University of Helsinki
First thing I did for this course was watching a movie. I don’t usually watch quite much movies, I just don’t have time or that and the first problem was where to find a movie with English texts or without it. I don’t have Netflix or any other streaming service because I don’t have time for those. If I ever want to watch something I’m using YLE Areena or Ruutu or MTV for that but now the problem was that of course every movie in there were with Finnish texts. So I decided to by HBO max for this course and watch some stuff from there.
Movie I chose was called “The Blind Side”. It was acted out movie, based on real life story behind American football legend Michael Oher. I watched it with English subtitles and it was a good choice. I understanded almost everything and keep on a wheel the whole movie. There were some words I did not know but if it seems to be important for the narrative, I translated it. For example terms tremendous which is a synonym to huge, blunder which means mess up and predicament which I’m still not sure what it means in the movie context but synonym dictionary says it is the same than awkward or difficult situation.
First movie was great and in my counts I still have 4 movies to go. Nice opportunity just be and watch something!
I watched another movie next day and I chose movie called “Bad Education” which was also acted out movie. This time movie was also based on real life case where American school systems moneys were used wrong. The head character, Frank Tassone and his coworker are school district superintendents in Long Island where they try to lead public school system and be one of the best schools in the country. However, they use millions of dollars tax money from their wealthy public school district for their own expenditures for examples private flights or huge houses on the beach. That was the largest school theft in American history. The story is unbelievable and gives a lot to think about. Luckily I watched the movie with English subtitles because there were so many hard words I needed to translate. It was a bit hard movie to watch because I did not know much about American school system or things behind it. Also a lot of cultural and geographical terms.
I did a short googling about the case and yes, it is still the largest school theft. I can’t even think about that happening in Finland! I have known that American school system is a bit odd and crooked but this is a whole new level. In America there is private schools and public schools. Public schools are in weak reputation because this kind of things but also because it gets the moneys from the state and taxpayers not straight from the students’ parents like private schools. It has been said that private schools give better education; motivated teachers, better materials, safe school areas and high level teaching. Public schools are famous for cheap education and less motivated students and teachers. Those were high stereotyped examples but that is the picture we got here from news or movies and series.
I enjoyed much watching this movie too, gave me perspective about Finnish school systems greatness.
I did also read some news in this week. I found out that YLE is writing news from Finland in English, so I have read those. I haven’t opened any news in Finnish this week just read it in English. I read about for example Sweden’s Crown Princess Victorias visit in Finland. She was taking part for Hanalhomen Swedish-Finnish Cultural Center 50th anniversary. She also went to the Hanken, Swedish language business school in Helsinki and enjoyed her time there speaking with students and eating with them.
Some other news did tell about the President election in Finland for example how Olli Rehn became selected to Finland Center Partys candidate or who are the candidate for Cristian Democrats and who are already signed in as a candidate for upcoming elections.
I did this news reading about 10-12min every three day I were on my way to campus. I read new on my phone in the bus, and it was pretty nice. Once I almost skipped my stop because I was reading too interesting news.
There is my first period timetable at the end…
