Monthly Archives: February 2015

My Finland Experience

• February 22, 2015
• by:  Prem Raj 
• note: 4Comments

*A shorter version of this article appeared in Helsinki Times, perhaps the most popular  English weekly in Finland (http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/columns/columns/expat-view/10517-my-finnish-experience.html)

I have been living in Helsinki (Espoo, a municipality in the capital region to be precise), Finland since September 2008 as a student in International Masters Degree programme for the first two and half years and then as a doctoral student for the last three and half years. Finland is a Nordic and/or a Scandinavian country situated in northernmost Europe and bordered by Sweden to the west, Russia to the east, Norway to the north and Estonia to the south. Finland leads the world in many sectors including but not limited to Social Welfare (popularly known as Scandinavian model of social welfare), Standard of Living, and Human Rights. Very few people know that Finland is the land of Nokia, former largest cell phone manufacturer in the world; the land of Santa Claus, the land of Mika Häkkinen and Kimi Räikkönen, the popular F-1 drivers; Angry Birds (Rovio) & Clash of Clans (Supercell), popular mobile games; Linus Torvalds, principal developer of the Linux kernel(an open-source operating system). People of this country are also known for their inventions such as the SMS message, xylitol chewing gum, dish draining closet, wireless heart-rate monitor and many others. After all who would know them, as they neither bombed Iraq nor need their staff to wear pocketless pants to stop corruption¹?

 

I personally think that Finns are well educated, well informed, and knowledgeable. When I say I am a Nepali, unlike many of their European counterparts, they never confuse me as an Italian from Napoli (or Naples). It may be because of myriad of Nepalese restaurants in Helsinki, now expanded to other towns outside the capital region. Helsinki is probably the only city outside Nepal where Nepalese restaurants out number the Indian restaurants. Education has very deep roots in Finnish society. Almost everyone has a Masters Degree. Every citizen is encouraged by the state to study by providing multifold of facilities to the students. Education is not only free but you are fed, accommodated, and paid to be a student. It is obvious from the fact that Finland often tops PISA rankings². Finland is also a pioneer in gender equality as Finland's parliament is first parliament in the world to adopt full gender equality. Additionally, Sri Lanka and Finland are the only countries that had women serving simultaneously as a president and a prime minister.

 

Finns are generally known to be quite and like to remain low profile. This is true to some extent but, I have found Finns with great  sense of humor, sarcasm without overdoing it like the Brits. For example, there were no strikes and stone pelting when a New  Zealand minister severely criticized Finland³ or when an article was recently published in theguardian mocking Finland⁴. Imagine  the situation, if these were said and published about Nepal, it could have induced a riot. However, their reply will be very tougue- in-check. However, they are always up for a friendly banter. For example, it seems that one of the Finns was very annoyed when a  Nepali posted his/her view in a forum saying that people in the world especially Nepal have no or limited knowledge about Finland.  A typical Finn replied

“Well, yes, see now we're limited in the resources. We don't have a mad prince killing the king, no Maoist  rebels, no mountains people come to visit, and nobody offers a goat to get the airplane fixed... so what do the people in Nepal know  about Finland? The multitude of Finnish restaurants in Kathmandu?”⁵.

As I have told your earlier, let me remind you again there  are numerous (about 50) Nepalese restaurants in Helsinki.

 

As any developed country, Finland has been one of the popular destinations among the Nepalese students. In addition to the  students, there are a lot of families either for work or business. So, Nepalese community is not that scare in a country with a  population of just over 5 million. We get together in Nepali festivals and organize picnics during summer. Overall, Helsinki is a  lively city for Nepalese. Outside of Helsinki, you strive to find people let alone the Nepalese. However, the number has surged  recently because of the influx of Nepalese students and entrepreneurs. Social life of Finland is what makes Finland one of the  difficult places in the world to live. Even the people living in the same apartment hardly talk to each other. Government policies encourage young ones to live away from parents. Unlike Nepal you will find most of the students living in student apartments despite a their parents' beautiful house nearby.

 

Finland maintains one of the best living standards in the world. Every aspect of life e.g. apartments, education, medical facilities and everyday life (Shopping, Traveling) are well organized. Finland is very pragmatic and simplest of issues are taken care of which has not been the case even in most of the developed countries. For example, it is very easy to clean windows in Finland as all the windows open inwards. In most other developed countries like Ireland many window cleaning companies are earning their livelihood just because the windows open outwards. Finnish society is a knowledge based society so you find research given a very high priority here. Finland is a country with high morale values, and honesty and also the obedience of values is high priority as seen in the lost wallet experiment⁶. This could be one of the biggest learning for Nepalese from Finland. Additionally, crime rates are extremely low. Adherence to law is so much that people do not cross the street in red light even if no vehicles are seen in the horizon. Similarly, there are no traffic policemen anywhere, not even in the busiest of Helsinki streets but hardly anyone will violate the traffic rules.

 

Living away from home is always a problem but you need to consider few more issues before you take a route to the Nokia land. First and foremost is the language. Finnish and Swedish (spoken by approximately 6% people) are two official languages here in Finland. However, all most all the people especially the young generation can speak English. Nevertheless, they are reluctant to speak in English unless they are very good at it. On the other hand, to run day to day activities like shopping and traveling, language would be very important because you find that all the goods are named in Finnish and all the official documents are in Finnish. Finnish is a language of Finno-Ugric language family and very difficult to learn. There are many jokes about difficulties of Finnish language such as

“Which is the heavenly language? Finnish, because it takes an eternity to learn”.

In order to be involved in some part time or full time job, language is utmost important. Few IT related jobs in multinational companies like Nokia, Rovio, Supercell, Kone have English as their working language. Therefore, IT sector can be a easier way into the job than any other field. However, the competition is tough as computer eduction is given a top priority here and it has been considering giving programming language classes to students in the elementary school⁷. Second important issue would be the weather. Since Finland is located very close to the North pole, you get extreme cold weather here with temperature as low as -50 degree Celsius. In addition to that winters are very dark and we have lights only for 2 to 3 hours. In those two to three hours also you hardly see any sun. Summers are rainy and day light of 23 hours can also be frustrating.

 

In spite of above mentioned difficulties Finland can be a good destination as a student, an entrepreneur or a worker if you are dedicated and hardworking. I have seen many of my friends who have come here as a student especially in the IT sector have good positions in the companies like Nokia and in the university departments. Since the education is free and if the student doesn't live a lavish life, one can manage his living expenses with around Euro 500-600 a month. So, students can get good education by working very few hours or during weekends. Students in masters degree can complete their education in little more cost than Nepal even without working. However, finding a job when you do not have skills and the language can become very difficult. Having said that we have a lot to learn from this country, education is only one of the flowers in the whole garland.

 

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