Long time, no .. write?

May, June, July, August, September, October.. wow. Six months break in my internationalisation. No, not really. Just a break in documenting the process! Been to busy.. always the excuse, isn't it? Well, now - at this very moment - I'm at a 'blog workshop', so I simply needed to start writing :D.
So. What's up?
Well, the exchange students left last May / June. Then I went on an Erasmus exchange myself - which was awsome. Nothing like te 'good old days' in St. Pete 98 and 2000 or Glasgow 98-99 when I was a student (and young..), but still awsome. It was a real exchange, where I went to countries I have never been to, to a culture that was not familiar to me and a language I do not speak.. and learned heaps! So a big Danke to my hostess and hosts at Liechtenstein and Vorarlberg (Dornbirn). :)
For my summer holidays I stayed in Finland, read books in Finnish (about Glasgow though - and got into a real 'home-sickness-for-Scotland' mode listening to KT Tunstall and reading Denise Mina's excellent books :D!).
Then there was the other international highlight of the year: the annual conference of the European Association of International Education (EAIE) in Antwerp, Belgium. And that was awsome too :), meeting so many people, the discussions, the interesting sessions.. I was exhausted by the end of it! I also had a small presentation of my own at a session on 'Keeping in touch after the mobility', presenting Laurea's Erasmus Alumni activities, which are our way of keeping in touch with our former incoming exchange students.
And now - the new students are here, and all settled in by now. I'm having less and less to do with the arriving students, which is a shame. I'll definately need to step out of my little box and start finding ways to communicate and spend time with foreigners on my free time. Whether our students or my Russian neighbours..
But first I will visit Paris!!

Saying goodbyes

It’s again the time of the year when exchange students are leaving to go home. I feel like a complete cold-hearted and emotionally incapable jerk when kissing on the cheek and hugging everyone does not come naturally. Like a ‘common Finn’ I do not feel I have gotten to know the students enough to start hugging them – it would be deception since I have not developed a strong emotional bond with them. How can you hug and kiss someone whose name you do not remember? Well, I suppose that’s a bit over the top, I do remember most names. And I do understand that in some cultures kissing and hugging is simply a common way of greeting almost anyone, just as a handshake is for us Finns. So I suppose this is another example of the cultural stiffness I’m experiencing – not being able to adapt to the customs and communications styles according to the intercultural situation at hand or the counterpart’s culture. I blame my age...

Boosted!

Last week was a very international week. It actually was the international week at Laurea Tikkurila, but on top of it, there was the BOOST! Your Life event at Laurea Kerava. Come Friday - I was speaking finglish and barely realising it!
The Boost event was succesful in presenting various cultures in different ways. Many of them were interactive and really got you involved. Like the Helsinki Morrisers :) There's something I thought I would not see myself doing - dancing an ancient English dance with sticks in Kerava, Finland!
After the event calmed down a bit, I had the chance to visit the multisensoric space and enjoy a moment on a beach somewhere where the ocean is turqoise and palm trees are tall.. That was a bit of heaven in the wintery Finland.

Success

What a conference. It was fun, interesting, international.. with lively discussions and cultural differences!

Many of the foreign guests were surprised and intrigued by our “zero level hierarchy”, meaning the way we Finns tend to be informal and use first names, even of our superiors. A student calling the rector by the first name is not a big deal for us, but did feel terribly impolite to some of the foreigners. Does this have to do with our attitude of cutting right to the point without small talk or paraphrases, and talking truthfully and meaningfully – only when we have something to say?

Finland = snow

This morning was a true blue and white Finnish winter morning. It was cold, and there was plenty of snow everywhere – ground, tree branches, even on the trunks of trees (quite a blizzard last night). The sky was a pale blue where you could see it, and the clouds were a dark greyish blue. Absolutely beautiful..!

It is this kind of weather that most foreigners in Finland are looking for. “When is the real winter coming? “ asked one exchange student from me a few weeks back. I would love to have been able to answer that, as I was just as much looking forward and waiting for the true winter weather. Of course, everyone living south of the Ring III road might not think the winter weather is here, but you do not need to go further than Hyvinkää to experience it :) Snow in the winter is as important as the sun in the summer. It really lifts up our spirits and brings more light into the busy lives. Less need for coffee and chocolate!

I consider myself an open minded, unreservedperson who gets along with nearly everyone. But I keep constantly running into cultural differences that make me uncomfortable or that I don’t seem to be able to understand. For example, I recently talked over the phone with an African man. He politely asked how I am and how my family is doing. Asking “How are you” really is such an everyday thing that it’s not even personal, but asking about my family’s wellbeing when I am at work, working, and dealing with work issues.. for some reason I felt that it intruded my privacy although the person asking surely did not mean it that way and was merely being polite in the custom way of his own culture. Am I going backwards in the process of internationalising myself? Am I becoming more conservative? (I sure hope not or somebody save me quickly please!) Maybe I should travel to Africa, Asia or South-America (all of which I’ve never been to) to internationalise myself.. (Or to save the environment and my money, simply study or get to know people from these continents who live in Finland.) Or is it also good development to simply recognise these limitations of myself and to try overcome them? I will hopefully get loads of practice on that next week when several international quests come to a conference I’m attending. So looking forward to it!

Oh Blog.

It’s been HOW long since I last wrote..?!? Wow.

When I started this blog my plan was to write once a week, perhaps every Friday morning. A nice idea – but when ‘the going got tough’ I could not keep it up. Instead of reflecting my experiences on internationalisation I have been experiencing a lot – in a way doing ‘field research’ on internationalisation. But, since the New Year is here, my resolution is to catch up with writing this blog and indeed write once a week.

This year kicked off with the new exchange students arriving to Finland. It is amazing how you can sometimes tell a person’s nationality by the way they look. Not everyone’s naturally, but the Polish girls looked Polish and the American girls looked American, and the Brit – he definitely looked British. Everyone seemed to have an open mind and be exited about being here. It is easy to please the ones that come with low – or reasonable – expectations and a sense of adventure, the ones that are not too fussy, do not mind waiting for a bit and are genuinely thankful for the help they receive. That’s when it’s also nice to provide help and advice. The expectations are of course largely dependant on personality, previous experiences etc. but I believe a lot of the expectations are formed during the period before the exchange, when students surf the internet, talk to other students, read books on culture.. well, maybe just surf the internet, chat to other students and read discussion forums, blogs and facebook pages.

So is it possible to influence the expectations a student has about his / hers exchange in Finland? At least we are trying. Totally not in a ‘big broterish’ way though! No, it’s more about trying to give the arriving foreign students a truthful picture of what to expect of and in Finland, and about giving advice, explaining cultural issues etc. We are using an e-learning workspace with different kinds of documents and pages, and discussion forums to do this. And we are involving the current and former students in it too. Sounds good, eh? Well, it is good – but could also be better, more active and talkative. But it’s not always about cultural differences related to nationality, nor differences in language skills, but cultural differences in using virtual tools, the internet and chat/discussion forums. And all that is whole other story..

Acknowledging what you know

I read a column in the newspaper a few days ago that wrote about a meeting between Finnish and Russian women. They met to discuss differences in culture, manners and such. One of the things the column brought up was that women do not shake hands in Russia.

Really?

I have lived there, worked there, studied there, met a lot of locals.. and I do not recall this. Not that I recall ever shaking hand with anyone either. Well, maybe the other Finns. But the Russians.. we just said hello, hugged or kissed each other on cheeks (once on both sides). I never realised this. I did not acknowledge it as a cultural difference - but I knew it in practice.

And this is what all the books on cultures, intercultural communication, internationality etc. are good on. And the discussions, training sessions, lectures, moments of reflection .. and not to forget writing about it. It is good to reflect on your skills and knowledge and acknowledge that you know something that is good to know but you just never realised you knew..

Next up is my wonderful business trip to Warsaw last weekend! But first I have a birthday to celebrate..