Vol 19 Issue 14

INSIDER 27.01.16 | VOL. 19 | ISSUE 14

STUDENT MAGAZINE

Meet International Business Brand Ambassadors

By Setareh Nourzad

Feature & Recipe  An odyssey of learning languages  Games you should get exited about  Pesto-Spinach-Feta Pasta

Reviews  Catalyst, A Rogue One Novel  Flaming Lips

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EDITORIAL STAFF

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Editor in chief: Hugh Clack INSIDER ISSN 1457-1587

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South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences Paraatikenttä 7 45100 Kouvola

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Insider Student Magazine

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PHONE +358 44 702 8758 WEBSITE insider.xamk.fi EMAIL insider@xamk.fi EDITORAL STAFF first.last@edu.xamk.fi

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insiderstudentmagazine

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EDITORIAL

vi 17 Su2 0

Mysterious times Alternative facts. Unfair media. This is what has been going on after only three days of having the new President of the United States in office. Last weekend Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer held the first press briefing and straight forwardly lied as he stated that the audience to attend the inauguration was the largest ever. It wasn’t. Then afterwords in a TV-show Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway defended Spicer by saying that in fact he wasn't lying but telling Americans "alternative facts." There are no such things as alternative facts. There is only facts and then there is fiction. Phrases like those can do a lot of harm to public’s trust in the media. Lies, childish behavior and attempts to plant the seeds of suspicion is what the new regime has offered so far. It has been only three days. Three.

Insider doesn’t offer you alternative facts. Insider offers you an insight to Xamk’s ever so lovely International Business Programme Brand Ambassadors.

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All Coffee and No Sleep Makes a Great Event Sometimes the best ideas come about when you are presented with strict limits. Those who participated in the Hackathon Powered by Lindström, hosted by Patteri, were pushed to their limits over a 24 hour period with specific guidelines. Teams of two to four persons competed for a chance at the grand prize - €1000 to spend at Veturi, a Lindström rug, and a white rose.

Restricted to the field of healthcare, the teams needed to devise a product or service to pitch to Lindström.

Lindström is a company which specializes in hygiene and textiles, mainly renting out uniforms, doormats and cleaning equipment.

The participants were provided with many perks. They were given ample supply of food and drink including sandwiches, juice, soda, energy drinks, candy, and coffee. Pajaravintola prepared meals for dinner and breakfast, and at the end of the first night, the tables were filled with freshly delivered pizza. Each contributor received a personalized travel coffee cup and 15 euros to spend at the S-Market grocery stores. After the pizza we were given the option to take sauna and I most certainly took that offer.

Even though the event was over 24 hours, most teams went home for the night. One team however, persisted and slept on bean bag chairs for an hour or two. This team comprised of two participants in the end: Sonja Turunen and Leif Heflin. Initially a team of three, this changed twice. One teammate could not make it and the other attended for a few hours before falling under the weather. As Sonja was a Finn, and I an American, we permeated through the night using Google Translate to communicate our ideas.

Around 3:00 PM on the second day, everyone gathered into the presentation room. The judges from Lindström introduced themselves one at a time, and thankfully, at least two of them used English as well as Finnish.

We were told the presentations would be in Finnish so I had prepared to be a bit lost, but it was considerate of the judges to give some context for the two or three of us who were not fluent in Finnish. Each group was given 3 minutes to pitch their innovative products or services, and the judges and other participants had 7 minutes to ask questions. After some truly groundbreaking pitches the judges went to confab about the results. They came back to provide positive feedback for all groups and eventually one team was announced as the winners.

Insider interviewed a few of the participants after the event and this is what they had to say: “Free food, good networking.” - Salli “All coffee and no sleep makes a great event.” - Roope “It was a lot of fun. I hope there will be another one soon!”

- Anonymous "The whole event was perfectly organized. Whoever was in charge and responsible for the event, can be very proud of him/herself. Everything worked simply perfect." -Anonymous “I couldn’t be more proud of all the participants. After the final presentations, the Lindström representatives were fascinated about all of the ideas!” - Aletta As the main coordinator of the Lindström hackathon, I must give

To keep us motivated and spur inspiration, we were told to lie down on the floor around 11:00 PM, with no explanation. The television displayed a virtual fireplace, and the speakers played some calm music. After a few minutes the music escalated to a calm voice telling us to breathe slowly. Moving our mind away from our body and towards an island. We were on a boat, rocking back and forth with the waves. A seagull spread its wings before landing upon the edge. It was about this time a very distracting sound of someone twisting a plastic bottle stole my attention. A different man starts speaking. A quiet yelling tone, telling us that we were winners. We will prevail. We will destroy the competition. Maybe it worked because there was definitely a winner in the end, though we all came very close and had some amazing ideas.

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credit to the ones that made this event possible. I must admit being nervous before the main hour. This competition was a part of my final thesis, and would have a major impact on the first career steps outside these hallways. In the end I was more that relieved. The event was a success on every scale! Again, I want to thank everyone who was a part of this. Special thanks to Lindström Oy for supporting my ideas and financing the event. I also want to thank Patteri for providing the facilities and the amazing and hardworking crew. And most of all, I want to thank every great participant and all the brave innovative ideas! You made this event great. Again.

Aletta

By: Grayson Leif Heflin

AN ODYSSEY OF

LEARNING LANGUAGES

Learning languages never came natural to me. I realized this already in the first few English lectures I had back in high school. While most of my classmates remembered vocabulary with ease, it’s been a rocky road for me to find motivation to learn them, let alone speaking them out loud. While I had sort of a talent for numbers, I got bored too quickly, when learning languages. This attitude even got worse, when we started to learn a second language, French, and later on Italian. Naturally I can’t remember a lot of those five years, nor can I speak those two languages properly.

There is no pressure to actual learn any language, since most of the international movies and TV shows are dubbed in German anyway. It all changed when I graduated high school. I understood, that I am only able to learn a language, when I have a passion for it and the culture it derives from. Since my childhood, I’ve been quite fond of the Nordic countries and I grew up listening to Finnish rock and metal bands. This initially sparked my interest for the Finnish culture and its weird language. I started learning the language, while still living in Germany.

When I arrived in Kouvola last semester, it was the first time I heard about the tandem project. One of our tutors here, was interested in learning my language in exchange for teaching me Finnish. It’s been a nice and funny experience, since we had to set up our own meetings and the lecture content. We talked a lot about food and even went to the movie theatre and cooked together. In the beginning, it was a little awkward to speak a language without being able to avoid mistakes, but after a while we were more relaxed. You can still apply for this semester’s tandem project, in case you already found a tandem partner.

Besides learning Finnish, my spoken English improved a lot through the exchange in Kouvola. Even though I still stumble over my own words sometimes, I feel quite comfortable speaking English today. Like with most things you learn in life, it’s just a matter of practice.

By: Julia Felizitas Weyrauch 5

MEET THE NEW BRAND AMBASSADORS for International Business Programme in XAMK Kouvola Ladies and Gentlemen: let me introduce you to our new brand ambassador; her name is Le Xuan Nguyen, she has asked us to call her Swan, because of the problems with people pronouncing her name and it is much easier to remember. She is originally from Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, very far and very tropical. She is a freshmen from IB16.

Q: How long have you lived in Kouvola?

Swan: It’s been around 5 months since I moved here.

Q: What made you choose this field of study? And why Kouvola?

Swan: International Business seemed to me as a new concept back then when I was a sophomore back in my previous university, French Department and I kept having a feeling that this wasn't what I wanted to do, I wanted something more open. I'm that kind of kinaesthetic person. I love coordinating events, I've done basically all annual events for my department. I want to work with different people to work on new ideas that can be recognized later on as something to motivate other people. That's why I chose International Business. So, I was finding a way out, which my parents weren't happy about it since I dropped out, and I have this guy best friend, he's like my twin. He was recommending me that I should go to Finland, it could be a perfect escape.

So, I applied. At first, I wasn't 6

thinking of anywhere specific, as long as it's Finland. But then I removed my first choice, and Kyamk, now is Xamk became my first choice. Then I got in. I started looking for information about the school, I saw great photos of other Vietnamese students around the school, the antique-looking red brick wall with all this amazing creeper, and Paja and computer labs, etc. I was so excited and I knew by then I will love this place.

Q: What are your future plans/ goals?

Swan: Well of course to pass all courses and graduate. I want to join a non-government organization, or it could be a Marketing company, anything that can help me help other people, inspire them to do everything that they wanted to. I want to be a free entrepreneur like Tony Tavi, he is one of the example for people to look up to, I learnt a lot when I was working on a project about him and his projects.

Honestly, I am still trying to figure out how he can handle so many things and still be efficient for each project.

Q: If you could describe our campus briefly, how would you describe it?

Swan: To me, it’s cosy, very cosy, and very friendly. People say hi to each other everywhere even though we don’t know each other. The facilities are amazing, we have AMICA restaurant and Paja too, so the students have various choices of where to go for lunch. The teachers are so dedicating, they listen and help with all problems, the staff is very friendly. I mean I couldn’t ask for more.

Q: What are the key responsibilities of a brand ambassador?

Swan: In my opinion, the key responsibilities are to help boost the brand name, not only by posting the good things that everyone can see but also the things that the ambassadors themselves see in the brand.

Furthermore, the ambassador

embodies the brand, they create the recognition, influence for the brand on people so that it can attract potential customers.

different parts of the world, I learnt about the culture here and I got used to it. And I think it’s beneficial for me as an ambassador too.

Q: Do you prefer to work independently or in a team?

Swan: It depends. I would love to work in a team, I mean the more, the merrier. I don’t think anyone can be successful by their own, they need help to improve and complete themselves. Personally, I think team-work is very crucial, when you have a lot of people around, you have more ideas, more choices, more solutions.

Of course, there are tasks that should be done by oneself. If you’re too dependent on others, then you should probably give the task to that person and let them have the credit. Working individually forces me to work harder, it requires a lot more time but in the end, I learn a lot too.

Q: What are the downsides of being a brand ambassador?

Swan: I think the negative side for being a brand ambassador is when you must talk about something you don’t like but you don’t know if someone else does. For example, if an ambassador must talk about a product that they never use and don’t like, they would still have to promote it as it’s part of their job. Or another downside is when you get bad feedback, it can affect the person psychologically in a bad way, either that person accepts it and let it damage them or turns it into something that will help them to get better. It’s always hard to be brought down by people’s prejudice, you might be telling the truth but people will just think that you are lying and get paid for it.

Q: Have you had any formal training in brand management or marketing?

Swan: No, I haven’t. This is the first time. Before I joined the brand ambassador for IB program in XAMK, I was only a spokeswoman in some ceremonies, or a host or a performer back in my previous university. I wish I had some training so I could be better.

Q: What aspect of being a brand ambassador makes you the happiest?

Swan: The best part is to know people more and to know more people, I want to learn from people, how they manage to become an expert in their field.

When I know people more, I also know more about the place. Like XAMK, after 5 months of living and studying here, I get to know a lot of new friends, friends from

Q: How would you market this to students on social media?

What online tools do you use, and which are the most effective?

Swan: I post everyday on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. If there’s any news, I would go there and look for information so I can share it online with the students, and I don’t share it all on just Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or Snapchat.

I post different things on each social media channel so that people would be more active like me too. And for the most effective one, definitely Facebook, I mean everybody uses Facebook, you can see all images, videos or live videos on Facebook, you can share anything with people.

Q: Describe yourself in 4 words Swan: Humble, hard-working, openminded and committed.

Q: Do you have a support team that you can turn to when facing problems/difficultieswhile representing this brand?

Swan: Yes. I have my family, my boyfriend, my friends here is XAMK. Basically, everyone I have.

I am not an expert on words and how to formulate them perfectly nor I have experience in being an ambassador, so I need their opinions on everything, I need them to see my job as from the aspect of a customer, should I do this or not. I search through their honest thoughts to improve myself but without having too many opinions influence me.

Q: Would you recommend this to others? Why yes/no?

Swan: Of course, I recommend.

Being a brand ambassador is completely something which made me step out of my comfort zone and think outside the box.

It’s really fun, you get to know about more things, you need to cooperate with people in order to finalize a post on Facebook or promoting a product, etc.

It’s fun and it requires a lot of enthusiasm, I think that this job is so ideal for everyone, introvert people can become more active, more outgoing. This could be something that can change a whole person, especially if you get to know the brand and you get along with it, it becomes easier for you to represent it too.

You can follow Swan’s journey as a brand ambassador through her social media accounts;  bongggggggggggg (12 g’s, I counted)  swannguyen257  Bông Nguyễn (Swan) By: Setareh Nourzad

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WE-MISSED-YOU-CARBS-PESTO-SPINACH-FETA PASTA So as promised last week, though we started the year light, now as it is the fourth week of the year it is time to destroy the healthy life already. But at least we gave the healthy life a try. It's important to always try. But let's be honest, no one lives with salads. Except for bunnies, but we are not bunnies. Pigs like us need carbs, lots and lots of lovely carbs that can settle around our waist and keep us warm during the winter! For the sake of carbs, let's have a nice pasta this week.

What you need: butter 1 big onion frozen, chopped spinach green pesto garlic feta cheese cream Parmesan

• • • • • • • •

What to do: 1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.

2. Chop onion and garlic into small pieces, heat the kettle and add butter, then sauté the onions.

3. Add cream, parboil it and add 3-4 frozen spinach bars and green pesto. Mix well.

4. Once the spinach is melted, add 100g of feta cheese, mix again.

5. Mix the ready pasta and the sauce, then pour the mix into the plate.

6. Sprinkle lots of feta and Parmesan on top.

7. Finish the load of carbs with some wheat baguette.

8. Enjoy, you little pig!

By: Suvi Karell

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“You don’t mind that the war will go on and on?” “Palpatine could have prevented it. Now it’s up to people like you to end it.” Tarkin nodded. “And so we shall.”

James Luceno, Star Wars: Catalyst: A Rogue One Story

JAMES LUCENO

CATALYST STAR WARS ROGUE ONE NOVEL Catalyst is the prequel to Rogue One or the back story you can call it either one, am going to call it a back story as it more of a back story than anything else. When you start listening to the book it starts out slow but introduces you to all the main characters in the story and some of these characters become the main characters in rouge one.

Author James Luceno Narrator: Jonathan Davis Runtime:11 Hours 15 Minutes

Audiobooks are great as you can listen aanywhere and time because you dont have to stream it, you download it.

Files size 345MB not that big The prices of audiobooks start at €20-€45, which is a bit pricey for a digital file.

For the first 5 chapters, is all about how the empire it taking over everything and everywhere. You will be introduced to the designer of the death star, you will also here about his family and friends. You get to know more about the main charather from Rogue One, Gin is only born in this one and she is growing up, in certain part you get a small about of infomrston about a project but you like what is this now but later on in the story you find out more about this. If you have seen Rogue One you can still listen to this audiobook and you will learn a little more about this that gin and the other charather say.

The Narrator does change his voice for certain characters, which add s depth to the book, so it not a just a drone. Also you hesar sound effects for ships, blasters, drones and much more which is great.

Some of the chapters are short and some a long the average chapter is about 20 mintues long which is not to bad.

The worst thing about the audiobook is that you will just keep listen to it and you wont want to stop and before you know it you have listen to 2 or more chapters. I finished listen to this book in about a week I had to break it up a small bit.

If you are a Star Wars fan you should listen to this book and you will learn new things about all the charathers in the movies. But if you are not a fan you still can rnjoy this audiobook.

Rating:           By: Richard McGrath

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THE FLAMING LIPS: OCZY MLODY

Scott Booker, Dave Fridmann

Experimental Rock/Neo-Psychedelia / January 13, 2017 Rating:           The Flaming Lips have had a long and productive, even if wildly uneven, career. Around the turn of the millennium the Oklahoman psychedelic outfit received acclaim with their albums “The Soft Bulletin” and “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”. Since then, the psychedelic qualities of their output have been inversely proportional to the psychedelics the band members have been taking, which means that ever since the band has left the drugs behind them their music has been unlistenable for anyone not in hard psychedelics. For the last decade or so the band is more known for releasing their music encased in edible gummy fetuses and real human skulls, and making full album covers of classics like Dark Side of the Moon and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, rather than creating anything remotely musically pleasing. Now, on their fourteenth studio album Oczy Mlody, and their first record of original material in four years, the band seems more lost in their own haze than ever.

The album starts off well enough: the two-minute instrumental intro and the actual first song “How??” are calm, soothing and surprisingly focused. After that the album starts to unravel, becoming mindless, endless drone. The album clocks at few minutes under an hour, but feels like an eternity, like a timedistorting bad trip. “There Should Be Unicorns” features an intro over one minute long before properly starting, after which the song contains two verses and two choruses, musically indistinguishable

The song has material for minute and a half but lasts for almost six. The same problem plagues the whole album: every song outstays their welcome by roughly half their length. “Listening to the Frogs with Demon Eyes” continues an aimless drone for seven and half minutes without going anywhere.

It’s like the band ran out of time and released the ambient backing tracks without finishing the actual songs.

One of the few exceptions on the album is “One Night When Hunting for Faeries and Witches and Wizards to Kill”, which despite its six minute length manages to actually evolve and change during its runtime, resembling a finished piece of music.

Similarly, “Almost Home (Blisko Domu)” features actual melodies and drum beats. The fact that these need to be mentioned as defining features setting the track apart from the rest of the album probably tells how close this album is to being an hour of distorted hospital flatline.

I really like the band’s previous material. The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, even the kind of aimless 2006 album At War With the Mystics, and the brick too dense to listen through in one sitting that was 2009’s Embryonic. Oczy Mlody is where I draw the line: it is just far too long and contains far too little of anything of value. By now the band seems to exists solely in their own disconnected psychedelic cloud, being far beyond human contact to create anything remotely relatable.

By Roope Sorvo

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SIX UPCOMING GAMES YOU SHOULD GET EXITED ABOUT! For Honor Ubisoft (PC, PS4, Xbox One) – February 14, For Honor is an upcoming online action hack and slash video game. A game where you play as Viking-, knight- or samurai warriors in battle royal

Sniper Elite 4 (PC, PS4, Xbox One) – February 14 You play as covert agent and elite marksman Karl and encounter the brutality of third reich in Italy.

STUDIO 123 Kymenlaaksonkatu 1 45700 Kuusankoski www.studio123.fi STUDIO 1 ONNELI; ANNELI JA SALAPERÄINEN MUUKALAINEN (S) | 11€ | 1h15min Every Evening 17:15 Sat-Sun 15:30, 17:15

LA LA LAND

(S) | 11€ | 2h08min Every Evening 18:50

STUDIO 2 JACKIE

Halo Wars 2 (PC, Xbox One) – February 21, Open beta Blitz wars January 20-30 After the events of Halo 5 the Halo war veterans are ordered to fight another battle for UNSC but this time on Ark.

(12) | 11€ | 1h40min Sat-Sun 15:00

SING (DUB)

(7) | 10€ | 1h48min Fri-Sat, Tue 17:00

SWISS ARMY MAN

(12) | 11€ | 1h37min Sun-Mon 17:00

Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4) – February 28 US/March 1 EU, UK In Horizon Zero Dawn nature as taken over the post-apocalyptic world. Mankind is at it limits living in a pocketed hunter-gathering tribe in nature where meta has took over the meat.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U, Switch) – March 3 As one of the launch games for Nintendo’s new console Nintendo Switch the infamous Legend of Zelda series is back. This time bigger and more grand than ever.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands (PC, PS4, Xbox One) – March 7 Go behind the enemy lines as the legendary Ghost team. Fight your way either guns blazing or stealthily through Santa Blanca Cartel’s goons and bosses.

ASSASSIN´S CREED (12) | 12€ | 1h56min Fri, Mon 19:15

ROGUE ONE

(12) | 12€ | 2h13min Fri, Mon 19:15

AMERICAN PASTORAL (12) | 11€ | 1h48min Sun, Wed, Thurs 19:15

ARMOTON

(16) | 11€ | 1h30min Fri-Sat, Wed-Thu 17:15

STUDIO 3 PATTERSON

(7) | 11€ | 1h58min Sat-Sun 15:15, Mon-tues 17:00

XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE (12) | 11€ | 1h47min Fri-Sat, Wed-Thurs 19:15

SPLIT

By Roope Saukkonen

(16) | 11€ | 1h57min Sun-Tues 19:15h

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