Insider Volume 22 Issue 12

INSIDER 6.12.2019 | VOL. 22 | ISSUE 12

STUDENT MAGAZINE OF XAMK

Featuring Profile Exchange view Conference Kouvola library Two events

STAFF

EDITORIAL

LIDIIA BENKOVSKAIA

ARIAN UKAJ

JASMINE LAIMER

MUHAMMET CAKIROGLU

CLAUDIA RIVA

PRAKHAR SHARMA

ANNA RYNDINA

NIKITA MUNENKO

JOONATAN BERG

QUYNH ANH VU

INSIDER STUDENT MAGAZINE South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences Paraatikenttä 7 45100 Kouvola INSIDER ISSN 1457-1587 Editor in Chief: HUGH CLACK

PHONE +358 44 702 8758 WEBSITE insider.xamk.fi EMAIL insider@xamk.fi 2

EDITORIAL “Make it December to remember...”

Chào các bạn!

Hello our beloved readers,

Dear book lovers, have you found your own favorite corner somewhere to hide and enjoy the paradise of books, or just to concentrate on doing December has begun and so let's make the last assignments, projects, etc.? If not yet, follow chapter of the book called 2019 unforgettable. Muhammet to check out the Kouvola city library.

Well, it might be busy but always right time to give Not only books but many other things can also be yourself a gift of your own space: Think about the found there, such as for entertainment. whole year passed and be ready for a journey await.

In the end, Joonatan writes an attractive review about the game tournament called Turpasauna It’s my first editorial and I’m so excited to tell you 8 in Joensuu and Claudia promises to give you that I’m an official newbie of Insider team. It must an exciting look at the Lights event hosted in be an interesting journey ahead!

Kouvolatalo Park and City Museum.

And now let’s take a quick look at what we have in this issue.

Enjoy reading!.

In the section “Profile”, Prakhar got a chance to interview Antti, who would reveal helpful information about a new project called Esport community in XAMK. Jasmine will share her short but interesting trip to Gdansk, Poland. Definitely recommended to those who are considering to explore new destinations with a student budget.

Then Lidia is going to tell you in detail about the Conference held in St.Peterburg about all levels of education in Finland, which spread lots of inspiration and motivation.

Quynh Anh Vu (Daisy) 3

PROFILE Antti Leppilampi: Esports community in XAMK What is the importance of eSports for you?

For me, eSports is something that can get anyone who is interested in gaming closer to their desired world. For example, if some youngsters feel that they are stuck “inside” their computers – eSports provide them with an opportunity of uniting with other people like them. I like the idea of collaboration and communication between players, while they are sitting in one room during tournaments.

It is not that easy to define what eSport means, but it requires special training as well as other sport and, of course, willingness to win.

What games are you planning in to include in the project?

The main games will be CS GO, League Of Legends, DOTa2, Rainbow Six SiegE. But before that, we are planning to involve as many people from Kymenlaakso region as possible to gather information and previous feedback in order to provide something that satisfies everyone.

Besides, we are planning to attract as many international players as possible. Let’s hope, they will actively show their interest and enthusiasm.

What are the future perspectives of the project?

We have many great ideas. One of them is cooperation with KooKoo hockey team from Kouvola due to their desire and need to create a team representing their brand in eSports. Right now, Finnish Ice Hockey League is actively searching for teams that will represent different Finnish hockey clubs. That is why we are planning to organise XAMK tournaments and find out who can be a part of such teams.

Besides, we are planning to start our own educational programmes in upcoming years to teach people the about the different aspects of 4

Are you interested in "Fragments"- series of paintings esports?

Join our Kymenlaakso region esports network in www.xamk.fi/esports You can tell there what games you like to play and we will organize tournaments, events and lectures based on your interest.

Ask more: antti.leppilampi@xamk.fi

eSports from playing till managing mega events.

What is the main role of RDI department in the project?

The RDI department of XAMK works considering the main goals of the project are developing business strategy and setting the network between players, coaches and organizers. However, my personal target is attracting huge eSport fans and improving gaming environment in XAMK.

Prakhar Sharma

EXCHANGEVIEW Poland To be honest, the country of Poland has never been on my bucket list. However, as my roommate told me, she’d found a flight for 19,99€ to go to Gdansk, Poland and back to Finland, I chose to give it a try.

So on Tuesday, I went to Turku, which is approximately three hours with the train from Kouvola, to catch my flight to Poland. The airport is really small and the plane/flight was as expected – low quality. But well, I’m not going to complain, as the flight was that cheap!

To go from Turku to Gdansk takes you approximately one hour, after that, you can take either the train, bus or a taxi to get to the city centre. I chose to take the train, as its cheap and the most comfortable way for a 40 minutes journey.

My hostel was round about 10 minutes from the train station and surprisingly good for 11€/2 nights!

It took me about 7 minutes to go from the hostel to the famous old town, where I grabbed some lunch.

Afterwards, I chose to experience Poland´s night life, which was of course, really cheap compared to Finnish prices and great fun.

On Wednesday, I’ve visited the famous museum of second world war. Not only the architecture of the museum is interesting, but also what´s inside!

I chose to visit the permanent exhibition only, as my friend told me it will take time – and she was right.

I walked through the exhibition approximately for three hours and had goose bumps literally all the time. The organizers of the museum have done an amazing job creating a space, where you can get in touch with the past and get a feeling on how difficult life has been for people 80 years ago – highly recommended!

lunch in a traditional restaurant, where I got the best fish soup I ever had and of course, bought some souvenirs.

In the evening, I’ve visited the Christmas market of Gdansk, which is really beautiful! They offer a huge variety of different kinds of foods, souvenirs and gadgets in an amazing atmosphere.

Next day, on Thursday, my plane already took off at 7 am. So such a short trip, but for 20€, definitely worth it. Gdansk is way more beautiful then I expected and going out is pretty cheap – therefore a perfect journey for students!

Jasmine Laimer

After the museum, I went through the old town of the city, as the architecture there is stunning. I had 5

CONFERENCE Held in House of Finland On the 30th of November in the city of St. Petersburg in the House of Finland located at 8 Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street, a Conference was held devoted to all levels of education in Finland. This conference was aimed at motivating the study of culture and language, a detailed story about how to build the Finnish educational system, useful life hacks to learn the Finnish language, as well as learn firsthand about studying in Finland, starting from elementary school and ending with universities. The entire conference was divided into blocks. Today I will tell you in more detail how it was, but before that I want to once again thank all the organizers, speakers and guests!

At the very beginning of the conference, the results of two competitions were summed up in the nomination “The Most Motivated Pupil” 2 winners were selected - Julia Shibalova and Yevgenia Grabchak, and in the nomination “The Most Motivated Pupil” - Alisa Sergeeva! All were awarded memorable gifts.

The next report, presented by Alina Leshch and Maria Krivtsova, the founders of the ”Mariala” language space, was devoted to the small secrets of successfully learning the Finnish language, the difficulties and common mistakes that are often encountered. They also told what this space is doing now, and shared their experience in learning the Finnish language.

The first report on the Finnish Education System was presented by the Head of Educational Projects of the Kouvola City Hall and Kyumenlaakso College - Kochergina Veronika Konstantinovna.

She told, general information about how to build this system, what features and advantages she has, interesting facts about life, study in Finland.

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Of course, not one conference or forum can not do without a coffee break and lunch, so before moving on to the next reports and speakers, everyone was invited to a small buffet, where guests and speakers could talk to discuss important issues or just share their impressions about already heard!

Next, we went to the Finnish School block. And the

St. Petersburg first speaker in this block was Artyom Razumov, a student at Vanteron Koulu in the city of Kouvola.

He told what is the Adaptation class at the Finnish school, what subjects he studies, what the daily routine looks like, what he likes most about the school and answered a couple of the most interesting questions.

In the block “Parent experience: schools, colleges, universities, life after receiving education�, the floor was given to parents of children who either studied or have already studied in Finland, told how they and their children went all the way, how they looked for housing, how much it costs life in Finland, talked about finding a job and about life in Finland in general, as well as the peculiarities of adult education in schools in Finland in Finnish.

Lidiia Benkovskaia

Victoria Adamova, a student of Kuusannkosken lukio in Kouvola, spoke in more detail about how to pass the Finnish exam, is it difficult, what this exam consists of, and shared her impressions.

In the Finnish School block, a student at STADIN College in Helsinki, Snejana Pronovich, told her story about how she learned Finnish from scratch and entered a Finnish school. She talked about the difficulties and pitfalls she faced. What platforms did she use to study vocabulary, and how did the idea to study in Finland come about?

In the Finnish University block, I read a report about our university, told what faculties are in the school, what the schedule looks like, what subjects our students study at the university, how they spend their free time, I shared the advantages and disadvantages of higher education in English, a little told her story and held a small quiz for guests in the hall.

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KOUVOLA Library journey!

As a magazine targeting students, we are trying to improve the life of the students. As we have been observing, our students do not use the city library. With this information, we wanted to know why and came up with some answers. This is mainly because we have a very good library for our school but Kouvolan Library has a lot to offer.

Now, our students do not know about this fact. As our purpose is to let them know, we paid a visit to the library.

First, we just walked in to see what can someone see when they enter to the building. We saw a lot of books. Surprisingly, we saw a lot of video games.

We saw a children’s area. We walked down the stairs and we saw a cafeteria. We walked towards the light, and we saw the real thing. A gaming room.

There was every console we knew and some that we never seen before. But to get information we walked up and asked the desk for information after we introduced ourselves.

We met a lovely lady named Jenni. She told us

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about what people can do in the library.

First thing people can do in the library is to read obviously. They provide peaceful environment for people to read as long as they want. They also provide magazines for people to read.

There are computer for people to use with internet connection and they can be used for surfing online and there is no time limit for usage of anything in the library.

Downstairs, they have a place called ‘MediaMaja’.

There is Atari, Nintendo, Saga, PlayStation, Commadore 64.

Also, they provide a music studio for people that are interested in making music. There is a studio downstairs and there are material for music which we don’t really know about but if you are a musician, you will enjoy your time there.

There is a place called ‘Urban Office’. You can use

LIBRARY it as personal area for you and it is free. Take your computer and do your work with your own peace.

People can go to the library with their children to entertain their children in the child area. There is a very small park where children can get tired and parents get happy. There is Lego games and different small games for children to spend time.

Also, since this is an international school, we talked about different languages. They provide big choices in English, French and Russian. They have small section for few languages. Arabic, Chinese, Kurdish, Persian, Somalian, Thai, Turkish.

If you speak any of those languages, take a chance and see what they offer in your language. ‘For Turkish, it was surprising to see some of the books there. I wonder how they got those books’ said Muhammet, our Turkish member. Some of these writers are not well-known. But somehow they got their way here.

Lastly, Weekdays, library opens at 9 Am and closes at 8 PM. Saturdays, it opens at 9 AM and close at 3 PM. Sundays are off.

In a small city like Kouvola, this place is one of the good places to spend time with entertainment.

Muhammet Cakiroglu

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EVENT Turpasauna 8 in Joensuu Last weekend I went to Joensuu to participate in Turpasauna 8. Turpasauna is a fighting game tournament hosted by Team 3, a local fighting game group in Joensuu. At the event they hosted tournaments for Tekken 7, Soulcalibur 6 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

But to an outsider’s perspective this sounds very confusing so let me give some context. Ever since the release of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991 there has been a growing community of players that battle against each other for glory.

Nowadays the fighting game scene is huge with events like Evolution Championship Series (EVO) bringing in thousands of participants and many more thousands of viewers. It’s like boxing, but with less physical violence, I guess.

the round and whoever wins a best of 3 (or 5) wins the match. What makes fighting games so interesting is the amount of mechanical skill and muscle memory they require. Sure, you can mash buttons, but if a player knows what to do, you won’t even be able to get a single hit on them during the entire fight. I could go into more detail about all the little mechanics, but this article is only one page.

If you are interested, you can watch a YouTube video called “Why Button Mashing Doesn’t Work”.

The event lasted from Friday to Sunday, but all the tournaments were played on Saturday. They used Nuorisotalo Whisper as the event place. They brought over many PS4s and screens and placed them all around the place. It was my first time attending one of these events and the atmosphere was very welcoming. I attended to play Soulcalibur 6 and it’s not as popular as Tekken 7 so there Most fighting games are a 1 vs 1 match where were a handful of people that I could play against, whoever gets the opponents life bar to zero wins nevertheless I had a great time and learned a lot about the fighting game scene and about the game as well.

I also participated in the tournament for Soulcalibur 6 and since I was a beginner in this kind of thing, I lost all my games (but I did win one match!). Even thought I did get utterly demolished; I had a great time with everyone there and I will be attending next year as well!

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Joonatan Berg

STUDIO 123 Kymenlaaksonkatu 1 45700 Kuusankoski 044 375 3686 www.studio123.fi 6.12-12.12.2019 STUDIO 1 TÄYDELLINEN JOULU (12) | 12€ | 1h35min Fri, Sun, Thur 17:20 THIS TRAIN I RIDE (7) | 11€ | 1h17min Sat, Wed 17:20 VEITSET ESIIN (12) | 12€ | 2h10min Fri-Sun, Wed-Thur 19:15 STUDIO 2 CORGI (7) | 11€ | 1h28min Sat-Sun 15:00, Mon-Tue 17:00 MIDWAY (12) | 12€ | 2h18min Sat, Mon-Tue 19:00 SYSTEM CRASHER (16) | 12€ | 1h59min Fri, Sun 19:00 TARHAPÄIVÄ (12) | 11€ | 1h38min Fri-Sun, Wed-Thur 17:00 STUDIO 3 LAST CHRISTMAS (7) | 11€ | 1h42min Sat-Sun 14:40 MESTARI CHENG (7) | 12€ | 1h54min Fri 16:45, Sun 15:10 DOWNTOWN ABBEY (7) | 12€ | 2h2min Sat-Sun, Thur 16:45 JOKER (16) | 12€ | 2h2min Fri, Sun, Tue, Thur 19:00

EVENT Lights event in Kouvola The figures from the past come back to life!

Kouvolatalo Park and City Museum area are hosting a beautiful exhibition! The event is open to the public in Poikilo from 28th November for two weeks.

The artist is Alexander Reichstein's, a Russian illustrator living in Finland since 1990. His art work is known for being interactive and for playing on the border between art and illusion.

Alexander Reichstein installed in Kouvolatalo Park a series of sensitive light figures that are shining during the darkest hours of the day. The artist explained that the idea behind this project is to bring back to life ancient human figure (and animal figures too!); ghosts from different eras until the mid-20th century, are coming back from the past to shine during the night. To make the atmosphere even more realistic, the artist chose to put a collage of music from JS Bach , Arvo Pärt and Sergei Prokofiev as background music.

More light work can be seen indoor, in the Kouvola Manor Exhibition.

The atmosphere of this event is amazing, the contrast of the lights with the snow in the dark is incredible and by walking through those figures you are magically transported in the past.

If you haven’t been to this beautiful event, you still have time until 8th December!

LIGHTHOUSE (16) | 12€ | 1h49min Sat, Mon, Wed 19:00 Students/armed services, pensioners 1€ discount on all full priced tickets of 10€ or more

Claudia Riva