Legal translation students visited the EU Representation in Finland

On April 15th, 2015 a group of students from the advanced legal translation course of the Department of Modern Languages visited the European Union Representation in Finland.

The office is located in Kamppi in Helsinki and serves an information point for the European Union. Political Officer Timo Pulkkinen made a presentation about what the delegation does in Helsinki. Language Officer Mikael Reiman from the Directorate-General for Translation (DG Trans) in Helsinki also discussed the working for the European Union.

Left to right: Timo Pulkkinen, Johanna Raussi, Niina Nyman, Jarkko Saastamoinen, Saara Mälkiä, and Essi Suominen, Mike Garant (2nd Row), Mikael Reiman

Left to right: Timo Pulkkinen, Johanna Raussi, Niina Nyman, Jarkko Saastamoinen, Saara Mälkiä, and Essi Suominen, Mike Garant (2nd Row), Mikael Reiman

Photo: Left to right: Timo Pulkkinen, Johanna Raussi, Niina Nyman, Jarkko Saastamoinen, Saara Mälkiä, and Essi Suominen, Mike Garant (2nd Row), Mikael Reiman

Pulkkinen talked about the different channels of communication that the EU has related to informing citizens in Finland about EY activity. He pointed out that all information is in Finnish. Their office hopes that Finnish people know what is going on in the EU in Brussels. He gave examples of the various websites and events that their office uses to inform citizens about the European Union’s activities.

Reiman discussed the activities of DG Trans in Finland and Brussels. This was of special interest to the student group because they study legal translation. He explained traineeship opportunities and how students could apply for them. Traineeships exist in Helsinki, Brussels and Strasbourg. There was a great deal of discussion about the possibilities and interest. See example position.

One student from the group already has an internship in Brussels in the summer of 2015. Another student applied for an internship in Helsinki following our visit and is in the interview process at the moment.

Overall, the study visits was a great success. Thank you to Timo Pulkkinen, Mikael Reiman and the Representation on the European Union in Finland for hosting us.

Text by Mike Garant

Study visit to Kreab

On March 18th, a group of English Translation students from the University of Helsinki visited The Kreab Group offices in Helsinki. Kreab is a global advisory firm with consultants of 40 nationalities in 25 countries. They are experts in financial, corporate, and public affairs communications worldwide. The group briefly met Matti Saarinen, Senior Partner and Chairman of the Board. Then they were hosted by Jan Erola, Associate Director who made a presentation about Kreab operations with concrete examples. He talked about what they do and how they do it.

KreabstudentpictureJan Erola presented various aspects of Kreab’s business activities. He talked about how the company assists in communications during large corporate mergers. He showed a list of many of the largest corporate mergers in Finland in recent years where they had assisted and explained what they do and how they do it.

He also talked about some of the public advocacy campaigns that they had done. One example would be attempting to change Finnish views toward Estonian health care. Modern Estonian health care is similar to Finnish standards and the doctors and staff there can speak Finnish because many have received training in Finland. The problem is that many Finns think that it is still like it was in the Soviet Union. New European Union regulations allow citizens to get certain treatments in other countries. So, Estonians would like to attract Finns. They explained how they made a campaign to change the image of Estonian hospitals in Finland.

There was a lot of discussion about traineeships. Kreab translates annual reports and translation students would be ideal to assist in this and with other projects. The study visit was interesting as well as enlightening and we thank Kreab for inviting us.

Text: Mike Garant