INSIDER vol 22 issue 3

INSIDER V O L 2 2 / I SSUE 0 3 / 2 8 .0 9 .2 0 1 9

FEATURING KIELO WHY LEARN FINNISH? RECIPE EXCHANGE VIEW STUDENT STORY MOVIE REVIEW

EDITORIAL

STAFF

OUR TEAM LIDIIA BENKOVSKAIA

HUGH CLACK

MUHAMMET CAKIROGLU

ANNA RYNDINA

NIKITA MUNENKO

INSIDER STUDENT MAGAZINE SOUTH-EASTERN FINLAND UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES PARAATIKENTTÄ 7 45100 KOUVOLA EDITOR IN CHIEF: HUGH CLACK

PRAKHAR SHARMA

INSIDER ISSN 1457-1587 PHONE +358 44 702 8758

ARIAN UKAJ

WEBSITE insider.xamk.fi EMAIL insider(at)xamk.fi

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EDITORIAL This year started very good for the readers of Insider!

Reward is the recognition of the hard work we do. We all like to be rewarded after we accomplish something. Since autumn has come, we can feel already the cold mornings. We might get lazier to go out instead we usually tend to stay home and study, if not watching Netflix. Hopefully, you've read the article when Hugh was writing about responsibility and keeping up the hard work towards our goals and dreams by learning more and overcome the obstacles that for a student we might be exams. We wish you all the best. Study hard and party hard. Remember the winter is coming.

Since we are talking about lessons. Lidiia will explain more about why it's interesting to learn the Finnish language, more than that it's essential if you decide to settle up in Finland.

Anna brings to us the interesting story of Quynh Anh in Profile. Also, an article about a former student of Xamk, Leif who now has his own business running.

Thanks to Prakhar We got food on the table this week as well. He will come with a delicious recipe for snacks. Give it a try and invite some friends to enjoy them together!

In Student stories, you can find a great and motivating story of Eric from Brazil. Jasmine is our student exchange from Austria. She will tell us more about her exchange experience in Finland. Perhaps you might find yourself going through the same experiences so don't miss it!

Ad Astra is the latest movie by Brad Pitt and we have the review from Muhammet. let's read it to discuss it together with our thoughts on it!

Like Insider in facebook to participate and the giveaway Fatcloth pocket square. All you have to do is tell on a comment why you should be the winner. Hurry up!!!

Written by Arian 3

"FRAGMENTS"

PROFILE

TOMMI TOIJA EXHIBITION QUYNH ANH (Daisy)

WHAT IT´S LIKEIGNER IN A NO 1.

As I know you were born in Vietnam, Hanoi. What do you miss the most, studying so far from home?

•

Honestly, the thing I miss the most is the food. *laughing* I think other Vietnamese students, who study here are feeling the same. Asian dishes are quite different from Finnish, that is why we must find right ingredients and cook everything by ourselves. That is why every week we gather together and cook traditional meals. For example, during autumn in Hanoi we usually eat “Green Rice”, which is one of my favourite dishes.

"Fragments"- series of paintings

5. You had your first practical training during summer. Can you say few words about it?

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Yes, I had my first practical training at the company “MicroAd” in Vietnam. I was lucky enough to get internship, that connected to my studies. It is an agency that is focusing on the digital marketing. So, I had a chance to work with different brands and clients. I gained very useful experience there!

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What would you advise to freshmen who just started studying International Business and Marketing?

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I want to wish them a full year of experience! I would also advise them to enjoy outCurious side activities as well as studying time. Besides, sinceclay there are many foreign stualien dents, they should all communicate and share experiences with each other. For example, even though, it is considered that Finnish people are very shy and closed, they are very friendly and nice interlocutors.

I really miss the feeling of walking on the street, buying a bunch of white daisies and enjoying the scent of milk flowers in the wind.

2. What are the main differences for you between Kouvola and Hanoi?

•

In the beginning it was difficult for me to adapt to the life in Kouvola, because Hanoi is such a big city. However, now I really enjoy peaceful lifestyle here near to the nature.

3. Exactly one year ago you were just starting your fascinating adventure as Finnish student. What would you tell “young” version of yourself, if you had a chance?

• I think I would warn myself about the tem"The Strangers" perature look in winter. *laughing* frightening for the first glance4. During winter break last year, you have visited Switzerland. How was it?

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It was amazing! For the first time in my life I was travelling alone. I think I took thousand photos of wonderful mountain landscapes!

I really want to visit this country again, but during summertime.

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7. Describe yourself in 5 years according your best dreams.

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My dream is to write book about my travelling experience. I’m really enjoying my student life right now, so maybe my first chapter will be about that. I think that knowledge of marketing strategies will help me to promote and launch my first book.

“Flowers need time to bloom. So do you”

Written by Anna

JUKURIT & BLUE LEARNING DIAMONDS

LANGUAGES

WHAT IT´S LIKE TO BE A WHY IT IS IN INTERESTING FOREIGNER A NORDIC COUNTRY TO LEARN FINNISH

LANGUAGES?!

“When a Russian person moves to Finland, people often ask different questions regarding the Finnish language.”

I want to say that it may seem difficult, but if you become interested in making friends with him, it turns out that he’s not so boring! So I decided to tell interesting facts about the Finnish language!

9th of April in Finland celebrates a national holiday - Finnish Language Day. The alphabet appeared only in 1543 (for comparison, the history of book business in Russia began 500 years earlier). There are 15 cases in Finnish.

The alphabet has 8 vowels and 17 consonants.

J.R.R. Tolkin took the Finnish language as the basis with the addition of spelling and phonetics from Greek and Latin. By the way, it was with the invention of Quenya that the history of «The Lord of the Rings» trilogy began, which eventually became a cult. Moreover, magazines are now being published in fictional semi-Finnish-semielf.

The longest of all really used Finnish words is lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas (61 letters). It means the assistant junior mechanic officer of the Finnish Air Force, specializing in jet turbines.

Today, the longest is considered to be kumarreksitutes-kenteleentuvaisehkollaismaisekkuudellisenneskenteluttelemattomammuuksissansakaankopahan - 102 letters. It means something abstract, unorganized, possibly even non-existent, bearing something negative in itself.

In Finnish «Tarina» is a legend, a story. How to draw an analogy here? But very simple! It turned out that the word “Tarina” is not only very similar to the Russian “antiquity,” but it is also closely related to it, it only lost the letter “c” and did not lose one of the main meanings, which are almost forgotten in Russian today. In ancient times, the word "antiquity" sounded not only last year, but also in the past.

P.S. Read on, in the next issue...

Written by Lidiia

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KIELO WHAT IT´S LIKE TO BE A WHAT IT´SINLIKE TO FOREIGNER A NORDIC COUNTRY START A BUSINESS IN

FINLAND

This week I sat down with Leif, co-founder at Kielo Restaurant & Bar in Lahti. We had a nice chat about starting a business in Finland, so here we go.

- “How did you realize that you want to do business here and it should be a restaurant?”

I’ve always been a programmer. I used to fix bugs and “There are whenever you fix something, something else breaks, so I no jobs for always had complaints. So I foreigners wished for something more in Kouvola.” viable, and coming to Finland for business was an opposite move of going to the art school, which I did before. Then it turned out that I could combine everything I’ve learned: the arts, even some philosophy, with a business, to start one in Finland, because there are no jobs for foreigners in Kouvola. So, when I first realized that I have to go through some cleaning jobs and being treated not so well, and needing to do my thesis and training, I thought I could combine it all at one and start a business.

“Go with the competition but also stand out.”

First, I wanted to do something for students in Kouvola to give them a thing to do besides getting drunk. Or standing in a mall doing nothing. So then I went to the city officials and said, ‘I wanna build this café for students, it’ll keep them in a right direction and build a community’, and their response was, ‘we don’t need another café’. Then I was like, ‘all right, I’m leaving’. I spoke with my friend of mine to find out what you need to do to start a business in Finland, and he said that he was working on one in Lahti and invited me to join. He wanted to make a bar, I wanted a restaurant, so we combined them.

We started halfway through January.

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- “What are the main obstacles that you had to overcome? “ Actually, I’m writing my thesis on marketing a bar, and that’s the obstacle. Once people are inside, they say they love the place, but getting them to step inside the door is really difficult. You have to understand the mindset of Finns in general and those from Lahti as well and look at the bars around you to go with the competition but also stand out. The nice thing is that you can order from the warehouse or the beer company on credit. You get the products, sell them and return the money.

But you can’t do it with the salary. You need to keep having money coming in. Besides, every business is very difficult in the beginning. Also, Finnish laws about marketing alcohol are very specific and weird. It’s like, you can only do it during 3 exact hours of the day. Or you can’t advertise hard liquor in a grocery store, but you can have that same flyer in your place. On the other hand, if you advertise on social media, you can’t have brands there. It’s not because companies will sue you, no.

It’s just the government doesn’t want kids to drink, and they somehow think that brands are the enemy for that. We also have a small kitchen, so we needed to decide between an oven and a stove.

We picked an oven and turns out you can still boil water and make a soup there.

- “You’ve lived in America, Denmark and Finland. Which one is the easiest to start a restaurant?”

Talking short-term, US is much easier, but then you have no support. Finland is very difficult in terms of paperwork, but eventually you have a lot of support. If you’re able to do it right, you can get 30-40k from the government for a loan with a very low interest. People spread the word really fast, and the warehouses deliver right to your door every day. Don’t think it’s quite that easy in the US. Taxes are easy to handle, you just have a bookkeeper working on them. In the US you do it yourself, and the government is still coming after you because you missed one little thing.

- “So, if we take the best from US and Finland, we’ll end up with the perfect country to do business?”

Yes, that’s right.

- “Would you say that XAMK helped you to understand how this works?”

Yes, but not just work within the building but also StartUp Passion. It helped me understand how to build an idea into business overnight. Of course, these ideas never go anywhere but the practice really helped. Speaking about school, it wasn’t just, let’s say, a history. For example, HRM with Hugh. It was ‘here’s a history, here’s an exercise. Make a little fake business and you have to advertise this business to these people and make them come for an interview’. So instead of just reading the book, we got to try and get immediate feedback.

- “What food do you have?”

Originally it was sandwiches but now it’s been transformed. We have American, Nepalese, Danish, Finnish, depending on a day. My two business partners are Nepalese, I have American and Danish roots, and we are in Finland. We also have a monthly menu, and we will have pizza every Friday starting October. That’s the for sure thing.

- “Do you have to be a good cook to open a restaurant?”

No. Restaurants exist because people don’t want to cook at home or they want to eat with friends.

So even the fact that you can cook something can bring some people. But they’ll only stay if it’s good food. And make sure it smells good!

- “What’s the best and what’s the worst thing that happened to you during this time?”

One night I invited a whole student orchestra and offered them a free glass of champagne. Our average day at that time was like 300 EUR in sales but that time it was 900. That was a good day. The worst thing is Mondays. Everyone is so hungover they don’t want to drink.

- “If you could go back to the middle of January, what would you have done differently?”

Make sure we did the exact right order to get the loan from the government, because then we wouldn’t have any money troubles right now. To get a loan, you need to show that you’re ready to open a business. To do that, you need to have a place rented. To rent the place, you need a business registered. And if it’s registered, you can’t get the loan.

- “How does it work then?”

I haven’t figured that out yet.

Besides from being a very entertaining person to talk to, Leif is generous and doesn’t forget where he comes from. He offers a 10% discount on everything, all day and night, every day to every XAMK student.

Just show your meal card, certificate of study or something else, and you’ll get it!

Visit Kielo’s website at barkielolahti.fi Written by Nikita

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EXCHANGEVIEW WHAT IT´S LIKE TO BE A WHAT IT´SINLIKE TO BE A FOREIGNER A NORDIC COUNTRY FOREIGNER IN A NORDIC

COUNTRY

“Moi! Minun nimi on Jasmine ja olen kotoisin Itävallasta.”

For those who speak even less Finnish than me – Hi, my name is Jasmine and I’m from Austria - I’m currently doing my exchange semester at the university of XAMK in Kouvola, Finland. I chose to write for Insider the next few months because I want you to be a part of my adventure here and to show you what it’s like to be a foreigner in a Nordic country.

1 month ago, I arrived to Helsinki airport and literally, all I could see was forest, forest, forest. Well, I knew there will not be much houses nor people, as the population is almost half of the population of Austria (Austria ~84.000 km²/Finland ~338.000 km²), but honestly, I didn’t expect it to be like this.

It was even more shocking for me to go from the capital Helsinki to the small city called Kouvola, because never in my life have I seen an emptier train and fewer people in the streets of a city but I guess that’s just how things are in Finland.

However, after living here for nearly a month I figured out that you would rather take the bus at 10 am to get to your afternoon lessons (Because there won’t be a better connection after 10 am) and to wear more clothing than too little (even in September) and prefer to buy alcohol from Estonia, because it’s way too expensive in here!

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Besides expensive food/drinking and the moody weather, I enjoy studying at XAMK, I really do.

Kouvola campus is separated into couple of buildings, but as an International Business student I’m in the main building most of the time. The building itself is really nice and I enjoy my lessons and the teaching methods of XAMK as I learn how to think outside the box, to transform knowledge into innovations and to use my knowledge in everyday business life situations.

“Why seek far afield when the good could not be any closer by?”

Further, the cafeteria is a real blessing! They serve fresh, tasty, traditional Finnish food every weekday for reasonable prices (I even go there when I don’t have lectures) – a real lifesaver for poor exchange students who are not used to Nordic prices! Another Pro for the country Finland is its location! From here you can go literally everywhere in the North in just a few hours for adequate prices – Tallinn, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Oslo…

But how Goethe would say, “Why seek far afield when the good could not be any closer by?”

Lovely forests, with lots of mushrooms and berries, nice Saunas, thousands of crystal clear lakes and a stunning architecture, that’s what Finland is all about. And of course, that’s why I came here and chose to stay here for a whole semester. So that sums up my life in Finland quite well. My next article will be about why Austria should definitely be on your bucket list – so stay tuned!

Written by Jasmine

STUDENTSTORY WHAT IT´S LIKE TO BE A FOREIGNER IN A NORDIC COUNTRY

ERIC LITTELL

“Hello! I'm Eric, from Brazil. I grew up in Sao Paulo state.“

Fun facts about Brazil: it's the world’s 5th largest country and is made of 27 states, so I guess it could be called USB (United States of Brazil).

I grew up mostly with my father since my parents got divorced when I was young. My great-grandfather was originally from England and my grandfather taught me English ever since I was a small kid.

“In Brazil, only about 5% speak English” I've been studying nutrition and after I finished school, I took a job in a warehouse for a large company in Brazil. It was good but not the type of job that would satisfy me for the long term. After a while, I started to teach English. In Brazil, only about 5% speak English so it was exciting. After teaching English for 5 years I became a coordinator.

“In the future, I’d like to see myself working in an international company.”

So far so good? Well not really! It was a beautiful evening when we were drinking in front of my friend's house and 2 guys with motorcycles rushed ahead towards us. Give us your money and phones they were yelling with guns pointed in our heads!

I decided to leave Brazil! In my mind was England, since my roots are from there. Many years ago, my mother met a Fin and she already moved to Finland. She’s been living here for 10 years. I came to see her cause it had been 5 years since I saw her last time.

She suggested me to study here since she studied at Xamk as well. Luckily, I got accepted. I liked Finland from the beginning. The system works very well and everything is organized except the weather that is so unpredictable. I like how people respect the law here, they are shy yet helpful, food is good apart from mämmi.

Being able to speak English all the time led to a wider international understanding and intercultural experiences. Absorbing different educational material, movies, music etc. led me to think out of the box when I grew up. In the future, I’d like to see my myself working in an international company.

Google is one of my favourites. I’d like to continue master’s program and working in the business area. If I don't come up with any start-up then hopefully it's going to be Google.

What's your story?

If you’d like to share your story or any idea, send me an email and let’s have a coffee and talk about it. baruk001@edu.xamk.fi

Written by Arian

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RECIPES WHAT IT´S LIKEIGNER IN A NO

CRACKER CHAAT

“If the snacks are delicious enough, no matter the occasion, they can be enjoyed with all kinds of drinks. It is safe to say that since ages, snacks have been an important part and complete any kind of gathering, be it with friends or family.

Therefore, today you will learn how to make some delicious savoury snacks with an Indian touch, for when you have someone coming over.”

Ingredients: • • • • • • • • • •

1 onion 2 small tomatoes 4 potatoes Spices like back pepper, chili flakes/powder, garlic powder 1-2 packets of noodles Pack of cracker biscuits (Voileipäkeksi) Coriander leaves Pack of roasted peanuts Tomato Ketchup Yoghurt (optional)

Steps: 1. Boil, peel and then mash the potatoes, to be later used as a filling.

2. Cut the tomatoes and onions in very small pieces.

3. Prepare the noodle mixture by crushing the noodles.

4. Add roasted peanuts to this mixture and add spices like black pepper, garlic powder, chili flakes/ powder, according to taste.

5. Make sure the ingredients are properly mixed 6. Take a cracker biscuit and cover it with the mashed potatoes.

7. Add some of the prepared noodle mixture on top of it. o (Optional) Pour some yoghurt in a bowl and mix everything in it.

8. Garnish with some coriander leaves

Your “chaat” is ready to be enjoyed with some drinks on the side in a company of friends.

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Written by Prakhar

MOVIEREVIEW LOW PHASE ACTION,

WHAT IT´S LIKE TO BE A FOREIGNER AD ASTRAIN A NORDIC COUNTRY

Once upon a time, there was a hard time for Fenerbahçe, Turkish Football Club. They failed everything that year and the fans were very angry. And after another lose in a home game, fans lost the control and started screaming to the players from the field. And they threw them things when they were going to the bus from the stadium and cursing them. Which I never understood why would people be so mad about a sports game. Anyway, when they were cursing the whole team, Selçuk, a Turkish player left and everyone got silent for a moment. One of the fans broke the silence with ‘ Selçuk, you are the man. We love you brother.’

And everyone started applauding him and cheering for him until he got into the bus and they started cursing other players again.

That is what reminded me when I watched this movie. How? Everything is bad, boring, slow, meaningless but there is Brad Pitt. He actually made this movie easier to tolerate. We are not going deep into the logical mistakes in the movie for the sake of the spoilers but we are quite sure that it takes a few people to drive a space shuttle. I am sure you all remember Interstellar. I think the role of Mr. McConaughey was to pay respect the that movie. We saw him in once scene for a short period of time. Felt good.

STUDIO 123

Kymenlaaksonkatu 1 45700 Kuusankoski 044 375 3686 www.studio123.fi Elokuvaviikko PE 20.9.2019 – TO 26.9.2019 STUDIO 1 IL VOLO AT MATERA (S) liput 25 € la 21.9. klo 12.00 Rakastetut nuoret tenoritähdet ulkoilmakonsertissa Materassa. Klassisia aarioita ja tuoreempaa materiaalia.

(Kesto 1h 57min) STUDIO 1 DOWNTON ABBEY (7) liput 12 € Joka ilta 17.00 la – su 14.30, 17.00 Pääosissa: Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Matthew Goode, Hugh Bonneville, Allen Leech (Kesto 2h 2min) Ohjaaja: Michael Engler STUDIO 1 AD ASTRA (12) liput 12 € Joka ilta 19.30 Pääosissa: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Liv Tyler, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland (Kesto 2h 3min) Ohjaaja: James Gray

Imagine something worse than dating someone with daddy issues. Makes you tired already, right?

This movie is about an astronaut that has daddy issues. It felt like a psychological analyzes on someone under high pressure and we had to watch that for 124 minutes. There is probably 2 minutes of action in that and 5 minutes of curiosity.

Rest of the movie is talking and spoiling the rest of the movie, giving us hints about what is going to happen. Which makes it harder to endure focus.

Our point for this movie is half. It would have been 1 for the performance of Brad Pitt. But we took the half of that 1 back because he actually accepted to be the star of this movie. If we get a chance to ask him, we will. Lastly, a funny joke; The director of the movie, Mr. James Gray mentioned that he intended for the film to feature “the most realistic depiction of space travel that’s been put in a movie and to basically say, ‘Space is awfully hostile to us.’. Space is not as awful as this movie to mankind.

Written by Muhammet

STUDIO 2 OLEN SUOMALAINEN (12) liput 12 € Pe 16.45 la – su 14.15 ma – ke 16.45 Pääosissa: Matti Ristinen, Tiina Lymi, Tatu Sinisalo, Talvikki Eerola, Iikka Forss, Ilkka Heiskanen, Aake Kalliala (Kesto 1h 53min) Ohjaaja: Aleksi Mäkelä STUDIO 2 PAVAROTTI (S) liput 12 € La – su, to 16.45 Pääosissa: Luciano Pavarotti, Nicoletta Mantovani, Madelyn Renée Monti, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Bono (Kesto 1h 55min) Ohjaaja: Ron Howard STUDIO 2 SE: TOINEN LUKU (16) liput 13 € Pe, su, ti, to 19.00 Pääosissa: Bill Skarsgård, Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy (Kesto 2h 50min) Ohjaaja: Andy Muschietti STUDIO 2 ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD (16) liput 13 € La, ma, ke 19.00 Pääosissa: Margot Robbiee, James Marsden, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Dakota Fanning, Tim Roth, Al Pacino (Kesto 2h 42min) Ohjaaja: Quentin Tarantino

STUDIO 3 TOY STORY 4 (dub) (7) liput 11 € Joka ilta 17.15 la – su 15.00, 17.15 Pääosissa: Tom Hanks/Antti Pääkkönen, Tim Allen/Santeri Kinnunen, Annie Potts/Sanna Majuri (Kesto 1h 40min) Ohjaaja: Josh Cooley STUDIO 3 MISSÄ OLET, BERNADETTE? (S) liput 11 € Pe – la, ti, to 19.15 Pääosissa: Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig, Billy Crudup, Judy Greer, Laurence Fishburne (Kesto 1h 50min) Ohjaaja: Richard Linklater STUDIO 3 KÄRSIMYS JA KUNNIA (16) liput 11 € Su – ma, ke 19.15 Pääosissa: Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz (Kesto 1h 53min) Ohjaaja: Pedro Almodóvar

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