The Language Awareness Campaign was initiated by a couple of international students and developed in cooperation with teachers from the university. Two project courses including Finnish and international students are responsible for the planning and realization of the campaign. Our aim is to raise awareness about language choices and the problems that might come along with them as well as to discuss these issues with you.
Here‘s what Anna, one of the campaign‘s initiators, would like to say:
I am Anna, and my dream is a cosmopolitan university generating critical knowledge. In social sciences, internationalization should reflect power imbalances and colonial legacies, rather than just ‘celebrate’ cultural diversity.
Importance of the native language and culture varies for different people. For me, it is just an individual characteristic, along with gender, sexual orientation and political preferences. It does not define me, and I don’t like to be put in a box according to the national origin. My motto is “life begins at the end of your comfort zone”, that means learning new languages, meeting people and doing challenging projects.
How important are language and culture for you? What kind of expectations do you have of the university?
