Exchange students, exchange cultures

Hi, we are Lia, Emma and Marianna, exchange students from Germany and Italy. We will write for the school paper about our experience here, hoping that you are curious to read it. Our exchange programs began in two different moments and we are staying here for a different period of time.

Hi, I am Lia and I am from Germany. I have been here in Helsinki since September 4th and I will stay here for three months. I decided to come to Finland because I wanted to get out of Germany and see something new. I also wanted to get to know another culture and improve my English. Sometimes it is hard for me to talk in English: I have some blackouts and it is embarrassing, but now I am getting used to it.

My experience in Finland, so far, made me realize some things about Finnish culture and people. People here are very shy, but when you get to know them, they are genuinely nice and funny. The school system is also quite different from the Germany, where the elementary school goes untilthe 6th grade and not the 9th. Also the high school here is different because you have 3 years, but in Germany high school goes from 11th to 13th grade. In the beginning, I did not really understand it, but now I am getting into it. It is also really cool that the students at school work with computers.

Another fun fact that I find surprising is that in Finland the ferry is a normal public transport.

Hi, we are Emma and Marianna. We are from Italy and we will stay here for all the school year. We arrived in Helsinki on August 13th, so we have been here for over a month.

School is one of the most important parts of our exchange year and now that we know a little better the Finnish school, we enjoy going to lessons. The Finnish school system is very different form the Italian one. In Italy, we start high school when we are 14 years old and we have to choose between several schools.

There are a lot of different high schools where you can learn different subjects: teenagers must choose the school based on what they like and what they want to study after school. Every school has mandatory subjects and we do not have the possibility to choose our own schedule.

School usually starts at 8 o’clock in the morning and finishes at 1 p.m.; we also go to school on Saturday. After school, people play sports, hang out or do some hobbies. For some schools (for example the “literature” school), students must study a lot in the afternoon and it is hard to have hobbies or to hang out with friends. What we like the most about Finnish school? The independence and trust that teachers give to the students. The relationship between teachers and students is based on mutual respect and that creates a healthy environment where students have a real opportunity to learn but also to appreciate the things they are studying.

Sometimes this does not happen in the Italian school and that is why Italian students do not like going to school. Talking about differences between Italy and Finland, we cannot but speak about friends. People in Italy are very outgoing and have a lot of friends to hang out with. When we started school, we thought that Finnish students would have been happy to talk to us, but we had some tough time finding some friends. Now we have friends and we know how to relate with Finns, so it is easier for us to talk with people.

Probably the fear of talking to us comes from the fact that we do not know Finnish and that is a little bit of a problem. As you certainly know, Finnish is not the easiest language in the world and we are starting from scratch.

What else to say? We are really looking forward to meet new people so don’t be afraid to talk to us. We hope you ejnoyed reading our article!

Text and photos Lia Ahrens, Emma Guasti and Marianna Faggin