipment in here, and you asked, can we be part of it? And yes, here you are. So at SeAMK, we give you opportunities to grow and to develop.
But thank you so much for being part of this podcast. And I hope we’ll see you soon again.
[Alric]
You will.
[Emilio]
Thank you. Thank you. It was very nice.
[Alric]
Thank you for inviting us.
[Alexander]
Thank you. Welcome to Smash from Vaasa.